14 DAY TRIAL // While advancing to the next iteration of its data platform, Microsoft is also making sure that customers have the tools necessary to ensure streamline planning and deployment processes. In this regard, the Redmond company is providing Solution Accelerators for SQL Server 2008 R2, just as it is providing similar offerings for its Windows client and server platforms. As such, there are two Solution Accelerators that customers can tap in order to simplify migration planning for SQL Server 2008 R2, as well as the actual deployment process.
“Microsoft has released, over the past few months, two SQL Server 2008 Solution Accelerators called Infrastructure Planning and Design Guide for SQL Server and Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 4.0 for SQL Server 2008. Customers are encouraged to use this set of best practice and automation tools to determine how best to design your SQL Server 2008 infrastructure and identify existing SQL server instances and servers to ease the migration,” revealed Baldwin Ng, Sr. product manager, Solution Accelerators, Microsoft.
The past week the software giant provided the first Community Technology Preview development milestone of the successor of SQL Server 2008. SQL Server 2008 R2 CTP was initially made available to MSDN and TechNet subscribers and subsequently opened up to the public. Companies interested in testing the next generation data platform from Microsoft can grab the CTP build.
“The SQL Server 2008 R2 August Community Technology Preview (CTP) rollout continues today with the availability of the Microsoft SQL Server StreamInsight August CTP. We’re excited to announce that SQL Server StreamInsight is officially shipping as a component of SQL Server 2008 R2, which is scheduled to be available in H1 2010. StreamInsight will bring a low-latency complex event processing (CEP) platform to SQL Server, and will enable organizations to derive insights from streaming data in near real-time in scenarios such as web analytics, algorithmic trading and industrial process control,” Baldwin Ng added.
The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 4.0 for SQL Server 2008 is available for download here.
SQL Server 2008 R2 August 2009 CTP is available for download here.