As always, a big differentiator for Microsoft is price. At $24,999 per processor, the 2008 version costs the same as 2005 and significantly less than comparable versions from Oracle or IBM. Plus, learning its lesson from 2005, Microsoft promises an improved upgrade experience, something your customers will not only welcome, but require.
Now that your customers finally have SQL Server 2005 in place and running smoothly, Microsoft is launching the next version of its venerable database: SQL Server 2008. ¡ But don't worry. There are some major improvements in the 2008 version that make an upgrade a no-brainer in several situations. For example, unlike similar offerings from competitors Oracle Corp. and IBM Corp., Microsoft's database comes with integrated business intelligence (BI) functionality, along with new support for spatial, location-based data -- all at no additional cost. And the new data types, in addition to new management and visualization tools, promise to kick-start a wealth of new applications for your customers -- and new services for you. ¡ The spatial tools open up a lot of opportunities for us," says Alex Machinis, CEO of SpatialPoint LLC, a Certified Partner in Des Plaines, Ill., that specializes in Microsoft MapPoint and Virtual Earth solutions. "This is a major release because they're providing the capabilities to store spatial data in the system and query it." Machinis says 2008's spatial-data support enables his developers to store and query parcel data for real estate, environmental data, economic zones and even wireless coverage areas, among others. He says using the new version's capabilities is like working with a database that didn't support dates, but suddenly gains that ability. "All of a sudden, a lot more people can use it," he says. "We're storing that coverage data inside SQL Server 2008, gaining the security and ease of use, and that's something we couldn't do before."
Source: rcpmag.com/features/article.aspx?editorialsid=2447
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