Infomet is running a series of readiness workshops on SQL Server 2005 in order to help managers, architects, developers and DBAs to understand the real changes that SQL Server 2005 will bring. For contact information, go to www.infomet.com
What does Infomet say about SQL Server 2005?
SQL Server 2005 is due to be released at the beginning of November 2005 and is a much anticipated release for Microsoft development shops. In addition to SQL Server 2005, Microsoft is launching Visual Studio 2005 and Biztalk Server 2006 at the same time meaning that a significant portion of Microsoft`s software development environment and architecture will hit the streets at the same time.
Just as significant is the current availability of the first public SQL Server 2005 Community Technology Previews (CTPs), allowing those who are interested in SQL Server 2005 to download the release, without all of the hassle of being on a beta programme. With a fixed release date and something you can currently review, SQL Server projects that are planned or underway must be assessed if November 2005 is within your project window.
After a five year wait one would expect something significant out of SQL Server 2005 and Microsoft has certainly done that. New features and enhancements are extensive with enough changes to the database engine and core functionality to warrant a closer look. Fancy functionality, tools, utilities and wizards will have an influence on development projects and over time will be taken up by developers, architects and DBAs until they become the de facto way of delivering solutions based on SQL Server 2005.
What is important to consider right now is not the flashy new features, but rather what features and enhancements will affect the way we are architecting and implementing our current applications based on SQL Server. There are significant changes that will mean that our application architectures will change, our development standards and approaches will change, our resources will need to be trained, some code will be totally reworked and ultimately our project plans and delivery dates will be affected. With wide ranging impacts on what we have to deliver it would be foolish not to consider the impact that the pending release will have on our projects.
The detail on new features and enhancements is readily available and will no doubt be extensively covered by Microsoft during and after their product launch but certain changes (although they may seem small) will have an influence on planned and currently active SQL Server projects; some, listed below, I believe need to be considered:
* Net Integration: Much is going to be said about the .Net Framework CLR (COMMON Language Runtime) being hosted in the database engine whereby functions, stored procedures etc. can be written in .Net. While this does have some benefits I expect that traditional Transact-SQL will still be favoured for most database functionality due to performance considerations; however, the use of .Net components within SSIS (SQL Server Integration Services) could add a lot of flexibility when developing ETL applications.
* Transact SQL Error Handling: The addition of try-catch constructs to T-SQL is a long overdue enhancement that provides T-SQL with some maturity as a programming language. Every stored procedure will need to be re-written to take advantage of this important enhancement.
* SQL Server Integration Services: SSIS is a complete rework of DTS (Data Transformation Services) and offers a sophisticated environment for developing applications that need to Extract, Transform and Load data (ETL). Development projects where ETL functionality was previously hand-coded in external applications or T-SQL can now be developed using a completely different environment. Since many projects do ETL data, architects and project managers will need to understand the suitability of SSIS for their projects and how it will affect their implementations.
* Service Broker: The new Service Broker is basically a message queue based mechanism embedded within SQL Server 2005. While this may seem to be trivial functionality, it could have an impact in terms of the overall application architecture; as the existing Microsoft approach to message queues is to develop using .Net components and MS Message Queue, where the components themselves interface with the database. The Service Broker places queues much closer to the data itself, requiring a re-think of the architecture on some projects.
* Database Mirroring: Many manageability and availability enhancements exist in SQL Server 2005 and functionality such as database mirroring will affect the hardware choices and the deployment of databases.
The Microsoft approach and architecture is going to change with the release of SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005; and architects, decision-makers and planners need to use the preview and available documentation to understand the impact that this will have on their projects as soon as possible.
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