Microsoft has announced details of its new Microsoft SQL
Server 2005 product line.
The updated database and analysis product will initially come in
four editions and will be heavily promoted by Dell on its hardware
platforms.
SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition will be a complete data and
analysis platform for large mission-critical business
applications.
The Standard Edition will be aimed at medium-sized
businesses.
The Workgroup Edition is branded as an “affordable, easy-to-use
and simple-to-manage” database solution for small to medium-sized
organizations.
The Express Edition will be a free, downloadable easy-to-use
version of SQL Server 2005 designed for building simple data-driven
applications.
Along with the SQL Server 2005 product line, Microsoft announced
it would immediately make available SQL Server 2000 Workgroup
Edition. This version has the same focus as SQL Server 2005
Workgroup Edition, but is based on SQL Server 2000
functionality.
Dell announced it would be the first supplier to offer Workgroup
Edition and Standard Edition for both SQL Server 2000 and SQL
Server 2005, pre-packaged with Dell PowerEdge servers.
Paul Flessner, Microsoft senior vice-president of server
applications, said, “Our goal is to make enterprise-class data
management and analysis affordable to a wide range of customers
while driving complexity out of database systems – all at a lower
total cost of ownership."
With SQL Server 2005, Microsoft said customers would be able to
take advantage of its recently announced licensing for multi-core
processors, which allows customers to license SQL Server 2005 on a
more cost-effective per-processor basis, as opposed to other
offerings that license per core.
Earlier this week Microsoft announced that a number of
third-party developers had made available user applications built
around SQL Server 2005.