Mass SQL Server 2000 -> 2008 Upgrades to come

[Tony Bain]

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Despite Microsoft’s considerable investment in SQL Server 2005 if never captured the strong market momentum that SQL Server 2000 did.* The problem, essentially it was a victim of its own previous success.* SQL Server 2005 for all its merits was not significantly compelling enough, in a lot of cases, to motivate organizations to upgrade existing installations.* New database applications installations*used 2005, which has seen SQL Server 2005 steadily grow its install base.* But here we are 4 years after release and most production databases still remain on SQL Server 2000 (fast approaching its 10 year aniversary).* My own data shows the breakdown as follows:

Production SQL Server Installs

• 54% - SQL Server 2000
• 45% - SQL Server 2005
• 1% - SQL Server 2008

Those SQL Server 2000 installations are now quickly reaching end of life.* Their hardware is out of date (32bit), and the database platform is now out of date.* Upgrades are becoming a forced requirement.* SQL Server 2005 will now be skipped with upgrades going straight to SQL Server 2008.*

With millions of production SQL Server 2000 installations still in existence, I see a strong period of growth for those making tools that assist with the upgrade or consolidation of SQL Server databases.*









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