Shameless plug   Migrating to SQL Server 2005

SQL Server 2005’s release is just a few months away.

If your not excited about it, you’re either don’t care about SQL Server technology, you’re still on SQL Server 6.5, or your in one of those jobs where you’re working 20 hour days and don’t see how you’ll ever find time to learn about the new server(I empathize with you).

Software has gotten boring lately.   Back in the days when Windows 95 first came out, there were soooo many new software packages being delivered that were really cool, or really made a difference.   I think SQL Server 2005 is in the “cool“ software category..

Here’s some things that I’m personally interested in.

• A new Enterprise Manager with Intellisense.. Yippeeee… (SQL Server Workbench).
• A new way of inserting business logic into the database (Procs / Managed code with DotNet languages) (DBA’s beware)
• A completely new DTS implementation (Lets hope it’s more developer friendly than the old one)
• New Views for system objects, new ways to partition objects.
• SQL Stuff – Recursive queries (Finally!!!), Pivot functionality and Synonyms
• New DataTypes varchar(max) and XML (as a datatype)
• New Analysis Services with native XML/A.. (will anyone ever really adopt this as a standard?)

So if you already are thinking about moving towards SQL Server 2005 and want some migration advice, or just want to hear from some folks that have been working with this platform for some time, consider signing up for the Migrating to SQL Server 2005 Road Show. This is put on by SQL Server Magazine, so you know it’s from someone that’s focused on the platform you love!