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SQL Server 2008


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Learn how to create high-performance Analysis Services solutions with optimized cube designers, subspace computation, and MOLAP-enabled writeback capabilities.

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 is the foundation of Microsoft business intelligence technologies. It provides a robust, scalable, and enterprise-ready platform to enable the delivery of critical business intelligence information to workers across your entire organization.

SQL Server 2008 can help you integrate data of different types from multiple sources quickly, perform complex business analytics, and create, manage, and deliver rich reports to help your organization gain greater insight and achieve faster results.

SQL Server 2008 is optimized to help you:

  • Integrate, aggregate, and collect information from multiple heterogeneous data sources via a rich portfolio of native and non-native data source connectors.
  • Create and manage scalable, high-performance data warehouses and data marts via tried and tested relational database management system (RDBMS) and online analytical processing (OLAP) technologies.
  • Perform multi-dimensional and predictive analytics to produce business insights from aggregated information.
  • Create and deploy enterprise-class managed and ad hoc reports on heterogeneous RDBMS and OLAP data sources.
  • Empower more users through reach across multiple applications and devices and enhanced interoperability with the 2007 Microsoft Office system.

Read more about SQL Server 2008 and business intelligence


Collect, manage, and disseminate information from a single location—with a SQL Server data warehouse.

SQL Server 2008 provides a comprehensive and scalable data warehouse platform that enables organizations to integrate data into the data warehouse faster, manage growing volumes of data and users, and deliver valuable business intelligence insights to all users.

SQL Server 2008 data warehousing enhancements include improvements in:

  • Data compression
  • Backup compression
  • Partitioned table parallelism
  • Star join query optimizations
  • HW Resource management (Memory & CPU)
  • Grouping sets
  • Change data capture
  • MERGE SQL statement
  • Scalable data transformation and loading

Read more about SQL Server 2008 data warehousing

Enrich data and build complex business analytics—with SQL Server Analysis Services.

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services is an OLAP engine and data mining platform that provides a single version of truth for your reports, spreadsheets, key performance indicators (KPIs), and analytical applications. It provides a consolidated view across all business dimensions, enabling insight into the key drivers that impact your business.

Top SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services improvements include:

  • A new, streamlined Cube Designer to help you develop solutions quickly.
  • Enhanced Dimension and Aggregation Designers.
  • A new Attribute Relationship Designer to help you create attribute relationships easily.
  • Best practice design alerts.
  • Subspace computations to help you optimize performance.
  • MOLAP-enabled writeback to enable high-performance “what if” scenarios.
  • Enhanced data mining structures and Time Series support to help you find information quickly.
  • Dynamic Management Views for enhanced resource monitoring and optimization.

Read more about SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services

Write, manage, and deliver rich server-based reports—with SQL Server Reporting Services.

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services is a comprehensive, managed reporting solution that enables you to create, personalize, manage, and deliver reports from different data sources. Whether you choose traditional paper-based, interactive, Web-based, embedded, or ad hoc formatting for them, your reports will provide valuable insight into where your business is heading.

What’s new in SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services:

  • Unique Tablix data format to help you author reports with any structure.
  • Enhanced performance and scalability to reach any number of users.
  • Microsoft Office Word format report rendering option for ease of distribution and consumption.
  • Integration available to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 for central delivery and management of business insight.
  • Enhanced visualization capabilities to enable users to gain graphic insight into complex sets of data.

Read more about SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services

Integrate multiple data sources quickly—with SQL Server Integration Services.

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Integration Services provides a scalable data integration platform with exceptional ETL and integration capabilities, enabling organizations to more easily integrate data from a wide array of data sources.

New features in SQL Server 2008 Integration Services:

  • New high-performance connectors to Oracle, IBM DB2, Teradata, and SAP.
  • Thread pooling and enhanced lookup transformations for improved scalability and performance.
  • Microsoft Visual C# and Microsoft Visual Basic .NET to create script tasks more efficiently.
  • Enhanced SQL Server Import and Export Wizard to perform more functional and scalable data transfers.

Read more about SQL Server 2008 Integration Services


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