Windows IT Pro / SQL Magazine: SQL Server 2005 Roadshow

Posted: 9:58 am
September 5, 2005
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It was nice to see a handful of our members made the trek to Tampa last Wednesday to see what’s new with the SQL Server 2005. Thank you for stopping by and saying hello and I hope you had the time to chat with Greg Boyd and Mike Powell, two of the former Microsoft Connections presenters that have been a huge asset to our IT community. They both seemed much happier and happened to regain some of their hair. In case you didn’t get the chance to go here are some of the notes I think you’ll find interesting. If you’d like to know more, or if you have any questions, Blain Barton will be presenting SQL 2005 during our meeting. Please RSVP.

Here is what you missed:

  • Price for SQL Server 2005 will be higher than for SQL Server 2000. If you have been holding off SQL 2005 projects until the release, obtaining SQL Server 2000 with Software Assurance will run you less than SQL Server 2005 with Software Assurance.
    SQL Server 2005 is set to launch on November 7th, 2005 at the same time as Visual Studio 2005 and BizTalk 2006.

  • There will be a local Orlando Launch of SQL Server 2005 scheduled for December 8, 2005. This is a free, all-day event with two tracks: developer or system administrator (ITPRO). It will be held at the Orange County Convention Center (OCCC) on International Drive so this will be a big event.
  • Keynote address was delivered by Francois Ajenstat, Microsoft GPM for SQL Server Core BI Engine. He claimed SQL 2005 was the most successful beta product ever with over 785,000 copies distributed. Hope this gives you an idea of the potential demand you will see shortly.
  • SQL Server 2005 will feature 10-12 second failover, online re-index operation without shutdown (reindex without dropping clients), snapshot isolation, reduced surface area services (only SQL Server Engine is installed by default), storing encrypted data in the database and the channel encryption using PKI, included Best Practices Analyzer to give you idea of which settings to tweak, Upgrade Advisor to let you know what might go wrong with SQL Server 2005 deployment, SQL Server Migration Assistant, integration with Business Score Card Manager 2005, CLR support (meaning stored procedures and scripts can be written in any .NET language) and most things are now database objects (queue’s for example).
  • Most relevant to most IT Pro’s still reading this horribly mangled run-on list: You can have SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005 running on the same system, side-by-side, with all tools and support software at the same time. SQL Server 2005 installs in a separate directory as a separate instance, so your migration from SQL 2000 to SQL 2005 can happen with little-to-no downtime.