With Microsoft SQL Server 2008 released to manufacturing at the start of August 2008, the Redmond company is focusing on the evolution of the product via a project based on DATAllegro technology. In less than two years, the software giant plans to integrate the resources that it has acquired concomitantly with DATAllegro into an extension for SQL Server. With the new solution, SQL Server will be able to scale into hundreds of Terabytes of data.

“Microsoft recently launched SQL Server 2008, which is already attracting a great deal of attention thanks to all of the new functionality for mission-critical data management and business intelligence - in fact, it’s been downloaded more than 500,000 times,” said Ted Kummert, corporate vice president of the Data and Storage Platform Division at Microsoft.

According to the Redmond giant, SQL Server customers will be able to enjoy the added enterprise-class data warehousing capabilities from DATAllegro starting with the first half of 2010. “These capabilities, combined with DATAllegro’s ability to scale to hundreds of terabytes, present an extremely powerful solution set for customers and partners, and we are committed to getting it in their hands as soon as possible,” Kummert added.

In the upcoming 12 months, Microsoft will provide customers and partners with the first Community Technology Previews of the new solution. The final product, which will be synonymous with a marriage between SQL Server and DATAllegro's technologies, will bring to the market the highest scales of data warehousing, according to Microsoft. The Redmond company made public details from its product road map for the SQL Server data platform after having completed the acquisition of DATAllegro.

Ron Van Zanten, directing officer of Business Intelligence, Premier Bankcard, commented that “DATAllegro’s technology is a natural complement to SQL Server, so we are excited about the possibilities this acquisition will bring”.