Single management console
Use SQL Server Management Studio to manage all SQL Server instances and services including relational databases, SQL Server Reporting Services, SQL Server Analysis Services, SQL Server Integration Services, and SQL Server Compact databases.
Policy management
Ensure compliance with system configuration policies and simplify administration tasks by using Policy-Based Management.
Performance data collection
Streamline performance-tuning and troubleshooting with a centralized data repository of performance data.
Business continuity improvement
Facilitate server upgrades with stable and more predictable query performance. Take advantage of synchronous database mirroring with automatic page repair and improved performance. Enjoy seamless failover, with support for two-node failover clusters. Use log shipping to provide redundancy with two or more SQL Server instances.
Backup time and effort reduction
Reduce data storage requirements and time spent performing backups by using Backup Compression.
Self-service analysis
Allow people to perform interactive modeling and analysis of massive amount of data by streamlining the integration of data from multiple sources, all within a familiar tool, Microsoft Excel 2010.
Delivery of relevant information
Streamline the development of SQL Server Analysis Services solutions with easy-to-use cube design tools. Integrate with Bing Maps for Enterprise to deliver comprehensive geospatial reports. Improve the quality of data with the SQL Server Integration Services data-profiling tool.
Enhanced support for driving actionable insights
Broaden the reach of SQL Server Reporting Services with Microsoft Word rendering and enhanced Excel rendering. Reach customers and suppliers with reports created with streamlined Internet deployment in Reporting Services. Empower staff to perform predictive analysis with Data Mining Add-Ins for Microsoft Office programs.
Complex event processing with StreamInsight
Use standard StreamInsight support to build complex event-processing applications that can handle high-volume data streams with low latency.
Transact-SQL data model
Perform multiple operations efficiently by using the MERGE command. Benefit from full compatibility with Windows Server collation support.
New table-valued parameters
Pass large amounts of data efficiently to and from functions and procedures by using new table-valued parameters.
LINQ integration
Let developers issue queries against data by using a managed programming language. Enable seamless, set-oriented queries written in Microsoft .NET languages to run against Microsoft ADO.NET and the ADO.NET Entity Data Service Mapping provider. Use LINQ to SQL, which enables developers to use LINQ on SQL Server tables and columns.
Spatial data types
Build spatial capabilities into applications, with new support for spatial data. Program against spatial data by using the built-in spatial library. Implement "round earth" or "flat earth" solutions with the GEOGRAPHY and GEOMETRY data types.
Date and time
Take advantage of DATE, TIME, DATETIMEOFFSET, and DATETIME2 data types. Be precise or wide-ranging with time values, with separate date and time types.
HIERARCHY ID
Enable database applications to model tree structures efficiently. Store values that represent nodes in a hierarchy tree. Create and operate on hierarchy nodes by using a flexible programming model.
FILESTREAM data
Store binary data while preserving the data as an integral part of the database and maintaining full transactional consistency. Back up FILESTREAM data with automatic support for backup operations. Store large binary data files outside the database on more cost-effective storage, without compromising performance.
Integrated full-text search
Perform high-speed text searches on large text columns. Manage fewer files by taking advantage of integrated full-text search indexes.
Sparse columns
Set to any data type to prevent NULL data from consuming physical space in the database. Manage large sets of NULL data in a database more efficiently.
Large user-defined types
Take advantage of higher limits for user-defined types.
