We are a group of cool engineers at MSIDC building world class storage products for Microsoft. Given the constantly changing storage requirements, we are responsible for demystifying complex technologies to develop meaningful solutions for our customers and help them grow. Excellence is an everyday pursuit for us.

We contribute towards SQL Server Compact, Microsoft project code named “Velocity”, SQL Server Developer Tools & Manageability. We are also working on emerging technologies in the database area through our innovation centers.

SQL Server Compact

SQL Server Compact 3.5 Service Pack 1 was released with SQL Server® 2008 & Visual Studio® 2008 Service Pack 1 in August 2008. SQL Server Compact installs by default with Visual Studio, and provides the development community with a rock-solid, local embedded cache that has the following benefits:

• Rapid application development for desktop or smart devices for the highly mobile workforce with the ability to sync data with SQL Server using the Synchronization Service for ADO.Net
• Integration with Language Integrated Query (LINQ) to access data directly from the code
• Low cost upgrade as SQL Server Compact installs side-by-side with the earlier version along with native x64 support
• Improved support for private deployment of 32-bit and 64-bit applications
• Reduced development cost due to a common programming model for desktop and smart devices
• Integration with Visual Studio Express Editions to enable new programmers to learn and program with SQL Server Compact

Try out the bits from this link and post your feedback on http://connect.microsoft.com/

Microsoft Project codename “Velocity”

Microsoft project code named "Velocity" provides a highly scalable in-memory application cache. By using a cache your application performance can improve significantly by avoiding unnecessary calls to the data source. By using a distributed cache, your application can scale to match an increasing demand with increasing throughput. "Velocity" distributed cache is provided in the form of a cache cluster, which simplifies your application code by managing the complexities of load balancing behind the scenes. When you use "Velocity," you can retrieve data by using keys or other identifiers, named "tags." "Velocity" supports optimistic and pessimistic concurrency models, high availability, and a variety of cache configurations.

A highly energetic and flexible team has contributed to delivering high quality Customer Technology Previews (CTP’s) to enable early product feedback. The first two CTP’s were aligned to TechEd and PDC schedules. Multiple critical features were developed as part of the CTP’s, support for 64 bit, performance improvements, high availability and powershell integration.

Try out the bits from this link and post your feedback on http://connect.microsoft.com/

SQL Developer and Manageability

This young and energetic team builds the core building blocks of the SQL Server Relational Developer & Administrator experiences in SQL Server Management Studio and Visual Studio. For SQL Server 2008 R2, the team is working on SQL Azure Manageability components. The team is also building a state-of-the-art Transact-SQL data-tier developer experience in the next release of Visual Studio.

Try out the bits from this this and post your feedback on http://connect.microsoft.com/.