Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2

[fgeorge]

Microsoft said it will make a preview of SQL Server 2008 R2 available this month
John Fontana (Network World) 04/11/2009 06:38:00

Microsoft said it will make a preview of SQL Server 2008 R2 available this month that is features complete, including new business intelligence integration tools and master data management features.

In addition, Microsoft said it will deliver two highly scalable editions of SQL Server 2008 R2 (formerly code-named Kilimanjaro) in the first half of 2010 when it ships the next version of the database server.

The announcements came at the annual Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) Summit. The PASS group is an independent, not-for-profit association.

Microsoft is pushing SQL Server 2008 R2 as the opening salvo in its strategy to turn the database into an "information platform." The company says the platform will integrate structured and unstructured data from a variety of sources, including SharePoint Server.

"The R2 release is a down payment on the information platform," said Fausto Ibarra, director of product management, SQL Server.

The review will include SQL Server PowerPivot for Excel 2010 (formerly Gemini), an in-memory analytics tools that will link Excel, SharePoint Server and SQL Server.

Power Pivot is the heart of what Microsoft calls managed self-service business intelligence, which lets users build BI programs for the desktop in Excel that combine data from diverse sources, process it using in-memory analytics tools and publish the results to SharePoint Server so users can collaborate around the results. In addition, IT can manage and control the BI programs users create by ensuring the proper infrastructure is available along with services such as data refresh.

"They are using and reading the meta-data from at least one other enterprise class information provider, which is SharePoint, and that is a big deal," says Mark Beyer, an analyst with Gartner. "Trying to put together text and content with the more structured stuff has been one of the challenges to getting real information management in an organization; to getting real data integration at the meta-data level."

What Microsoft is doing is significant in the aggregate because it elegantly combines data from two different sources, Beyer says.

"One of the constants I've had in my research is the pending earthquake of actually leveraging meta-data without having to import and export it from one place to another. That is where Microsoft is headed with its information management; reading through a service the meta-data in different enterprise applications that they have."

Beyer says the concept is one of data integration rather than interoperability. He says if Microsoft can create such an environment then the vendor will be one of the first to deliver such capabilities.

Also in the CTP are two new components, a master data management (MDM) platform that enables companies to integrate information from across multiple data sources in the network and create a single view of data such as customers, products or suppliers. Previously MDM was only available as a third-party add-on. The second component is StreamInsight, a complex event processing platform that lets companies or independent software vendors build applications that can process large numbers of events in real-time.

Also part of the review is Application and Multi-Server Management, which enables central IT control of database infrastructure that includes applying policy, managing performance, moving workloads and pinpointing problems. In addition, there is support for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Hyper-V.

The two highly scalable versions being offered alongside SQL Server 2008 R2 are Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Datacenter and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse (formerly code-named Madison).

Parallel Data Warehouse is a massively parallel processing technology for high-end data warehousing and is designed to scale to petabytes and support high-speed queries.

Microsoft is riding Parallel Data Warehouse into a highly competitive data warehousing battle that includes Teradata, Netezza, Oracle, HP, Sybase, Greenplum, IBM and others.

The Parallel Data Warehouse version will be offered as an appliance on hardware from Bull, Dell, HP and IBM.

The Datacenter version aligns with the Datacenter version of Windows Server 2008 R2 and is designed to support large-scale applications. The platform provides support for up to 256 logical processors and unlimited virtualization.

Microsoft also is introducing version 2.0 of its SQL Server Fast Track Data Warehouse that includes 12 new reference architectures that feature updated configurations from Bull, Dell and HP based on Intel and AMD processors. The architectures support up to 48 cores per server and up to 48 terabytes of data capacity.

IBM, which signed onto the program in February, will offer three reference configurations based on IBM's X series and Intel processors. Also, EMC will introduce Data Warehouse and BI services for Fast Track.

[admin]

PowerPivot for Excel and PowerPivot for SharePoint speed multidimensional analysis. Parallel Data Warehouse edition now set for 2010 with IBM as a hardware partner.

By Doug Henschen, Intelligent Enterprise,
November 9, 2009

In-memory analysis is clearly the big headline in the "R2" release of Microsoft SQL Server 2008, announced last week and expected in the first half of 2010. But the upgrade also promises master data management functionality, stream processing capabilities and improved datacenter administration. Current licensees will be able to sample it all in a Community Technical Preview (CTP) to be released this month. The three big themes behind the upgrades are pervasive insight, IT efficiency and dynamic development. But to dive into the details, here's a synopsis of what to expect in the next version of Microsoft SQL Server.

In-Memory Analysis

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 will support in-memory analysis with two "PowerPivot" capabilities: PowerPivot for Excel and PowerPivot for SharePoint. The first is an add-in, in-memory business intelligence (BI) engine for Excel that will enable desktop users to bring together up to millions of rows of data for rapid, multidimensional analysis.

"This is a column-organized BI engine with high compression and high scan rates that will enable Excel users to work with very large amounts of information right on their desktop," says Tom Casey, General Manager, SQL Server Business Intelligence at Microsoft. "We often demonstrate the potential by using 100 million rows of data, but more typically users will be looking at many thousands of rows of information."

