SQL Server 2008 R2 November CTP Now Available on MSDN
Among the announcements at TechEd Europe today was the public availability of SQL Server 2008 R2.
MSDN and TechNet Subscribers can download the SQL Server 2008 R2 November CTP today. Non-subscribers will be able to download the November CTP later this month.
The R2 release brings significant new capabilities and enhancements that can help your business keep pace with today’s growing and changing data management needs. Increase productivity and reduce data management costs by taking advantage of an even more scalable platform with comprehensive database and application management tools. SQL Server 2008 R2 helps users to build rich analysis and reports and helps organizations improve the quality of their data.
Trusted Data Platform. Supporting data consistency across heterogeneous systems through SQL Server Master Data Services, enabling high-scale complex event-stream processing through SQL Server StreamInsight, and supporting scale-up scenarios for the largest available x64 and Itanium hardware (up to 256 logical processors).
IT & Developer Efficiency. Enabling administrators to centrally monitor and manage multiple database applications, instances or servers, accelerating the development and deployment of applications and providing improved support for virtualization through Hyper-V with Live Migration in Windows Server 2008 R2.
Managed Self-Service BI. Expanding powerful BI tools to all users with SQL Server PowerPivot for Excel and empowering a new class of business users to build and share powerful BI solutions with little or no IT support, while still enabling IT to monitor and manage user-generated BI solutions.
Find out more, download the Community Technology Preview pre-release and let us know what you think. Also, join the SQL Server communities around the world and the SQL Server development team in the conversation.
The community technology preview for SQL Server 2008 R2 will be available for download publicly at http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/R2.aspx.
Bruce D. Kyle
ISV Architect Evangelist | Microsoft Corporation
