Features Of SQL Server 2008

SQL Server 2008, the latest version of Microsoft, help users to manage and organize data in the database at any time. SQL Server 2008 is capable of storing structured, semi-structured, and unstructured documents directly within the database. SQL server 2008 has many outstanding features that enable the users to fire query, search for any data, or synchronize and analyze the database. SQL server 2008 provides highest level of security, reliability, manageability and security of the database, which is very important for any organization's development. Some features of SQL Server 2008 are as follows:

• Server Consolidation:SQL Server 2008 reduces the hardware and maintenance cost by providing flexible server consolidation feature.



• Data Warehousing: SQL Server 2008 provides a reliable, fast, comprehensive, and scalable data warehousing feature that helps small as well as large organizations to integrate data into data warehouse, so that growing volumes of data and users could be analyzed.



• Virtualization And Server Consolidation:Server virtualization, also known as Hardware Virtualization, is used to transform hardware into software. It also enables multiple operating systems to run on a single machine as a virtual machine (VMs).With the help of Hardware Virtualization, workload of underutilized server machines could be consolidated into smaller number of machines. This reduces cost and provides flexible infrastructure.



• High Availability:SQL Server 2008 provides database application with Always-On Capabilities, while minimizing management and performance overload. The availability of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 databases is improved and modified by enhancements to database mirroring. Database mirroring enables the creation of hot standby servers that provide rapid failover support with no loss of data from committed transactions.



• Data Replication: Replication is a set of technologies for copying and distributing data and database objects from one database to another, and then synchronizing between database to maintain consistency. SQL Server 2008 uses data replication to provide local copies of data in the organization. It uses new Visual Designer Features to implement and manage peer-to-peer replication process. By using replication users can distribute data to various locations by means of local and wide area network, dial-up connections, wireless connections, and the internet.



• Security: Security of database is very necessary because it is important for the development and progress of any organization. SQL Server 2008 uses comprehensive and reliable data auditing to monitor all the transactions of the data present in the database and servers. It also authenticates database users and enforces password policy. Encryption of data is done through Transport Data Encryption mechanism.



• Scalability: Data in the database is not fixed. New data could be added and existing data could be modified or deleted. SQL Server 2008 helps the user to grow their applications according to the business needs. For this purpose it has data centric solutions that target any workload from smallest device to largest device.



• SQL Server Studios: SQL Server 2008 contains "studio" to help the users in development and management of the database. There are two types of studios. One is SQL Server Management Studio and another is Business Intelligence Development Studio.
  
  In Management Studio user can perform following tasks:
  
  
  • develop and manage SQL Server Database Engine and notification solutions.
  
  
  • manage developed Analysis Service Solutions.
  
  
  • manage and run Integration Services Packages.
  
  
  • manage report servers and Reporting Services Reports and report models.
  
  In Business Intelligence Development Studio user can perform following tasks:
  
  
  • Business Intelligence Solutions using Analysis Service Projects to develop dimensions and mining structures.
  
  
  • Reporting Service Projects to create reports.
  
  
  • Report Model Projects to define models for report.
  
  
  • Integration Service Projects to create Packages.
  
  


• SQL Server Profile: SQL Server 2008 contains SQL Server Profiler Tool that is used for capturing SQL Server events from a Server. This profiler tool is very efficient in diagnosing a problem because the events captured by the profiler are saved in a trace file that can be analyzed or used to replay series of steps and trace out the problem.



• SQL Server Configuration Manager: SQL Server Configuration Manager is a tool to manage the services associated with the SQL Server. It is used to analyze and configure the network protocols used by SQL Server and to manage network connectivity configuration from SQL Server client computers.



• Database Engine Tuning Advisor: It is a tool which help users to work on views and partitions. View is an important feature of SQL with the help of which different users of same database can see different views of its structure and content. This feature allows users to deal with only those part of the database with which they are actually concerned. With the help of Database Engine Tuning Advisor users are least concerned about the internals of SQL Server. This help them to concentrate on "what to do" and not on "how to do".



• Command Prompt Utilities: SQL Server 2008 has many Command Prompt Utilities some of them are as follows:
  
  
  • bcp utility: It is used to copy data between an instance of Microsoft SQL Server and Data File in a user specified format.
    
  
  
  • dta utility: It is used to analyze workload and server performance.
    
  
  
  • dtexec utility: It is used to analyze and execute Integration Service Packages.
  
  
  
  • dtutil utility: It is used to manage SSIS Packages.
  
  
  
  • osql utility: It allow users to enter Transact SQL statements and procedure at command prompt.
  
  
  
  • SQLdiag utility: It is used to collect diagnostic information for Microsoft Consumer Services And Support.
  
  



• SQL Server Service Broker: Service Broker helps user to build secure, reliable, and scalable database applications. This is a new Database Engine Technology that provides a message-based communication platform. This platform enables independent applications to function as a whole. Service Broker includes infrastructure for asynchronous programming that can be used either for single database or for distributed applications.

New Top Features Of SQL Server 2008:

SQL Server2008 introduces new features and enhancements designed to increase the capability, power, and productivity of users, administrators, and developers. Some new top features are as follows:

• Policy Based Management: It enables management of multiple SQL Server instances from a single location. Create policy that controls security, database options, and other settings. This feature also prevents users from making undesirable changes on the server.
  


• Performance Data Collector: Data Collector provides an easy way to collect, store, and view performances of data automatically. It collects disk usage, server activity, and loads it in a management data warehouse. This enables the users to review the performance of disk and server in SQL Server Management Studio.



• Data Compression: Data compression reduces the amount of storage space needed to store tables and indexes, which enable more efficient storage of data.



• Streamlined Installation: SQL Server Installation has been streamlined to make it easier and more efficient. SQL Server components such as Analysis Services, Database Services, or Integration Services could be used for installation.



• Backup Compression: It enables the compression of the backup of the database without compressing the database itself.

SQL Server with the help of its unique features has the capability to create and deploy data driven solutions quickly. These features will bring a broad set of new features and modifications to the existing features that will improve life of database administrators, database developers and database users. Ultimately, it will offer much improved performances and scalability for today's ever demanding databases. Thus, SQL Server 2008 reduces time and cost of management/development of applications.