Speed and data capacity are limited only by the available processing power and memory of the hardware, according to Casey. The add-in will also let users mashup data from third-party providers, Web sources, external databases and so on, as if they are working with tables within Excel. "PowerPivot can infer many of the relationships and guide you in defining the relationships that need to be defined," Casey says. "Slicers" built into Excel are said to support the rapid, in-memory filtering, aggregation and navigation capabilities supported across large volumes of data.

PowerPivot for SharePoint facilitates collaboration by letting users upload PowerPivot-driven analyses to SharePoint. Microsoft has long had integrations between SQL Server Reporting Services and SharePoint; PowerPivot for SharePoint brings the same approach to Workbooks built in PowerPivot for Excel. Instead of sharing these analyses via e-mail or USB keys, however, they are shared securely on SharePoint. IT administrators will use the SharePoint security model to secure the workbooks, and schedule and manage the refresh rates of the data from the original sources.

The drawback of these PowerPivot offerings is that they will work only with Excel 2010 and SharePoint 2010, respectively. The one crack in this restriction is that PowerPivot analyses developed in Excel 2010 and posted to SharePoint 2010 will be shareable with Excel users who don't have the latest edition of Office/Excel. In that case, "the functionality of PowerPivot analyses will also work through Excel Services in SharePoint," Casey explains. So Excel 2007 users will be able to slice, dice and navigate PowerPivot analyses.

Master Data Management

R2 will support master data management (MDM) with what Microsoft calls "Master Data Services." The focus is on analytical MDM, Microsoft says, which means it's about managing master data as used in warehouses, marts and other analytic resources -- not the harder job of managing master data as it's used in mission-critical transactional systems.

In classic Microsoft style, the emphasis here is on exposing functionality that ISVs and developers can use to create end-user applications. In other words, you don't get product MDM, customer MDM or other domain-specific MDM solutions; you get generic capabilities, including hierarchy management, metadata resolution, data viewing and data stewardship capabilities that can be used to build domain-specific apps. On the upside, you'll be able to keep multiple systems of record "synchronized, normalized and visible" across business units and functions, but the domains themselves will have to be built by either partners or direct customers.

"A bunch of our go-to-market effort will occur with partners and service providers that will build out domain-specific solutions," Casey says. "We're focused on the platform elements."

One platform element that will be differentiating, according to Casey, is end-user-ready data stewardship capabilities that will enable domain experts to fill in data hierarchies, mappings and other elements of MDM solutions using SharePoint for collaboration.

Complex Event Processing

Known variously as complex event processing (CEP), stream processing and event processing, this technology is about analyzing high volumes of fast-moving data in real time so you can detect opportunities or threats and quickly act on that information. Wall Street trading firms and intelligence agencies were among the first to exploit CEP, but it's gradually going mainstream. Uses including RFID analysis, dynamic logistics planning and adaptive manufacturing demand-and-response systems.

As with the MDM capabilities in R2, Microsoft emphasizes that the new Stream Insight capabilities are "ingredient technologies" for domain-specific applications. Casey says Microsoft will specifically exploit Stream Insight for real-time updates of data warehouses and adds that the potential for other high-throughput applications shouldn't be taken lightly.

"This is an all-new engine that is designed to operate on streams, and it will not be I/O bound," he explained, adding that it will "support processing at very high scale and with great flexibility. Where you write to or serialize to is up to the application builder." In other words, the service won't be enslaved to relational database speeds and storage paradigms.

High-Scale Deployments

Microsoft has two developments in the works that will support high-scale database deployments: SQL Server Datacenter and SQL Server 2008 Parallel Data Warehouse. The Datacenter offering is aimed at modernizing the SQL Server architecture to take advantage of up to 256 processors (four times the old limit of 64), thereby supporting mission-critical deployments.

"This is consistent with Windows Server Datacenter Edition, and it will support unlimited virtualization," Casey says.

The Datacenter edition will work hand-in-hand with upgraded R2 application- and multiserver-management capabilities that let administrators declare objects to be part of the data tier of an application and then manage, deploy, monitor, secure and otherwise administer those assets as a single unit. That should be "a big gain for IT efficiency," Casey says, particularly when looking for consistent deployment across test and production environments.

The Parallel Data Warehouse edition is based on the scale-out, massively parallel processing technology Microsoft acquired last year when it purchased DATAllegro. This is a separate product that is not included in the November CTP. This edition is in "private CTP," according to Casey, and scheduled for release in the first half of 2010.

The surprise news last week was that Microsoft has added IBM to its list of hardware partners, which previously included only HP, Dell and Bull. IBM and storage vendor EMC have been added for both the Fast Track Data Warehouse reference configurations and the coming Parallel Data Warehouse Edition. Casey says the move was made in the interest of customer choice, but both IBM and Microsoft undoubtedly have their eyes on Oracle. Oracle's pending Sun acquisition -- which will mark Oracle's entry into the hardware market and also includes the SQL Server competing MySQL open-source database -- gives both rivals good reason to work together. Microsoft will be using IBM's X series and Intel processors.

Microsoft announced last week that HP's reference configurations for SQL Server now scale up to 48 terabytes, up from 32 terabytes previously.