The SQL Server team has shipped the November CTP for SQL Server 2008. Of all the upcoming Microsoft releases (Visual Studio, Vista SP1, Longhorn, etc) I am most interested in this one. I think the SQL Server team does a good job delivering solid functional products.
SQL Server 2008 Download and Details
As you may already know, SQL Server 2008 runs on: Longhorn (Windows Code Name) , Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2, Windows Vista, and Windows XP Service Pack 2.
Here are some things that are new in this CTP
- Data Collection and Performance Warehouse for Relational Engine
- Service Broker Enhancements
- Registered Servers Enhancements
- Synchronous net-changes change tracking for SQL Server
- T-SQL IntelliSense
- Declarative Management Framework (DMF) Enhancements
- Geo-spatial Support
- Analysis Services Query and Writeback Performance
- Robust Report Server Platform
- Integration Services – Lookup Enhancements
- Analysis Services MDX Query Optimizer – Block Computation
- Analysis Services Aggregation Design
- Analysis Services Cube Design
- Reporting Services Scale Engine
- Transparent Data Encryption
- Resource Governor – Limit Specification
- Backup Compression
- Plan Freezing
- Fully Parallel Plans Scale on Partitioned Tables
For excellent info on SQL Server 2008 be sure to check out Dan’s Blog
