What's new in Microsoft SQL 2005?
The following article details a few of the new features and improvements introduced in Microsoft SQL 2005. Please be aware that some features and improvements mentioned may only be available with a dedicated hosting solution. If you have any questions, please contact us.
Manageability
SQL Server 2005 makes it simpler and easier to deploy, manage, and optimize enterprise data and analytical applications. As an enterprise data management platform, it provides a single management console that enables data administrators anywhere in your organization to monitor, manage, and tune all of the databases and associated services across your enterprise. It provides an extensible management infrastructure that can be easily programmed using SQL Management Objects, enabling users to customize and extend their management environment and independent software vendors (ISVs) to build additional tools and functionality to further extend the capabilities that come out of the box.
SQL Server Management Studio
SQL Server Management Studio is a new authoring and management tool for database administrators and developers. It combines the functionality of Enterprise Manager, Query Analyzer, and Analysis Manager, and also allows management and authoring for SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services (SSRS), SQL Server 2005 Integration Services (SSIS), SQL Server 2005 Notification Services, SQL Server 2005 Mobile Edition, replication, and previous versions of Microsoft SQL Server, all through the same interface.
Enhanced Query Authoring
SQL Server 2005 introduces Query Editor, a component of SQL Server Management Studio and the primary tool for authoring Transact-SQL scripts and executing statements against SQL Server and SQL Server 2005 Mobile Edition. Query Editor also allows you to write and execute Analysis Server scripts such as multidimensional expressions (MDX), data mining expressions (DMX) and XMLA. Query Editor replaces and has many enhancements over SQL Server 2005 Query Analyzer.
Security
SQL Server 2005 makes significant enhancements to the security model of the database platform, with the intention of providing more precise and flexible control to enable tighter security of the data. A considerable investment has been made in a number of features to provide a high level of security for your enterprise data including the following:
- Enforcing policies for SQL Server login passwords in the authentication space.
- Providing for more granularity in terms of specifying permissions at various scopes in the authorization space.
- Allowing for the separation of owners and schemas in the security management space.
Expanded Language Support
Because the common language runtime (CLR) is hosted in the database engine, developers can choose from a variety of familiar languages to develop database applications, including Transact-SQL, Microsoft Visual Basic .NET, and Microsoft Visual C# .NET. Additionally, CLR hosting provides developers with increased flexibility with user-defined types and functions. The CLR also provides opportunities to use non-Microsoft code for rapid database application development.
Integration Services
SQL Server 2005 includes a redesigned enterprise data extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) platform, called SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS). SSIS enables organizations to more easily integrate and analyze data from multiple heterogeneous information sources. By analyzing data across an array of operational systems, organizations may gain a competitive edge through a holistic understanding of their business.
For additional information regarding new features and improvements to Microsoft SQL Server 2005, please visit Microsoft's website.
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