Technical features of Microsoft's next generation SQL Server

Last week, at a business briefing at Microsoft, the company made a conservative disclosure of its next "Katmai" SQL Server data platform.

At the meeting, Microsoft did not make the "Katmai" clean, but always playing hard to get, the release date and its specific characteristics of the evasive. Only say that the time is 2008, and will be the platform of the new characteristics of in-depth interpretation.

Microsoft will also announce the technology that was acquired last year from a company named SoftArtisans. This technology is applied to a product called OfficeWriter, which converts data from SQL Server databases into Exel and Word files, and enables users to write and view reports using such programs. OfficeWriter will be directly merged into Katmai. "Our goal is to provide a wide range of data to end users," said Ted Kummert, vice-president of Microsoft's data-storage platform.

Microsoft has increased support for more data types, including intangible data such as archival and imaging data, several new date and time data, and a "space" data type that can be used for site application software, Katmai.

A new management feature highlighted by Kunnert is a "breakthrough management architecture" that will make it easier for users to write new programs for data in the SQL Server database. For example, this feature will allow the user to write a program that guarantees that each data in the data column containing the credit card number is encrypted. On the basis of similar workloads, this feature can also write programs for the server.

The next SQL Server contains the Entity data platform, which is called the ADO network entity structure. The platform eliminates the need for developers to deal with the raw data in a related table, making it easy to deal with the data at the physical level, and to instantly define the information and data of the object, such as a customer or product entity, across multiple tables. The product can also support language-consolidated queries, or LINQ, which simplifies the process needed to develop this query database.

Another important feature of Katmai is the increased efficiency of SQL Server data storage. The Katmai has higher testability through a variety of condensed properties. Katmai has a higher search capability in the context of large data storage and a feature of "resource managers" that allocates resources from a database to specific users and workflows. "This is a huge area of our investment," Kummert said.

Kunnert further illustrates that SQL will become part of Microsoft's software and services strategy.