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Microsoft SQL Server 2012 – First Look

Kyle — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:43:38 +0000

Microsoft announced that SQL Server 2012 will be released in the first half of 2012 in three versions: Standard (for basic database and reporting capabilities), Business Intelligence (a new version providing premium corporate and self-service BI) and Enterprise (for large scale data warehousing and mission critical applications). Microsoft is holding a “virtual launch event” for SQL Server 2012 on March 7, 2012.

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 is a significant product release that provides mission critical confidence with greater uptime, blazing-fast performance and enhanced security features.

SQL Server 2012 is a cloud-ready information platform that helps organizations unlock breakthrough insights with pervasive data discovery across their organization.

SQL Server 2012 Enhancements & New Features

Availability

For protecting application databases, SQL Server 2012 introduces the AlwaysOn SQL Server Failover Cluster Instances and AlwaysOn Availability Groups feature.

AlwaysOn SQL Server Failover Clusters:

A multi-subnet failover cluster provides a disaster recovery solution in addition to high availability.
The improved failure detection and addition of failure condition level property lets you configure a more flexible failover policy.
The indirect checkpoints feature provides a database specific alternative to automatic checkpoints that are configured by a server property.

AlwaysOn Availability Groups:

An availability group is a container that defines a set user databases (availability databases) to fail over as a single unit. It defines a set of availability replicas to host copies of each user database.
It also provides a rich set of options that improve resource usage.

Manageability

Manageability of SQL Server 2012 is improved by enhancements to tools and monitoring features.

The Database Engine Query Editor introduces enhanced functionality for Transact-SQL debugging and IntelliSense.
Point-in-time restore has improved by the addition of a visual timeline.
Restore plan algorithm has improved and a lot of edge cases are dealt more efficiently than in previous versions.
Data tier applications now support many more objects than in SQL Server 2008 R2.
The new Windows PowerShell 2.0 feature loads SQL Server components into a PowerShell environment.

Programmability

Programmability enhancements include FileTables, statistical semantic search, ad-hoc query paging, support for sequence objects and numerous improvements to Transact-SQL.

You can now store files and documents in special tables in SQL Server. You can access them from Windows applications as if they were stored in the file system, without making changes to the Windows applications.
Semantic search enables new scenarios that extend beyond syntactical keyword searches. Semantic search lets you query the meaning of a document.
You can specify a range of rows returned by a SELECT statement based on row offset and row count values that you provide.
A sequence object generates a sequence of numeric values according to the specification with which the sequence was created. Here the sequence numbers are not restricted.
The THROW statement can be used to raise an exception and transfer the control to a CATCH block of a TRY-CATCH construct.
The OVER clause has been extended to support window functions.

Scalability & Performance

Scalability and performance enhancements in the Database Engine include columnstore indexes.

The columnstore index improves data warehouse query performance by hundreds to thousands of times and can routinely give a tenfold speedup for a wide range of decision support queries.
This allows end users to get more business value from their data.
As columnstore indexes can eliminate the need of pre-built aggregates, IT workers can reduce the development costs and ETL times.

Security

Security enhancements include new SEARCH PROPERTY LIST permissions and new user-defined server roles.

New GRANT, REVOKE, and DENY permissions are available to a SEARCH PROPERTY LIST.
To manage user-defined server roles and to add and remove members from all server roles, CREATE SERVER ROLE, ALTER SERVER ROLE, and DROP SERVER ROLE are available.

Key Benefits

The new MDS Add-in for Excel helps end users to manage and maintain central data.
Create and scale business solutions from server to cloud.
Provide complete view across business data through integration, cleansing and management.
Reduce complexity and accelerate time to solution through SQL Server appliances and cloud offerings.
Ensure peace of mind with premier services and support, and free access to software service packs.

The upcoming release of Microsoft SQL Server 2012 promises to further protect the infrastructure of an organization, especially for mission critical workloads. As you bet on Microsoft, you get more than a trusted platform. You also get a trusted business partner as well as a trusted ecosystem of experienced vendors.

