(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Available in a Community Technology Preview version since August 2009, SQL Server 2008 R2 will be available by May 2010, according to a Microsoft (www.microsoft.com) blog post.
Since its CTP release, SQL Server 2008 R2 has been downloaded more than 150,000 times, and, according to Microsoft’s Tuesday announcement, it will be listed on Microsoft’s price list and be available in May, offering many benefits over previous releases.
SQL Server 2008 R2 will introduce users to Master Data Services and StreamInsight technologies. Helping securely manage master data directly and ensuring the integrity of information over time, Master Data Services provides a trusted, scalable, highly available platform that supports data consistency across heterogeneous systems. Enabling organizations to make sense of streaming information in near real-time, StreamInsight provides high-scale complex event processing, and support for high scale applications with up to 256 logical processors.
“SQL Server 2008 R2 is freeing up our IT departments to focus on bigger challenges while keeping control of our most valuable asset, our information,” Mediterranean Shipping Company chief technology officer Fabio Catassi said in a statement. “Using Excel and PowerPivot as an interface for Self-Service BI, we are modeling, analyzing and pivoting millions of records in memory and publishing our BI solutions to SharePoint in few minutes. This also allows our geographically remote office branches to access them from a URL at a fraction of the time, and our IT department to centrally manage and monitor information.”
It also offers IT and developers efficiency by offering central management of multiple database applications, instances or servers, accelerating the development and deployment of applications, as well as improved support for virtualization and Live Migration through Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2.
Microsoft has also introduced many managed self-service business intelligence features that require little to no IT support, while still enabling IT to monitor and manage end-user generated BI solutions with the new PowerPivot for Excel and PowerPivot for SharePoint products.
The CTP release is still available for download. While pricing has yet to be revealed, Microsoft Software Assurance customers can upgrade to SQL Server 2008 R2 without paying additional licensing fees.
