|
What Is SQL Server 2005? SQL Server 2005 is a comprehensive database software platform providing enterprise-class data management and integrated business intelligence (BI) tools. The SQL Server 2005 database engine provides more secure, reliable storage for a relational database format or XML. By supporting both a relational database format and XML, the SQL Server 2005 database engine provides the flexibility necessary to support the way you work. It also enables you to build and manage highly available, well-performing database software applications that you and your people can use to take your business to the next level. The SQL Server 2005 data engine lies at the core of this enterprise data management solution. In addition to providing support for relational databases or XML, SQL Server 2005 combines the best in analysis, reporting, integration, and notification. This enables your team to build and deploy cost-effective BI solutions with which they can drive data into every corner of your business through scorecards, dashboards, Web services, and mobile devices. Close integration with Microsoft Visual Studio, the Microsoft Office System, and a suite of new development tools, including the Business Intelligence Development Studio, sets SQL Server 2005 apart. Whether you are a developer, database administrator, information worker, or decision maker, SQL Server 2005 provides innovative solutions that help you gain more value from your data—whether stored in a relational database or XML data format. Microsoft has listened to your feedback, researched the industry, challenged Microsoft Research teams around the world, and thought creatively to deliver SQL Server 2005, which introduces hundreds of new and improved features, including support for relational databases and XML. These features will help to advance your business in three key areas: | • | Enterprise Data Management. SQL Server 2005 delivers a more reliable, secure, and productive data platform for line-of-business and analytical applications. This version of SQL Server is the largest version of SQL Server ever, as well as the most dependable and secure version. And by providing support for relational databases and XML, SQL Server 2005 can accommodate your organisation’s needs. | | • | Developer Productivity. SQL Server 2005 provides an end-to-end development environment that includes many new technologies that empower developers and significantly increase their productivity. | | • | Business Intelligence. The comprehensive analytical, integration, and data migration capabilities of SQL Server 2005 enable companies to extend the value of their existing applications, regardless of the underlying platform. BI solutions built on SQL Server 2005 put critical, timely information in the hands of all your people, empowering them to make better decisions faster. |
SQL Server 2005 Overview Your organisation today faces numerous data challenges. You need your people to make faster and more data-driven decisions, your developers to be more productive and flexible, and your managers to reduce their overall information technology (IT) budgets even as they scale your infrastructure to meet ever-increasing demands. SQL Server 2005 is designed to help enterprises address these challenges. This next-generation database management and analysis solution delivers increased security, scalability, and availability to enterprise data and analytical applications, while making them easier to build, deploy, and manage. Extending the strengths of SQL Server 2000, SQL Server 2005 provides an integrated database management and analysis solution that can help your staff do the following: Build, deploy, and manage enterprise applications that are more secure, scalable, and reliable. Maximise IT productivity by reducing the complexity of developing and supporting database applications. Share data across multiple platforms, applications, and devices to make it easier to connect internal and external systems. Control costs without sacrificing performance, availability, scalability, or security.
SQL Server 2005 advances your data infrastructure in three key areas: it makes your enterprise data more manageable, your developers more productive, and your business intelligence (BI) more comprehensive. It also breaks new ground in affordable pricing and licensing, upgrade paths to SQL Server 2005, and the Microsoft Windows Server System. SQL Server Data Platform SQL Server is a comprehensive, integrated, end-to-end data solution that empowers your people by providing a more secure, reliable, and productive platform for enterprise data and BI applications. SQL Server 2005 delivers powerful, familiar tools to IT professionals as well as to information workers, reducing the complexity of creating, deploying, managing, and using enterprise data and analytical applications on platforms ranging from mobile devices to enterprise data systems. Through a comprehensive feature set, interoperability with existing systems, and automation of routine tasks, SQL Server 2005 provides a complete data solution for enterprises of all sizes. Figure 1 shows the layout of the SQL Server 2005 data platform. 
Figure 1: Layout of the SQL Server 2005 Data Platform The SQL Server data platform includes the following tools: | • | Relational Database. A more secure, reliable, scalable, highly available relational database engine with improved performance and support for structured and unstructured (XML) data. | | • | Replication Services. Data replication for distributed or mobile data processing applications, high systems availability, scalable concurrency with secondary data stores for enterprise reporting solutions, and integration with heterogeneous systems, including existing Oracle databases. | | • | Notification Services. Advanced notification capabilities for the development and deployment of scalable applications that can deliver personalised, timely information updates to a variety of connected and mobile devices. | | • | Integration Services. Data extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) capabilities for data warehousing and enterprise-wide data integration. | | • | Analysis Services. Online analytical processing (OLAP) capabilities for the rapid and sophisticated analysis of large and complex datasets using multidimensional storage. | | • | Reporting Services. A comprehensive solution for creating, managing, and delivering both traditional, paper-oriented reports and interactive, Web-based reports. | | • | Management Tools. SQL Server includes integrated management tools for advanced database management and tuning as well as tight integration with tools such as Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) and Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS). Standard data access protocols drastically reduce the time it takes to integrate data in SQL Server with existing systems. In addition, native Web service support is built into SQL Server to ensure interoperability with other applications and platforms. | | • | Development Tools. SQL Server offers integrated development tools for the database engine, data extraction, transformation, and loading, data mining, OLAP, and reporting that are tightly integrated with Microsoft Visual Studio to provide end-to-end application development capabilities. Every major subsystem in SQL Server ships with its own object model and set of application program interfaces (APIs) to extend the data system in any direction that is unique to your business. |
The SQL Server 2005 data platform provides organizations of all sizes with the following benefits: | • | Capitalise on Data Assets. In addition to delivering a secure, reliable database for line-of-business and analytical applications, SQL Server 2005 enables your people to get more value from their data by including embedded functionality such as reporting, analysis, and data mining. You can take advantage of this power and flexibility to deliver data to every corner of your organisation at a fraction of the cost of some other systems. | | • | Increase Productivity. Through comprehensive BI capabilities and integration with familiar tools such as Microsoft Office System, SQL Server 2005 delivers timely business information to those who need it and tailors it to their specific needs. The goal is to extend BI to your entire staff and ultimately to help everyone, at all levels of the organisation, make better business decisions based on one of their most valuable assets—their data. | | • | Reduce IT Complexity. SQL Server 2005 simplifies the development, deployment, and management of line-of-business and analytical applications by providing a flexible development environment for developers and integrated, automated management tools for database administrators. | | • | Lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). The integrated approach and focus on ease of use and deployment in SQL Server 2005 provides the industry's lowest upfront, implementation, and maintenance costs for rapid return on your database investment. |
SQL Server 2005 provides the technology and capabilities that your people can count on. With significant advancements in the key areas of enterprise data management, developer productivity, and BI, the benefits of upgrading or migrating to SQL Server 2005 are substantial. SQL Server 2005 has the potential to take your business to the next level—we encourage you to try it for yourself.
|