Article Contributor: Satish Kumar

Review of SQL Server 2008 Data types

Justin — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 11:00:11 +0000

Data types play the most vital role to any database, since selecting the incorrect data types can waste storage space and grounds your database solutions to run slowly. Picking the right data types can give you faster, easier, and more flexible options for retrieving data from your database. This SQL Server 2008 review begins by acquainting you with the dozens of data types.

SQL Server 2008 supports dozens of native data types. The data type that you use to accumulate a column’s values say a lot about the data in that column. A few data types are adapted for storing characters, while others are best for holding large numbers or small numbers. Selecting the right data type for a column can save a lot of storage space and improve performance. We’ll go into detail with three main broad categories:

Numbers and dates
Character and binary byte streams
Miscellaneous

Numbers and dates:

Number data types can represent values either precisely or approximately. Data types for numbers have four common characteristics:

Precision: Refers to how accurately a data type can represent a number value.
Scale: Refers to the number of digits to the right of a decimal point.
Length: designates the number of bytes used to store a value.
Range of legitimate values: provides a very concrete way of appreciating the role of a data type.

In many cases, data types for precise numbers represent integer values with a scale of zero (no digits to the right of the decimal point). Some data types for numbers represent values precisely even while they permit the inclusion of digits to the right of the decimal point. Two data types like this are:

Decimal (numeric):

Exact Numbers:

Create table Patient (PatientId int, FullName varchar(20),

Weight decimal (5,2), Height decimal (5,2), ADP smallint,BDZ tinyint);
Go
Note: --decimal constants do not need delimiters either:
Insert into Patient (PatientId, FullName, Weight, Height, ADP, BDZ)
values (834021, 'Tom Jones', 89.5, 188.5, 450, 11)
GO
(1 rows affected)

select * from Patient;
GO
PatientId FullName Weight Height ADP BDZ
----------- -------------------- ------- ------- ------ ---
834021 Tom Jones 89.50 188.50 450 11

(1 rows affected)

Convert DECIMAL (10, 2) to varchar(10):

CREATE TABLE employee (id INTEGER NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,

first_name VARCHAR(10), last_name VARCHAR(10),

salary DECIMAL(10,2), start_Date DATETIME, region VARCHAR(10),

city VARCHAR(20), managerid INTEGER);

GO

SELECT ID,First_Name, 'The total is $' + CONVERT(varchar(10),salary)

FROM employee

GO
ID          First_Name
----------- ---------- ------------------------
1 Jason      The total is $5890.00
2 Alison     The total is $4789.00
3 James      The total is $6678.00
4 Celia      The total is $5567.00
5 Robert     The total is $4467.00
6 Linda      The total is $6456.00
7 David      The total is $5345.00
8 James      The total is $4234.00
9 Joan       The total is $6123.00

(9 rows affected)

Bit Data Type:

The bit data type is for values that can be either 0 or 1. The SQL Server database engine automatically groups bit data values to fill the bits within a byte. If a table has between 1 and 8 bit values per table row, SQL Server stores the values in a byte. Similarly, from 9 to 16 bit values are stored within 2 bytes.

Bit Type (Column):

CREATE TABLE T (int1 int, bit1 bit, varchar1 varchar(3), dec1 dec(5,2), cmp1 AS (int1 + bit1);

GO
INSERT T (int1, bit1) VALUES (1, 0)
INSERT T (int1, varchar1) VALUES (2, 'abc')
INSERT T (int1, dec1) VALUES (3, 5.25)
INSERT T (bit1, dec1) VALUES (1, 9.75)
GO

Integer Data Types:

The four integer data types are:

