Brad M McGehee » SQL Server News

Give SQL Server 2008 R2 CTP a Quick Try for Free

bradmcgehee — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:01:12 +0000

You have probably heard that the SQL Server 2008 R2 CTP is available, but you may not have given it a try yet because it is such a pain to download the huge install file, find a test server to run it on, and then install it. Under the best of conditions, this is at least a 3 hour job.

Now, if you want to check out the new features of SQL Server 2008 R2 (the August 2009 CTP), you can without going through all this hassle. Instead, you can go to www.sqlserverbeta.com, create a virtual instance of the software, and try it out, all for free.

All you have to do is fill out a short registration form, and shortly thereafter, you will have your own personal instance of SQL Server 2008 R2 to play and experiment with. So now, you don’t have any excuse to learn about, and try out for yourself, all the cool new features in R2.

This offer is sponsored by PASS, Microsoft, Dell, and MaximumASP.

15-25% Off SQL Server Microsoft Certification Exams

bradmcgehee — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:31:01 +0000

Microsoft is offering from 15-25% off selected Microsoft Certification Exams. In order to receive the discount, you must register, schedule, and purchase the discounted exams by December 31, 2009. Visit here for more information.

Here are the discounts available for the SQL Server Exams:

15% Off

70-432
70-433
70-448

20% Off

70-445

25% Off

70-450
70-451
70-452
70-453
70-454
70-455
70-441
70-442
70-443
70-444
70-446
70-447

Have You Checked Out the SQL Server 2008 R2 CTP Yet?

bradmcgehee — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:18:21 +0000

Ever since the Community Technology Preview (CTP) of SQL Server 2008 R2 became widely available for download on August 12, I haven’t seen much discussion of this new version in the SQL Server media, websites, or blogs. Yes, there has been some coverage, but not to the level I would have expected for such a major announcement about SQL Server.

SQL Server 2008 R2 includes many new enhancements, a few of which include:

Enhanced set up.
Enhanced multi-server management.
The introduction of “application management”.
Support of up to 512 CPU cores.
Unicode compression of data stored in nchar(n) and nvarchar(n) columns.
Significant enhancements in Analysis Services.
Significant enhancements in Reporting Services.

So why do you think SQL Server 2008 R2 has not been talked about much? Is it because the CTP is still so new that most people haven’t had the opportunity to look at it? Maybe it is because many of you haven’t even moved to SQL Server 2008 yet, and taking the time to check out the new enhanced version of SQL Server 2008 is the last thing you have time for? Or perhaps the new features and enhancements in SQL Server 2008 R2 are either underwhelming, or perhaps they don’t meet your particular needs?

Tell us what you think. If you have downloaded, installed, and played around with the CTP of SQL Server 2008 R2, please give us your first impressions.

First published in the September 2, 2009 issue of the SQLServerCentral.com newsletter.