Microsoft Releases SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 1
Broad Customer Momentum and Feedback Advances Vision of Your Data, Any Place, Any Time
REDMOND, Wash., April 19 / Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) today announced the availability of Microsoft® SQL Server(TM) 2005 Service Pack 1 (SP1), the product's first major milestone since the launch of SQL Server 2005 only a few months ago. The release follows the remarkable reception, momentum and feedback offered by customers and partners in 92 countries. This has informed and accelerated Microsoft's multiyear vision of Your Data, Any Place, Any Time. Microsoft SQL Server 2005 SP1 includes production-ready Database Mirroring functionality and the new SQL Server Management Studio Express, along with additional updates to SQL Server 2005 Express Edition targeted at users such as independent software vendors (ISVs) wanting to take advantage of greater functionality.
"It has been very gratifying to see the level of excitement, engagement and rapid adoption of SQL Server 2005 by our customers and partners," said Paul Flessner, senior vice president of the Data and Storage Platform Division at Microsoft. "Along with enabling us to deliver SP1 quickly, the large volume of feedback we've received has been key in helping us formulate a compelling vision for the next decade of data management. The increasing mobility of work forces and the explosion of data on devices and rich clients, along with the opportunities offered by economic efficiencies in storage, drive the need for a new generation of data platform. The notion of Your Data, Any Place, Any Time embodies our multirelease vision for SQL Server to meet the current and future needs of customers."
SP1 Helps to Deliver on Your Data, Any Place, Any Time
Microsoft's comprehensive data vision supports the next generation of dynamic data-driven applications and extends the storage and management of information beyond relational data to support the growing range of digital data types. Core areas of investment that will be rolled out in an anticipated schedule of one release approximately every 24 to 36 months include continuous availability and automation for the world's most demanding mission-critical applications, dynamic applications for the highest developer productivity when building the next generation of data-driven applications, and end-to-end business insight for better business decisions.
SP1 delivers on this vision in the following ways:
o SP1 delivers production-ready Database Mirroring functionality for
continuous availability. This complements the existing Always On
Technologies in SQL Server 2005 such as failover clustering, database
snapshots, snapshot isolation and log shipping. Since launch, Database
Mirroring has been extensively tested by Microsoft and its thriving
customer community to help ensure that it provides the high
availability necessary for the largest customer deployments. Today more
than 20 SQL Server customers have deployed Database Mirroring into
production.
"Due to the nature of our shipping business, we needed a system that could support us around the clock, and that means high availability," said Fabio Catassi, chief technology officer of Mediterranean Shipping Co. "Since SQL Server 2005's launch, we've been involved with the Database Mirroring testing, and we are so confident in the feature that we've already deployed it into our production. We have a large global company and need a reliable, scalable solution, and SQL Server 2005 delivers that for us."
o SP1 extends business insight to smaller-scale customers and ISVs using
the free SQL Server 2005 Express Edition, which includes SQL Server
Reporting Services (SSRS) functionality, Full Text Search and the newly
released SQL Server Management Studio Express. This optional set of
capabilities is already receiving positive feedback from Microsoft's
ISV partners.
"By leveraging SQL Server 2005 Express Edition as the enabling technology for our Pivotal Mobile CRM application, we can provide our customers with complete access to their critical functionality and data," said Eric Musser, chief technology officer and executive vice president of corporate strategy at Pivotal Corp. "SQL Server 2005 Express Edition delivers optimal performance to our customers, and they benefit from its ease of administration."
o SP1 also advances dynamic applications with the new SQL Server
Management Studio Express, a simplified graphical management
environment for SQL Server Express Edition. This tool builds on
Microsoft's commitment to extending the breadth of the SQL Server
family to support all the data storage needs of Microsoft's customers.
It also complements the recently announced SQL Server Everywhere
Edition, a lightweight and rich subset of capabilities found in other
SQL Server editions, targeted for application embedded storage on
clients. SQL Server Everywhere Edition is targeted to be available as a
Community Technology Preview (CTP) this summer and released by year
end.
o For end-to-end business insight, SP1 extends SSRS to support enterprise
reporting on SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence with two new
components in SP1: a Microsoft .NET Data provider for SAP NetWeaver
Business Intelligence and a new MDX Query Designer. This new
functionality extends the benefits of enterprise reporting with SQL
Server by enabling SAP customers to easily create and manage reports on
information inside any SAP BW data warehouse.
More information from Flessner about Microsoft's Your Data, Any Place, Any Time vision is available at http://microsoft.com/sql/letter.mspx.
About SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server, part of Windows Server System(TM), is the complete database and analysis offering for rapidly delivering the next generation of scalable e-commerce, line-of-business and business intelligence solutions. It dramatically reduces the time required to bring these applications to market while offering the scalability needed for the most demanding environments. More information on Microsoft SQL Server can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/sql.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
Source: Microsoft Corp.
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