Compression: Whats the difference between SQL2005 and SQL2008?

Interesting Finds: November 7, 2007

Jason Haley — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 18:25:01 GMT

re: Compression: Whats the difference between SQL2005 and SQL2008?

Bob — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 22:11:00 GMT

Compressed backups is our number one need and even having a very very basic level of backup compression is a big plus.

re: Compression: Whats the difference between SQL2005 and SQL2008?

Neil — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 04:49:56 GMT

Just tried out backup compression on CTP 6, and it's awesome. Averages about 80% compression across our databases. I wonder where this leaves products like Lightspeed, which we were planning to buy for all our core production servers (but hard to justify now!).

re: Compression: Whats the difference between SQL2005 and SQL2008?

Bob — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 18:59:09 GMT

Compressed backups is a good thing since relying on third party tools for compressed backups increases the ongoing cost of ownership and more importantly adds risk that you won't be able to retrieve your backed up data (e.g., the third party backup tool company goes out of business or no longer sells the product).

The second one is more worrisome to us given that small software companies (i.e., many of the SQL Server tool vendors) tend to last only a few years before closing down, stopping product support or making platform upgrades too costly, or taking years to support a new OS or database server.

re: Compression: Whats the difference between SQL2005 and SQL2008?

Bob — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 23:33:09 GMT

We want to drop, as much as possible, any third party tools for our servers and stick with core MS products to lower costs, increase reliability and lower ongoing maintenance/upgrade effort needed.