Tinyint: Range of values: 0 through 255, precision: 3, scale: 0, length: 1
Smallint: Range of values: –32, 768 (–2^15), through 32, 767 (2^15 – 1), precision: 5, scale: 0, length: 2
Int: Range of values: –2,147,483,648 (–2^31), through 2,147,483,647 (2^31 – 1) precision: 10, scale: 0, length: 4
Bigint: Range of values: –9,223,372,036,854,775,808 (–2^63), through 9,223,372,036,854,775,807 (2^63 – 1), precision: 19, scale: 0, length: 8

smallint:

CREATE TABLE discounts( discounttype   varchar(40) NOT NULL, stor_id char(4) NULL, lowqty smallint NULL, highqty smallint NULL, discount       dec(4,2)          NOT NULL);
GO
insert discounts values('Initial Customer',  NULL,   NULL, NULL, 10.5)
insert discounts values('Volume Discount',   NULL,   100,  1000, 6.7)
insert discounts values('Customer Discount', '8042', NULL, NULL, 5.0)
GO

Integer:

Create table Billings (BankerID INTEGER, BillingNumber INTEGER, BillingDate datetime, BillingTotal INTEGER, TermsID INTEGER, BillingDueDate datetime , PaymentTotal INTEGER, CreditTotal INTEGER );
GO
INSERT INTO Billings VALUES (1, 1, '2005-01-22', 165, 1,'2005-04-22',123,321);
GO

Bigint:

CREATE TABLE T (c1 bigint, c2 nvarchar(max));

Currency Data Types:

These Data types explicitly target the representation of currency values.

Money: Range of values: –214,748.3648 through 214,748.3647, precision: 10, scale: 0, length: 4
Smallmoney: Range of values: –922,337,203,685,477.5808 through 922,337,203,685,477.5807, precision: 19, scale: 0, length: 8

Money:

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.AveragePrice() RETURNS money WITH SCHEMABINDING

AS
BEGIN
RETURN (SELECT AVG (Price) FROM dbo.Titles)
END
GO
SELECT OBJECTPROPERTY(OBJECT_ID('AveragePrice'), 'IsDeterministic')
GO
(1 row affected)

Date and Time Data Types:

SQL Server 2008 offers two data types for representing date and time values, these data types store their values as numbers with digits to the left and right of a decimal point.

Smalldatetime: date range: January 1, 1900, through June 6, 2079, time resolution: 1 minute, length: 4.
Datetime: date range: January 1, 1753, through December 31, 9999, time resolution: 3.33 milliseconds, length: 8

Datetime:

Create table Billings (BankerID INTEGER, BillingNumber INTEGER, BillingDate datetime,
BillingTotal INTEGER, TermsID INTEGER, BillingDueDate datetime ,

PaymentTotal INTEGER, CreditTotal INTEGER);
GO
INSERT INTO Billings VALUES (1, 1, '2005-01-22', 165, 1,'2005-04-22', 123,321);

GO

(1 rows affected)

Smalldatetime (Column with default value):

CREATE TABLE StudentsArchive (AID int IDENTITY (1,1) PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED,

type nvarchar(6) NOT NULL, whenchanged smalldatetime NOT NULL DEFAULT Getdate(),
StudentID int, nFirstName nvarchar(30), nLastName nvarchar(50), oFirstName nvarchar(30),

oLastName nvarchar(50))

Decimal and Numeric Data Types:

The decimal & numeric data type both describe the same kind of data. A table designer can specify both the precision (p) and scale (s) of table columns with either a numeric or decimal data type at the time that they designate the column for the table.

Decimal or numeric: Range of values: –10^38 + 1 through 10^38 – 1,

Precision: minimum of 0 and maximum of 38, scale: minimum of 0 and 3 maximum of 38, Length: varies (for p of 1–9, the length is 5; for p of 10–19, the length is 9; for p of 20–28, the length is 13; for p of 29–38, the length is 17)

Decimal with Exact Number:

Create table Patient (PatientId int, FullName varchar(20), Weight decimal(5,2),

Height decimal (5,2), ADP smallint, BDZ tinyint));
Go

Note--decimal constants do not need delimiters either:

insert into Patient (PatientId, FullName, Weight, Height, ADP, BDZ)
values (834021, 'Tom Jones', 89.5, 188.5, 450, 11)
GO

select * from Patient;
GO
PatientId FullName Weight Height ADP BDZ
----------- -------------------- ------- ------- ------ ---
834021 Tom Jones 89.50 188.50 450 11

Approximate Data Types:

Real and float data types can represent values approximately instead of precisely, as with integer data types, such as int and bigint.

