SQL Server Updated for Developers

SQL Server 2008 delivers new query language features and data types for processing maps and other geometric data, as well as other new server-side programming features that could speed development of data warehousing and content management applications. The new features will also benefit the many Microsoft applications and online services (such as SharePoint Server and Virtual Earth) built on SQL Server. However, a major SQL Server component, Notification Services, has been taken out of the latest version, and some minor changes might trip up applications written for earlier versions.

SQL Server 2008 can benefit from a number of new data access features delivered in Visual Studio 2008 SP1 and the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1. These include the ADO.NET Entity Framework (which automatically generates data access code) and ADO.NET Data Services (which makes databases and other data sources available as blog-like Web feeds). Although some Microsoft product literature lists these technologies as new server-side programming features of SQL Server 2008, they do not require SQL Server 2008 and can work with older versions of SQL Server as well as with other database management systems.