Although Microsoft is right on the brink of releasing
SQL Server 2008, the company is already
well into planning the next SQL Server release.
So now seems like a good time to start thinking about
the direction SQL Server should go in the future. Here
are some features I’d like Microsoft to include in the
next release of SQL Server.
Server Core Compatibility
As a result of the release of Windows Server 2008,
future SQL Server versions will need to be able to run
on Server Core. Serving as a new installation option
for Windows Server 2008, Server Core is a bare-metal
OS that runs without GUI. In other words, all of the
extraneous features, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer
(IE), Microsoft Office Outlook Express, and
the .NET CLR have been stripped out, reducing the
system footprint and making the system both more
efficient and secure. Sounds like the perfect platform
for SQL Server, right? Wrong. Unfortunately, Server
Core doesn’t support .NET CLR, and therefore isn’t
a candidate platform for SQL Server. Microsoft could
solve this problem by either adding more .NET functionality
to Server Core (something that will have to
happen so that future SQL Server versions can support
Windows PowerShell) or by removing the .NET
components from SQL Server. Regardless of how the
problem is solved, SQL Server will eventually have to
be able to run on Server Core.
Support for LINQ in SQLCLR
Language-Integrated Query (LINQ) is an important
development capability that Microsoft added to Visual
Studio 2008. LINQ enables you to write queries
in native .NET languages without requiring the developer
to drop down into another language (i.e., TSQL),
whereas traditional .NET database programming
includes an ADO.NET object-oriented database
access layer, but the raw T-SQL code does the real
database access work. LINQ also enables the development
environment to provide help and immediate
feedback about database object and syntax problems
to developers. However, LINQ still can’t be used for
SQLCLR development. Including support for LINQ
in SQLCLR is a natural evolution and could help
jump-start SQLCLR usage.
A Front End for SQL Server
Service Broker
SQL Server Service Broker provides a great framework
for highly scalable asynchronous messaging
applications. But in the real world, many developers
don’t use this framework because developing Service
Broker applications is too difficult. Currently, there’s
no development front end for creating these applications,
and the service broker application development
process requires developers to use a mixture of manual
XML, T-SQL, and .NET code—making the adoption
hurdle too high for most developers. Adding a
graphical development tool to Service Broker could
simplify the application-creation process.
These are just a few of the capabilities and functionalities
on my SQL Server wish list. Are there
things that you’re looking for in future releases of
SQL Server or from Microsoft in general? Drop me a
line at motey@sqlmag.com, and I’ll share your comments
in a future column.