Real: range of values: –3.40E + 38 through 3.40E + 38, precision: from 1 to 7Scale: Null, length: 4
Float: Range of values: –1.79E + 308 through 1.79E + 308, precision: from 1 to 15, scale: Null, length: 8

FLOAT type column:

CREATE TABLE project (project_no CHAR (4) NOT NULL, project_name CHAR (15) NOT NULL,
budget FLOAT NULL));

Character and Binary Byte Streams:

A sequence of 1 or more bytes is a byte stream. SQL Server 2008 can decode a byte stream to characters, such as letters, numbers, and symbols, or it can just save and retrieve a byte stream without decoding the byte(s). There are basically three types of byte stream types:

Character: The three character data types are char, varchar, and text. These data types correspond, respectively, to the fixed-length, variable-length, and large object data types.
Unicode character: The fixed-length, variable-length, and large object data types for Unicode characters are nchar,nvarchar, and ntext.
Binary: The fixed-length, variable-length, and large object binary string data types are binary, varbinary, and image

Use binary (n) to designate the fixed-length binary string data type for a column of binary
Strings. The n parameter can assume values from 1 through 8,000.
Use varbinary(n) to specify a variable length binary string data type. Values for n can range from 1 through 8,000.
Use image or varbinary(max) to specify a data type for a large object binary string with image or varbinary(max). Because of the future obsolescence of the image data type (along with the text and ntext data types), use varbinary(max) for all new database applications.

Character type Column:

CREATE TABLE employee (emp_no INTEGER NOT NULL, emp_fname CHAR (20) NOT NULL,
emp_lname CHAR (20) NOT NULL, dept_no CHAR (4) NULL));

Unicode Character Strings:

Create table Contacts (ContactId nchar(8), Name nvarchar(50), Note ntext,Resume nvarchar(max))

Go
Note-Unicode characters constants are also delimited with quotes but are prefixed with N?

Insert into Contacts (Contactld, Name, Note, Resume)

Values (N'CO-92-81', N'Tom Jones', N'Tom@trigonblue.com', N'N/a')

Binary Stings:

1. Binary Data types:

CREATE TABLE Mydata (Id int,BinData varbinary(8000),Diagram varbinary(max))

GO

Update MyTable Set BinData = 0x82A7210B where Id = 121131

GO
Note: (0 rows affected)

2. VarBinary (MAX):

IF OBJECT_ID('dbo.CustomerData') IS NOT NULL DROP TABLE dbo.CustomerData;
GO
CREATE TABLE dbo.CustomerData ( custid INT NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY, txt_data VARCHAR(MAX) NULL, ntxt_data NVARCHAR(MAX) NULL, binary_data VARBINARY(MAX) NULL );
GO
INSERT INTO dbo.CustomerData(custid, txt_data) VALUES(102, 'Customer 102 text data');
GO

Miscellaneous:

The remaining SQL Server 2008 data types serve a variety of specialized purposes. Unless your database application has special needs, you may find no use for these data types.

Timestamp: You can use this data type for timestamping table rows for an insert or identifying the last update. Instead of assigning a datetime value to a row, the timestamp data type assigns a sequential binary(8) number that is unique throughout a database. rowversion is another name for the timestamp data type.

Uniqueidentifier: The uniqueidentifier data type holds globally unique identifier (GUID) values, which have a 16-byte length. It is common to express uniqueidentifier values with a 32-character hexadecimal representation (xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx); two hexadecimal characters represent 1 byte.

