New Enterprise Features for Database Engine

New policy-based management features in SQL Server 2008 will help organizations manage settings and configurations across multiple database servers, and a new resource governor lets administrators control how SQL Server assigns computer resources to workloads. The features could particularly benefit organizations with large, complex SQL Server deployments, such as those offering hosted software services, and could help Microsoft gain on enterprise database competitors IBM and Oracle. However, some of the most interesting features are available only in SQL Server Enterprise Edition and others are limited—for example, the new resource governor cannot manage workloads in SQL Server’s business intelligence (BI) features.

Continued Focus on Large Organizations

SQL Server 2008 continues a trend started with the release of SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition by adding important features aimed at the enterprise database market. Among other benefits, SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition helps administrators manage large SQL Server installations and better control SQL Server workloads on busy servers.