On the last day of July, Microsoft produced offered to testers a new Neighborhood Technology Preview (CTP) develop of its SQL Server 2008 database, code-named “Katmai.”The July CTP develop comes one month after the June CTP. Microsoft is expected to test SQL Server 2008 primarily, if not exclusively, via CTPs, which are not full-fledged beta builds,
Windows 7 Key, but more like interim updates.Microsoft has been talking about SQL Server 2008 features by categorizing them in a handful of buckets: “Pervasive insight,
Office 2010,” “dynamic development,” “enterprise data platform” and “beyond relational.” On the Microsoft Connect site,
Office 2010, there;s a great slide listing specific SQL Server 2008 features that Microsoft introduced in the June CTP and what it added into the July CTP. What;s new in the July CTP create? Enterprise reporting engineAnalysis service time seriesT-SQL improvementsPerformance Data CollectionExtended EventsDatabase mirroring enhancementsORDPATH hierarchical labeling schemeLarge user-defined typesDATE/TIME data typeImproved XML support Microsoft is aiming to release to manufacturing the final SQL Server 2008 code in the second quarter of 2008. The company is going to launch officially the product before it RTMs — on February 27, 2008 — as part of the Windows Server 2008,
Office 2007 Professional, Visual Studio 2008,
Office 2007 Professional, SQL Server 2008 mega-launch.(Thanks to WinBeta.org for the heads up about the new CTP.)