Microsoft Is One Step Closer to "Your Data, Any Place, Any Time" Vision

Microsoft is one step closer to delivering on its vision of "Your Data, Any Place, Any Time," with the upcoming milestone of SQL Server 2008. Ted Kummert, corporate vice president, Data and Storage Platform Division at Microsoft announced that the company is getting ready to make available the November Community Technology Preview of SQL Server 2008. The November CTP is nothing short of a consistent package of new features, but at the same time a proof of Microsoft's commitment and proximity to delivering the final version of the product. Adding compatibility for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 with some features connected to data management and reliability, SQL Server 2008 is without a doubt positioned as the successor of SQL Server 2005.

"SQL Server 2008 is a huge step forward as we continue delivering on our data platform vision for "Your Data, Any Place, Any Time." SQL Server 2008 will bring that vision to life, and there is something in this feature-rich CTP to meet the needs of companies of all sizes. We make it easier for organizations to store and manage many types of data, including XML, e-mail, time/calendar, file, document, geospatial, and so on, while providing a rich and trusted set of services to interact with the data such as search, query, data analysis, reporting, data integration, and robust synchronization," revealed Kummert.

At the same time, added support is not the only aspect of the evolution from SQL Server 2005 to SQL Server 2008. Microsoft has introduced a range of new capabilities, including business intelligence enhancements. SQL Server 2008 will bring to the table Design Alerts, block computation, Enhanced Report Designer, as well as Resource Governor, Backup Compression and Transparent Data Encryption. But most important, with the November CTP, the company is offering customers the ability to manage any type of data.

"In addition to continuing the great adoption we have seen, from a technical standpoint, SQL Server 2008 builds upon the huge strides we made with SQL Server 2005. In fact, Microsoft was recently positioned as a leader in the Magic Quadrant for Data Warehouse Database Management Systems by Gartner. We are delivering significant new value in SQL Server 2008 that will help our customers run their most demanding applications, build data-driven applications faster, and drive pervasive insights across the organization", Kummert added.