Application Platform

The Visual Studio tools and the .NET Framework development platform received significant updates in Apr. 2010, including significant improvements for collaborative development and revisions to the Common Language Runtime application infrastructure.

SQL Server

The SQL Server product consists of a database management system and a platform for business intelligence (BI). The BI platform includes components for extracting data from operational systems for analysis (Integration Services), online analytic processing (OLAP) and data mining (Analysis Services), and design and distribution of reports (Reporting Services). (See the illustration “SQL Server and Business Intelligence Platform Overview“.)

SQL Server 2008 shipped in Aug. 2008. It introduces a policy-based management mechanism to consistently enforce policies (such as table naming conventions) across multiple databases or database servers. The database engine enables automatic full database encryption and delivers useful new data types, including types for maps and other geometric data. A new architecture for Reporting Services consolidates the system’s components into a single service to simplify deployment and configuration, and a Report Builder feature opens report design to more business users than the previous Visual Studio report design tools. Both Integration Services and Analysis Services received performance improvements and some new features, including a new programming environment for Integration Services that supports the C# language and improved designers and wizards in Analysis Services for cube design. However, SQL Server 2008 dropped Notification Services, a SQL Server 2005 feature that enables applications to notify users or other applications of database changes by e-mail, IM, or other means. The latest service pack is SP1, delivered Apr. 2009. SP2 is planned for the third quarter of 2010; a preview became available in July 2010.