Cursor: The cursor data type represents a result set, such as one returned from a stored procedure, which you can scroll through. Set techniques that you implement with SELECT statements are generally a much more efficient way to recover values from a data source than for scrolling through result set rows with a cursor.

sql_variant: The sql_variant data type can store values declared with data types, except for text, ntext, image, timestamp, sql_variant, and the max data types for varchar, nvarchar, and varbinary. The sql_variant data type is similar to the variant type in Visual Basic.

xml: The xml data type enables you to assign an XML document or XML fragment as a value for a column in a table’s row, a variable, or a parameter. An XML document consists of a single root element with one or more nested other elements. An XML fragment consists of one or more elements without an outer root element.

Table: The table data type can represent a result set from a SELECT statement. You can return a table value from a table-valued, user-defined function. The returned table value can be referenced by the FROM clause of a SELECT statement in a script or a stored procedure. Table values can be assigned to local variables.
Alias: The alias data type corresponds to what was called a user-defined type in earlier versions of SQL Server. However, the introduction of user-defined types based on classes

Timestamp:

CREATE TABLE T (int1 int, bit1 bit NOT NULL DEFAULT 0, rvr1 timestamp,

usr1 nvarchar(128) DEFAULT USER, createtime datetime DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP)
GO
INSERT T (int1, bit1) VALUES (3, 1)
GO

Sql_variant:

Creation of table with a Column with SQl_variant type:

CREATE TABLE Item_Attributes (item_id INT NOT NULL, attribute NVARCHAR(30) NOT NULL,
value SQL_VARIANT NOT NULL, PRIMARY KEY (item_id, attribute))
GO

SQL_vaiant data type allow a single user

Create table Lookup (LookupGroupId tinyint, LookupId smallint,LookupValue sql_variant)
Go
Insert Lookup (LookupGroupId, LookupId, LookupValue) Values (2, 34, 'VAR')

Insert Lookup (LookupGroupId, LookupId, LookupValue) Values (3, 22, 2000)

Insert Lookup (LookupGroupId, LookupId, LookupValue) Values (4, 16, '1/12/2000')

Insert Lookup (LookupGroupId, LookupId, LookupValue) Values (4, 11, $50000)

What is SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services?

Justin — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 11:00:13 +0000

As a new feature of SQL Server 2008 R2, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services provides a complete set of tools and services that is designed to cater to a gamut of reporting needs which includes managed enterprise reporting, ad-hoc reporting, embedded reporting and web-based reporting. The SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services also includes programming features that allows you to customize your reports as needed. Reporting Services enable you to extend your reporting functionality through comprehensive reporting functionality supporting variety of types of data sources.

SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services include APIs to assist developers in integrating and extending data and report processing in custom applications. Reporting Services also includes a comprehensive set of tools required to create, deploy, manage and deliver reports across organization.

In order to be able to make effective decisions in business, users across the organization need to have access to informative reports that contains data from different data sources across enterprise. Reporting services enables you to create a wide variety of data sources including interactive, graphical, and tabular. Other free form reports from multidimensional, relational or XML-based data sources are also supported.

SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services allow you to interactively explore data within the predefined model while creating an ad-hoc report. The reports created with SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services can be viewed using a variety formats. The reports can be easily exported to other applications and viewed as a part of a Microsoft Windows application or SharePoint site.

Reporting Services consists of a complete set of report authoring tools and a wide variety of report formats that facilitate in creating reports quickly and delivering the reports that users need in whatever format across the organization. SQL Server 2008 provides distinct report development tools to meet the needs of both experienced business intelligence developers and business users who have little or no knowledge of database schema designs. The report designer tool allows developers to define data sets from a wide range of data sources, design the report structure and then preview the report in the design environment even before deploying it on the report server. Another interesting feature that SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services provides is a business-oriented report query tool known as Report Builder that abstracts the underlying business data through report models. Business users can create robust reports without having to know the underlying database structure or query syntaxes. SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services supports accessing a wide variety of data sources including SQL relational databases, SQL server analysis services, Oracle, DB2 and Hyperion Essbase.

With SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services, business data can be presented in different types of formats. Businesses are provided with a set of compelling report authoring features such as multiple display, rich text formatting, interactivity and charting capabilities.

Managing reporting services was never so easy. SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services provide two different management modes to the administrators: Native mode and SharePoint mode. Administrators can use integrate management of reporting services instances with SQL server database engine management in native mode. While running in Share point integrated mode, administrators can take full advantage of integrated management capabilities of SharePoint.

Manasa contributed to this article.

Review of SQL Server 2008 R2

Justin — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 15:58:06 +0000

If you are like many small business owners, the second release of Microsoft’s popular SQL Server 2008 may appear utterly immaterial to your interests, but it is not. Microsoft has added together significant new features in the R2 version that will help you delve deep into your business data, extract the most valuable nuggets of data, and award them in a compelling way.

SQL Server 2008 R2 builds upon all the best features of the regular SQL Server 2008 version. In addition, it includes new features not found in the first release. One such feature is the new Master Data Service; which is a server that brings all the different entities and power structure. It also features Power Pivot for Excel and SharePoint and Report Builder 3.0. Microsoft has revamped the visual features of the program and SQL Server 2008 R2 has earned high-ranking marks in support options.

SQL Server 2008 R2 gives users the option to apply two studios: one is for developing tasks and the other is for management tasks. In the management studio, for instance, one can make the server database. The development studio is much suited to business concerns and may be applied to develop solutions related to the business-world.

“Not only does SQL Server 2008 R2 give a lot of power to small businesses, it also helps software developers who write applications designed to be applied by small business,” says Microsoft’s Herain Oberio, a group production manager for R2. One example of this is a feature known as StreamInsight, which permits developers to create applications which can deal streaming result data by sources such as RFID, sensors and web logs.

As you may already know, at its core, SQL Server is a database builder. SQL Server 2008 R2 establishes a few significant modifications to that underlying database engine, but it controls a number of meaningful new services and features on lead of it.

An exciting new feature with the R2 version of SQL Server 2008 is Powerpivot; a tool that permits users to take out data from multiple origins, not only a SQL database, and drop it into Excel 2010 for analytic thinking. For example: Atom feeds in, a syndication acceptable similar to RSS but centered data rather than text, can be pullulated into SQL Server, combined with an existent application to build a mashup, which could be mutual using Sharepoint 2010.

Data in SQL Server can be used applying a reporting tool that lets users make more complex graphs and other visualization devices than those accessible in Excel. Elements of a report can be preserved, shared and applied again, when the data is updated.

SQL Server 2008 R2 is a valuable data management tool perfect for businesses of any size: SQL Server 2008 R2 for Small Business is an entry-level edition which allows up to 75 users, or for larger companies, SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise may be the ideal choice.

Md. Mofakhkharol contributed to this article.

Microsoft SQL Server Replication Overview

Justin — Wed, 25 May 2011 16:43:14 +0000

Replication is a set of technologies for copying and distributing data and database objects from one database to another and then synchronizing between databases to maintain consistency. Using replication, you can distribute data to different locations and to remote or mobile users over local and wide area networks, dial-up connections, wireless connections and the Internet. This SQL Server Replication Overview will explain the terms and functions available through Microsoft SQL Server.

Usually replication is done to ensure redundancy. For instance, if a business runs a mission critical database, it is always wise to have a replication of this database on a separate physical database server, that can take over in case of failure in the primary database. Replication is useful in Data warehousing & reporting, improving scalability and availability, delegating batch processing tasks etc. When it comes to SQL Replication, Publisher, Distributor and Subscriber are the terms associated with it. The Publisher is the part that offers the data for distribution. The Distributor is the intermediary in the act of publishing and subscribing. The Subscriber is the part that consumes (gets updates) the data from the Publisher.

