What kind of performance improvements will Yukon bring?
We've made big investments in scalability with Yukon. Two key features will enable users to realize faster performance. The first feature, table partitioning, will essentially let you divide a table into smaller chunks. The second feature, snapshot isolation, when turned on lets client connections read a consistent view of the data based on the connection time. For database applications that handle high transaction volumes and support many concurrent users, customers who use these features will see faster performance. In addition, Yukon will be available in both 32-bit and 64-bit editions.
What is Microsoft doing with Yukon to improve security and reduce buffer-overflow and other kinds of security vulnerabilities in SQL Server?
Yukon significantly enhances the database platform's security model with the goal of providing more management and security options for both developers and administrators. We've made a considerable investment in a broad spectrum of features—from enforcing policies for SQL Server login passwords in the authentication space, to providing for more granularity in specifying permissions at various scopes in the authorization space, to allowing for the separation of owners and schemas in the security-management space.
Furthermore, for the Yukon release, we're implementing core security tenets such as reduction in surface area and the principle of least privileges as well as sound principles such as secure defaults and designs.
As the CLR, the SQL Workbench, and other client-side services cross the traditional line between "database professional" tasks and "programmer" tasks, what should SQL Server professionals and application developers do to prepare for this new model of managing data?
At the outset of our work on Yukon, we really didn't know how DBAs would react to having procedural-logic capabilities in the database or to mastering a new toolset. But in working with customers and beta testers, we believe that the new functionality will bring valuable new capabilities and flexibility—not to mention productivity enhancements—to SQL Server professionals. What helped me personally when I first started working on Yukon was to install it, then read as much as I could about the .NET Framework and about Visual Basic .NET and C#. I also spent time reading about XML, XSD, and XQuery on the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web site at http://www.w3.org. Then, I built some simple applications to see whether I could solve some specific problems. I created an XML database that stored Microsoft Office documents, and I tracked my cycling performance using a user-defined data type and the .NET Framework. This hands-on approach gave me a lot of insight into how the .NET integration features work. Microsoft will also be producing many best-practices documents, how-to white papers, and other guides to getting started with the CLR, the SQL Workbench, and other new tools. This is also a great time for the database and application programming teams to start talking about the needs of their organization and how they can use Yukon and .NET to meet those needs most effectively.
When should customers expect the public beta of Yukon and the release to manufacturing (RTM) version?
We are currently in a private beta (Beta 1) and expect to release the public beta (Beta 2) in the first half of 2004. A third beta will come later next year, with RTM scheduled for the second half of 2004. Pricing and packaging haven't been determined yet.