SQL Server 'Denali' to Simplify Application Deployment

Data-tier Applications (DACs), originally delivered in SQL Server 2008 R2, provide a management framework for deploying databases and database-side application code, thereby reducing deployment complexity and providing version control for upgrades and migrations. The upcoming SQL Server “Denali” will deliver a new version, Data-tier Applications 2.0 (DAC 2.0), with improvements such as data export. Due to limitations in the database types supported, DAC 2.0 may still not be appropriate for all databases, but it might work well for deploying applications to SQL Azure Database, Microsoft’s hosting service for SQL Server databases.

Deploying and Managing Database Applications

DACs provide a self-contained package format with versioning, which is designed to meet the needs of SQL Server database applications. (A more-intuitive acronym for Data-tier Applications, DTA, was not used because it refers to SQL Server’s Data Engine Tuning Advisor.)

A DAC can best be described as both a database container and the packaging method used to describe that container for deployment or updating. A DAC package contains the database schema definition needed to create a single new database on a SQL Server or upgrade an existing database in place. Developers and administrators create and deploy DAC packages with Visual Studio (VS) and the SQL Server Management Studio development environment.