SQL Server 2008 delivers a rich set of integrated services that enable you to do more with your data such as query, search, synchronize, report and analyze.
It helps your organization manage any data, at any place and any time. You can Store data from structured, semi-structured, and unstructured documents, such as images and rich media, directly within the database. SQL Server 2008 provides the highest levels of security, reliability, and scalability for your vital applications. To utilize new opportunities in today’s fast-moving business world, companies need the ability to create and deploy data-driven solutions quickly. SQL Server 2008 reduces time and cost of management and development of applications.
Access data from across your enterprise and provide control over your data no matter where its stored. SQL Server 2008 provides a comprehensive platform that delivers intelligence where your users want it. Information workers can access data directly using the tools they use every day, such as the Microsoft Office 2007 system.
SQL Server 2008 enables data to be consumed from custom applications developed using Microsoft .NET and Visual Studio and from within service-oriented architectures. The business processes is dealt through Microsoft BizTalk Server.
Few key Advantages:
- Activity Monitor
- Backup Compression
- Data Collector and Management Data Warehouse
- Policy-Based Management
- Resource Governor
- File stream Storage
- New Date & Time Data Types
- Dependency Reporting
- Policy Based Administration
- Central Management Servers
- Transparent Encryption
- [SQL Server] Audit
- Central Management Servers
- Data Compression
- Predictable Performance and Concurrency
- Transparent Data Encryption (TDE)
- Sparse Columns
- Spatial Data Types
- Advanced Auditing Features
- TSQL Intelli-sense
- Compound Operators
Features
- Transparent Data Encryption: Enable encryption of an entire database, data files, or log files, without the need for application changes. Benefits of this include: Search encrypted data using both range and fuzzy searches, search secure data from unauthorized users.
- Extensible Key Management
- Auditing: Create and manage auditing via DDL. This enables organizations to answer common questions, such as, “What data was retrieved?”
- Enhanced Database Mirroring
- Automatic Recovery of Data Pages: SQL Server 2008 enables the principal and mirror machines to transparently recover from 823/824 types of data page errors by requesting a fresh copy of the suspect page from the mirroring partner transparently to end users and applications.
- Log Stream Compression
- Resource Governor
- Predictable Query Performance
- Data Compression
- Hot Add CPU: Dynamically scale a database on demand by allowing CPU resources to be added to SQL Server 2008 on supported hardware platforms.
- Policy-Based Management: Use this with SQL Server Management Studio to create policies that manage entities on the server, such as the instance of SQL Server, databases, and other SQL Server objects.
- Streamlined Installation
- Performance Data Collection: To provide performance insights to administrators, SQL Server 2008 includes more extensive performance data collection, a new centralized data repository for storing performance data, and new tools for reporting and monitoring.
- Language Integrated Query (LINQ)
- ADO.NET Data Services: ADO.NET enables the materialization, change tracking, and persistence of data as CLR objects. SQL Server 2008 introduces more efficient, optimized support that improves performance and simplifies development.
- HIERARCHY ID: Enable database applications to model tree structures in a more efficient way than currently possible.
- FILESTREAM Data: Allow large binary data to be stored directly in an NTFS file system, while preserving an integral part of the database and maintaining transactional consistency. Enable the scale-out of large binary data traditionally managed by the database to be stored outside the database on more cost-effective storage without compromise.
- Integrated Full Text Search
- Large User-Defined Types
- Spatial Data Types
- Backup Compression: Keeping disk-based backups online is expensive and time-consuming. With SQL Server 2008 backup compression, less storage is required to keep backups online, and backups run significantly faster since less disk I/O is required.
- SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) Pipeline Improvements
- SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) Persistent Lookups
- Enterprise Reporting Engine
- Internet Report Deployment
- Forms Authentication Support
- Microsoft Office Integration
- Predictive Analysis: SQL Server Analysis Services continues to deliver advanced data mining technologies. Better Time Series support extends forecasting capabilities. New cross-validation enables confirmation of both accuracy and stability for results that you can trust.
Conclusion
SQL Server 2008 provides the technology and capabilities that organizations count on to manage the growing challenges of managing data and delivering actionable insights to users. With significant advancements in key areas, SQL Server 2008 is a trusted, productive, intelligent data platform. SQL Server 2008 is an integral part of the Microsoft Data Platform vision that is designed to meet the needs of managing and working with data today and beyond. SQL Server 2008 is a significant product release that delivers many new features and key improvements, making it the most robust and comprehensive release of SQL Server to date.
