Microsoft Launches SQL Server 2008 R2

Microsoft released the latest version of its SQL Server database management system to manufacturing today. The database will be available to customers in early May.

Microsoft released the final version of SQL Server 2008 Release 2 (R2) to manufacturing today.

According to Microsoft, customers can expect availability in the next few weeks through Microsoft distribution channels. The update features a number of enhancements centered on scalability, analytics, reporting and data management. More than 300,000 users downloaded the database's technology previews, the company said.

Here are the key new features highlighted by Microsoft on its SQL Server Team blog:

• PowerPivot: a managed self-service analysis solution that empowers end users to access, analyze and share data across the enterprise in an IT managed environment using Excel 2010 and SharePoint Sever 2010.
• Master Data Services: helps IT organizations centrally manage critical data assets companywide and across diverse systems, and enables more people to securely manage master data directly, and ensure the integrity of information over time.
• Application and Multi-server Management: helps organizations proactively manage database environments efficiently at scale through centralized visibility into resource utilization and streamlined consolidation and upgrade initiatives across the application lifecycle.
• Report Builder 3.0: report authoring component with support for geospatial visualization. This new release provides capabilities to further increase end user productivity with enhanced wizards, more powerful visualizations, and intuitive authoring.
• StreamInsight: a low latency complex event processing platform to help IT monitor, analyze and act on the data in motion to make more informed business decisions in near real-time.

"Customers continue to receive and create increasing amounts of data, as information impacts their business and social lives," said Ted Kummert, senior vice president of the Business Platform Division at Microsoft, in a statement. "Our goal is to help customers extract value and business insight from that information, whether it is stored locally on their PC, in a datacenter or in the cloud. Today's release of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 is a big step forward in transforming how the IT department, the software developers, and end users interact and gain insight from data."