Believe it or not, the next release of SQL Server—SQL Server 2008—is
right around the corner. For software vendors in the SQL Server marketplace,
a new release is always a good thing because it never fails to generate renewed
interest in their products. On the product side, all the players get swept up
in the release enthusiasm. But releases aren't necessarily good news for customers.
Many of the customers I'm in contact
with are still struggling to adopt most of the
new features in SQL Server 2005. Features
such as the integration of CLR, the new
HTTP endpoint capability, Notification
Services, SQL Service Broker, and even
Integration Services take a lot of time and
effort to implement. For instance, incorporating them into existing databases and
applications often requires design changes,
which require lengthy development, testing,
and deployment cycles to roll out updates
for those databases and applications. And
before those cycles even happen, there's
often a planning period where companies
evaluate the new features in a release and
then examine where those features might
be a good fit for their processes. This effort
doesn't come lightly for organizations of any
size, and it's a process that can take months
or years to actually complete. With SQL
Server 2005, many companies are just now
in the initial development phase. And they're
far from ready for a completely new release
with an all-new feature set.
With precious little fanfare, Microsoft has put the SQL Server 2008 release
on the table for early 2008. Though details about the new release are still
sketchy, some of the main features that Microsoft announced at the Business
Intelligence Conference 2007 in Seattle include an even stronger emphasis on
business intelligence (BI). (For more information about the features in SQL
Server 2008, see http://www.microsoft.com/sql/techinfo/whitepapers/sql2008Overview.mspx.)
But those businesses that are already lagging behind in their BI adoption aren't
clamoring for new BI capabilities. Although SQL Server's BI features are certainly
one of the key differentiators that give it a competitive advantage over Oracle
and DB2, BI features such as Analysis Services and Data Mining aren't used by
all SQL Server organizations. Previous SQL Server Magazine Instant Polls
indicate that only about 25 percent of readers use Analysis Services. (If you
stretch the definition of BI to include Reporting Services and Integration Services,
the percentage of shops that implement BI is much higher as most SQL Server
2005 organizations use these features. Although Microsoft likes to categorize
Reporting Services and Integration Services as BI features, most organizations
that use them wouldn't consider themselves BI implementers.)
I can't help but think that the upcoming SQL Server 2008 release will be too
soon for most SQL Server–based businesses, which are still trying to
incorporate the 2005 feature set into their applications. I'd love to hear what
you think about SQL Server 2008. Are you chomping at the bit for a new release
of SQL Server? Or is SQL Server 2008 just too much too soon? Let me know what
you think; drop me a line at motey@sqlmag.com.