The next version of Microsoft SQL Server, SQL Server 2005, is currently in beta and scheduled for release in early 2005. Improvements in SQL Server 2005 are focused on business intelligence, developer productivity, and enterprise data management. The following is a list of features that we have found to be most compelling to our current development projects:

Business Intelligence Features

SQL Server 2005 helps companies achieve the goal of providing information workers with the right information in a timely manner.

Analysis Services
SQL Server Analysis Services provided with SQL Server 2005 adds real-time analytics capabilities to SQL Server. Also, improved data mining algorithms and wizards make data mining more manageable, allowing you to extend business intelligence to all levels of your organization.

Reporting Services
Included with SQL Server 2005, SQL Server Reporting Services provides users with ad-hoc report generation capability for use in online analytical processing (OLAP) environments.

Integration with Microsoft Office System
Reports developed with SQL Server Reporting Services can be run in the context of your SharePoint Portal Server as well as Office applications such as Word and Excel. You can open reports in HTML format in Word and Excel, and also publish and subscribe to reports in your SharePoint portal.

Improving Developer Productivity

Developer-focused enhancements in SQL Server 2005 help increase developer productivity in the enterprise.

Improved Developer Tools
Support for Transact-SQL, XML, Multidimensional Expression (MDX), and XML for Analysis (XML/A) are now built in to the Microsoft Visual Studio Integrated Development Environment (IDE). This allows developers to more efficiently develop and debug SQL Server applications using the same development environment with which they are already familiar.

.Net Programmability
The SQL Server 2005 engine now hosts the .Net Common Language Runtime (CLR). This allows developers the choice between traditional Transact-SQL and.Net languages such as VB.NET and C# for data tier development. Transact-SQL is very well suited for returning datasets based on SQL queries and Data Definition Language (DDL), but is poorly suited when the need arises for classic programming control structures such as conditional and looping statements. By giving developers the opportunity to write these in familiar languages such as VB.NET or C#, developer productivity is greatly increased.

XML Support
SQL Server 2005 now provides native support for XML data in addition to relational data. Support for open standards such as XML, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), XQuery, and XML Schema Definition (XSD) allows for integration with disparate enterprise systems.

Enterprise Data Management

Data management features of SQL Server 2005 provide improvements in availability, scalability, and security, easing the burden on your IT staff.

Availability Features
The new database mirroring feature allows your database administrator to set up a mirrored server, allowing for automatic failover to another standby SQL Server. SQL Server 2005 databases can now be restored while the database remains online, allowing only the restored data to be unavailable. In addition, SQL Server 2005 provides enhanced replication features such as improved performance, merge replication over HTTPS, and replication from Oracle databases which increase the availability of your enterprise data.

Scalability Features
Data partitioning features such as native support for table and index partitions allows for more efficient storage of large tables and indexes. A new Snapshot Isolation (SI) level allows users to access the last committed row in a table. Microsoft also provides 64-bit versions of SQL Server 2005 for both the Intel and AMD platforms. These features allow you to build and deploy even larger and more demanding applications in your enterprise.

Security Features
The major focus in all new Microsoft product versions is increased data security. SQL Server 2005 includes security enhancements such as database encryption, secure default settings, password policy enforcement, fine grained permissions control, and an enhanced security model. These features allow your IT staff to deploy a database solution that is secure “out-of-the-box.”

Summary