The release of SQL Server 2008, code-named Katmai, is around the corner. Scheduled
for 2008, it promises to add several important features to Microsoft's premier
database server. Some of these features Microsoft didn't have time to put in
the SQL Server 2005 release, while others are new.
7. Enhanced Office Integration
SQL Server 2008's enhanced integration with Microsoft Office 2007 enables users
to create database-enabled reports directly from either Microsoft Office Word
2007 or Excel 2007. These reports can then be published and shared by using
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.
6. Language-Integrated Query
LINQ is Microsoft's latest application data-access technology. It enables Visual
Basic and C# applications to use set-oriented queries that are developed in
the native language, rather than requiring that the queries be written in T-SQL.
LINQ uses the native SqlClient to connect to SQL Server, and its development-time
connection lets developers create strongly typed queries.
5. Transparent Failover
Database mirroring in SQL Server 2005 enables clients to automatically redirect
to a mirrored server in the event of a failure in the principal database. However,
it requires special client configuration to specify the mirror server. SQL Server
2008 will allow clients to automatically fail over to a mirrored server without
requiring any manual configuration on the client.
4. Log Stream Compression
SQL Server 2008's new support for log stream compression enhances the performance
of database mirroring by automatically compressing the log stream that's sent
between the database mirroring participants. This minimizes network bandwidth
use.
3. Data Compression
SQL Server 2008's data compression enables you to compress data stored in the
database. This reduces storage requirements and can actually improve the performance
of workloads that have high I/O requirements. SQL Server 2008 also supports
compressing backups.
2. FileStream Data
It's back—originally slated as part of SQL Server 2005, the new FileStream
object allows large binary objects (LOBs) to be stored in the file system. The
system maintains links between the database object and the file system object,
insuring they have transactional consistency similar to a native database object
yet providing the performance of native file system storage.
1. Ability to Hot-Add CPUs
SQL Server 2005 introduced the ability to hot-add memory, and SQL Server 2008
extends this with the ability to hot-add CPUs on supported platforms with no
downtime, enhancing scalability. This ability will also be an important foundation
feature for the dynamic data center, as future virtualization support in the
Windows Server 2008 R2 timeframe will support hot-adding for memory, CPU, and
networking.