The three main replication models are Snapshot Replication, Transactional Replication and Merge Replication:

Snapshot Replication takes a snapshot of a publication and makes it available to subscribers. It is a one-shot deal; there is no continuous stream of data from the publisher to the subscriber. The data on the publisher at the time the snapshot is taken is applied to the subscriber.

Transactional Replication is generally used with databases where data changes frequently and there’s need for constant refreshing of the data. Transactional replication allows for faster data synchronization with less latency. It is useful in cases where you need incremental changes to happen at the subscriber quickly.

Merge Replication is usually used when there is no constant network connectivity among publishers and subscribers. It enables sites to work autonomously and merge the changes to the data when the connectivity is established.

Replication capabilities:

SQL Express Edition has extremely limited replication capabilities. It can act only as a replication client.
SQL Workgroup Edition has limited publishing capabilities. It is able to serve five clients using transactional replication and up to 25 clients using merge replication. It can also act as a replication client.
SQL Standard Edition has full and unlimited replication capabilities with other SQL Server databases.
SQL Enterprise Edition adds a powerful tool for those operating in mixed database environments. It is capable of replication with Oracle databases.

Feature / Capabilities	Express Edition	Workgroup Edition	Standard Edition	Enterprise Edition
Snapshot Replication	Subscriber Only	Subscriber Only	All Capabilities	All Capabilities
Transactional Replication	Subscriber Only	Subscriber Only	All Capabilities	All Capabilities
Merge Replication	Subscriber Only	Subscriber Only	All Capabilities	All Capabilities

SQL Server 2008 R2 Express Edition replaces the Microsoft Data Engine (MSDE) as the free version of SQL Server for application development and lightweight use. It retains the limitations of MSDE with respect to client connections and performance. A good tool for developing and testing applications and extremely small implementations.

SQL Server 2008 R2 Workgroup offers an impressive array of functionality. Workgroup edition can handle 2 CPUs with 3GB of RAM and allows for most of the functionality you’d expect from a server-based relational database.

SQL Server 2008 R2 Standard remains the staple of the product line for serious database applications. It can handle up to 4 CPUs with an unlimited amount of RAM.

SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise allows unlimited scalability and partitioning. In addition, it supports 8 CPUs.

Satish Kumar contributed to this article.

Microsoft Attacks Oracle on Price and Value

Kevin — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:26:21 +0000

In a recent post on the SQL Server News Blog, Microsoft didn’t pull any punches when describing the lower prices and greater value of SQL Server 2008 over Oracle’s 11g. This well-timed move on Microsoft’s part came in response to Oracle’s recent price increases on many of its products.

Techworld reported on these price increases by Oracle, showing increases of up to 40% in its database management products. Oracle’s enterprise database processor license remains at the same price as last year, but that price is 20% higher than the year prior.

In the SQL Server blog, Microsoft is quick to point out how Oracle is the most expensive database platform you can buy. It also touts how SQL Server 2008 has similar capabilities, for roughly 1/3 the cost of a comparible Oracle solution. This extensive savings comes from the fact that SQL Server comes with a broad range of features built-in, that Oracle charges extra for. These features include business intelligence applications and server consolidation.

To back up its claims, Microsoft has created a pretty cool, interactive application that lets you see exactly how much you could save with SQL Server 2008. Check out the SQL Server 2008 Value Calculator here.

Of course, all of these prices and cost savings are based on MSRP. If you want to save even more, and see what kind of discounts we can get for you, check out the SQL Server page at SoftwareMedia.com.

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Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2009

Kevin — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 23:58:56 +0000

This week, the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference is going on in New Orleans. This the premiere Microsoft event of the year,with keynote addresses from top Microsoft executives and partners from around the world. There are a lot of news stories coming out of the conference, but I thought I would summarize some of the highlights here.

