SQL Server 2008 Feature Complete

The fourth and final community technical preview (CTP) of SQL Server 2008 includes all features planned for the product’s final release, which has been delayed to the third quarter of 2008. Among other updates, the CTP includes enhancements that will reduce storage requirements for large databases, such as historical data warehouses, and refines the product’s policy-based management features. However, a highly promoted developer feature—support for Entity Data Modeling (EDM), which could simplify development of applications that access databases—does not yet work with SQL Server 2008’s new data types.

Compression, Prebuilt Policies, Full-Text Search

SQL Server 2008 will be the first major overhaul of Microsoft’s database management and business intelligence (BI) platform since SQL Server 2005, which shipped in Nov. 2005.

The fourth SQL Server 2008 CTP, released in Feb. 2007, is feature complete—according to Microsoft it includes all features that will appear in the final product, which is now planned for the third quarter of 2008.