Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 allows you to inform your citizens and government staff based on their pace and needs, without waiting for IT specialists to build reports for you. Seamless integration with the Microsoft Office system and other Microsoft applications enables powerful but easy-to-use reporting, analysis, and data visualization capabilities using familiar tools. With PowerPivot for Excel 2010, anyone can search and perform complex analysis on diverse data sources, directly within Excel. Reusable, ready-to-use components in Report Builder 3.0 make it simple to create automatically updating reports and dashboards that can be shared securely with stakeholders via SharePoint 2010.

SQL Server StreamInsight extracts, analyzes, and correlates multiple data streams from diverse sources like SQL Server, Oracle, or DB2 for real-time analysis. This highly optimized engine supports rapid queries on high-speed data to accelerate complex-event processing and deliver crucial insights faster. To ensure consistent performance, the Resource Governor lets you monitor and manage memory and bandwidth resources for self-service BI workloads on your SQL Server system through workload group and resource pool configuration.

Centralized management of data assets enables IT to efficiently deliver the correct data where and when it’s needed, in the most relevant format. Master Data Services in SQL Server 2008 R2 allows a server to act as a data hub with the ability to manage the data entities and hierarchies. Administrators can define the data model and then adapt it as business needs change. With a powerful rules engine and integration with workflow, data owners can be notified if data that violates the rules is loaded into the system.

Improved storage and analysis features in SQL Server 2008 R2 give your agency more power to monitor and manage your expanding volumes of data, with more reliable performance, greater security, and at a lower cost per terabyte than other storage solutions. Further lower your costs and increase performance with compression features that deliver an average of 50% storage savings on active databases, and 70% average savings on backup databases. In addition, SQL Server 2008 R2 introduces the ability to connect to SQL Azure Database, extending your reach into the Microsoft cloud-based relational database service, providing you with a common database framework wherever you decide to store your data.

Implementing encryption in a database has traditionally involved complicated application changes such as modifying table schemas, removing functionality, and significant performance degradations. Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) capabilities in SQL Server 2008 R2 solve these problems by simply encrypting everything. Thus, all data types, keys, and indexes can be used to their full potential, ensuring the security and privacy of all citizen data and other sensitive assets without sacrificing performance and availability.