One of the main themes running throughout the conference so far is the future of software plus services. New and innovative cloud services, like Windows Azure, are paving the way for new ways to implement software solutions. Today, Microsoft announced the business model for the Windows Azure program. Companies will be able to deploy a cloud-based operating system, a web-based database (SQL Azure), and .NET Services with pay-as-you-go pricing. For more information on the new Windows Azure platform, check out Microsoft’s official press release from today.

In order news, Joe Matz, corporate VP of Microsoft Worldwide Licensing and Pricing announced an increased level of simplification for Microsoft licensing products. Through feedback from customers and resellers, Microsoft is constantly adjusting their licensing models to be easier to understand and deploy. One example of this is the new Microsoft Enrollment for Application Platform. It will save customers money and simplify purchasing decisions by bundling popular products together. This particular platform includes licenses for SQL Server, BizTalk Server, SharePoint Server, Visual Studio and more. For more in-depth examples of how Microsoft licensing will be changing this year, check out this interview with Joe Matz.

Also, I’ve embedded part of the Day 2 keynote below. In this segment, CEO Steve Ballmer gets the crowd excited about Microsoft’s upcoming product launches and the extraordinary changes coming for customers and partners.

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For all the breaking info surrounding Microsoft WPC 09, including a live Twitter feed, check out Digital WPC09.

NoSQL Movement is Gaining Traction

Kevin — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:40:54 +0000

A new movement has started in the world of database programming. A small group of programmers and start-up companies are developing new ways of managing large amounts of data. They claim that relational databases like MySQL are too constrictive and slow, and they are developing their own ways of dealing with all of their data.

Many of these new data stores are open source, and they’re starting to get noticed. Extremely large companies like Amazon and Facebook have developed similar data storage solutions in-house, but these individual programmers and small companies are trying to do similar things.

More and more start-up web companies are looking for data storage alternatives to an SQL database. Too time consuming and costly to develop themselves, new NoSQL alternatives like Hypertable, Hadoop, and Dynomite are compelling solutions. Experimental and new platforms like these are often a perfect fit for new companies that have nothing to lose.

One of the main advantage to a NoSQL solution is the fact that they can run on clusters of cheap servers and are easily scalable. While relational databases like SQL offer many benefits, a faster and lighter solution will often be all that is needed, which can save you a lot of money.

Large enterprise companies are reluctant to adopt any of these NoSQL solutions right now because they are new and lack the support of something like SQL Server. Most companies are set up to work with relational databases and they have no reason to change that at the moment. An article on Monash from yesterday lays out both sides of this argument and makes some good points.

For further reading, check out this great article on Computerworld.

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Microsoft Licensing: Big Easy Offer

Lisa — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 17:53:37 +0000

If your business was considering purchasing Microsoft Licensing in the near future, now is a great time. Qualifying purchases made between March 2 and June 26, 2009 earns you subsidy funds. The subsidy allows you to purchase additional products or services from the Microsoft partner of your choice.

Let’s say your business needed 30 licenses of Office 2007 Small Business. You would receive a check for around $1,050 to spend with your Microsoft Partner within 90 days. This amount can be used for whatever your Microsoft Partner offers (doesn’t have to be used on only Microsoft products).

Qualifying Products (restrictions apply – talk to your Microsoft Partner for specific products)

Microsoft Office
Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft Exchange Server
Microsoft Office Project
Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server (ISA)
Microsoft Office Visio
Microsoft Office Communications Server
Microsoft Expression
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server
Microsoft Visual Studio
Microsoft Forefront Security
Microsoft Visual Studio Team Suite
Microsoft Windows Server
Microsoft System Center Essentials
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Datacenter
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager
Microsoft Windows Small Business Server
Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Microsoft Windows Web Server 2008
Microsoft Windows Essential Business Server

Make sure to submit your claim within 30 days of purchase date. View Subsidy Calculator to see how much you could earn. Talk to your Microsoft Partner for details.