The next version of SQL Server, code-named "Denali", will be a major release. Like many others in the SQL Server community, I'm very excited about what Denali will offer. So I wanted to spend a bit of time sharing some thoughts about what I think Denali will mean—upon release and into the future.
"Denali": The Next Major SQL Server Release
Unlike SQL Server 2008 R2, Denali will be a major release of SQL Server, which means that it will ship with a large number of new features, tools, and capabilities. Too many new details, in fact, to cover with any degree of detail in a single article—though Mary-Jo Foley provides a nice summary of the major components.
However, since Denali was officially released upon the world via a series of Keynotes at last week's PASS Summit, you can go and watch recordings of the keynotes from Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, where details of SQL Server "Denali" were unveiled. (Free registration with PASS is required—but it's painless to sign up, and you should already be a PASS member if you care even a little bit about SQL Server.)
In addition to watching the keynotes, you can also download the Denali CTP. If you decide to get your feet wet and install the CTP, make sure to check out Aaron Betrand's SQL Server v.Next (Denali) : Setup walk-through—it's a great overview of some potential issues and configuration choices/changes that you may need to make in order to get Denali installed on a virtual machine (i.e., don't put it on a production workstation or server).
Of course, if you're like me, then 70 percent of what you're looking for when a CTP like Denali comes out is a chance to get to the "What's New" section in SQL Server Books Online. Happily, if that's what you're after, Books Online for SQL Server Denali is already available, without the need for installation:
And, if you take a peek at those links, you'll see that lots of the content is either in "rough" form or is missing—but that's because we're still so early into this release. So early, in fact, that Books Online is still missing details or even mentions of some of the key things that were covered at PASS.
What follows, therefore, is a quick overview of some thoughts and insights about things covered either during the PASS keynotes, or mentioned in this early drop of Books Online.
Columnar Indexes
NoSQL continues to gain more and more attention in development circles. I think it's the wrong solution in well over 99 percent of development projects, but that doesn't mean that NoSQL is without strengths. Nor does it mean that NoSQL won't continue to grow in popularity. In fact, my expectation all along has been that as NoSQL continues to gain clout and attention, that SQL Server and other RDBMs will be forced to address some of the key benefits that NoSQL brings to the table.
Happily, that's exactly what we're seeing with Denali's announced support for columnar indexes. (This isn't covered in Books Online or in the CTP, so see the last quarter of Tuesday's keynote, where Amir Netz is showing off Project Crescent.) More specifically, columnar indexes will give SQL Server the added ability to physically store data in columnar fashion (i.e., columnar indexes) instead of physically storing data in rows as SQL Server has always done. This, in turn, means that we'll be able to pick up some of the key benefits that NoSQL delivers when it comes to certain types of queries or operations—without having to suffer through ALL of the negatives that NoSQL imposes.