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Scale and Performance

 

 

Overview

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 is a comprehensive data platform that provides the scalability, availability, security, and manageability that you need for mission-critical OLTP applications.

Top New Features

  • Implement peer-to-peer replication quickly with the new visual designer, and add nodes without stopping system activity

  • Audit all actions across the enterprise and consolidate audit reporting

  • Help protect sensitive data with automatic, transparent data encryption

  • Use Performance Studio to troubleshoot, tune, and monitor SQL Server 2008 instances across the enterprise

  • Take control of workload resource use with Resource Governor

  • Store all kinds of business data with native support for relational data, XML, file streams, and spatial data

  • Reduce storage requirements and improve performance with data compression, backup compression, sparse columns, and filtered index and backup compression

  • Optimize database mirroring performance and eliminate downtime with automatic recovery of suspect pages

Scale and performance

Build database solution with the performance and scalability required by today’s applications.

 

Industry Leading Performance

  • Use the SQL Server 2008 high-performance query processing engine for industry leading performance and scalability

  • Define resource limits and priorities for different workloads with Resource Governor and control database server performance

  • Use extensive query analysis and optimization tools to design optimal database structures and indexes

  • Lock down query plans for consistent performance

  • Improve concurrency by using Lock Escalation on a table and controlling lock escalation to the partition level

Store and manage all of your data

  • Use the native support for new data types, including XML, to store non-relational data

  • Build spatial capabilities into your applications with new geography and geometry data types

  • Manage binary data on file systems as if stored in the database via FILESTREAM

  • Reduce storage space for nullable values by using Sparse Columns

  • Store your data more efficiently and improve performance by using Data Compression

  • Reduce the size and time to complete backups with Backup Compression

Manage Replication with the Peer-to-Peer Replication Topology Wizard

Manage Replication with the Peer-to-Peer Replication Topology Wizard

High Availability

Provide a database application with Always On capabilities, while minimizing management and performance overhead.

Ensure business continuity

  • Choose a high availability option for your data; Log Shipping, Database Mirroring, or Server Clustering

  • Take advantage of enhancements to Database Mirroring to reduce latency across low-bandwidth connections, recover suspect pages directly from a mirror server, and achieve transparent redirection from any client in the event of failover

  • Improve Failover Clustering by using SQL Server 2008 and Windows Server® 2008 to support up to 16 cluster nodes

  • Perform indexing and backup and restore operations, and add memory and CPUs without needing to take the database offline

Consolidate data services through virtualization

  • Run multiple virtual operating systems on the same physical computer by using Microsoft Windows Server 2008 with the Hyper-V role, with one or more instances of the required SQL Server 2008 services in each virtual machine

  • Take advantage of SQL Server 2008 Enterprise licensing, which allows you to run unlimited virtual database servers with a license for each physical processor

Distribute data throughout the enterprise by using replication

  • Use replication to provide local copies of data throughout the enterprise

  • Reduce the time required to implement and manage a peer-to-peer replication solution by using the new visual designer to enable applications to read or modify data in any of the databases that are participating in replication

 

Security

Provide a security-enhanced data platform for mission-critical data.

Audit all actions

  • Use comprehensive data auditing to monitor all events at the server and database levels, and scale-out auditing across the enterprise

  • Consolidate enterprise-wide auditing records from multiple sources

Secure business data

  • Authenticate database users and enforce password policies

  • Use the SQL Server comprehensive permissions model to help secure data and resources

  • Centrally manage all services and features, and minimize the attack surface area of your data solution by enabling only the services and features you require

  • Encrypt data in an entire database via Transparent Data Encryption without the need for application code changes

  • Use third-party cryptographic providers and Hardware Security Modules to consolidate encryption and key management across applications

SQL Server Management Studio

SQL Server Management Studio

 

Define a new configuration policy with Policy-Based Management

Define a new configuration policy with Policy-Based Management

Manageability

Help reduce the time and cost of managing the infrastructure with Policy-Based Management and improved tools for monitoring, troubleshooting, and tuning.

Reduce management overhead

  • Use the consistent interface in SQL Server Management Studio to manage all SQL Server instances and services

  • Schedule automated administrative tasks and respond proactively to events to reduce the burden on database administrators

Enforce configuration policy compliance

  • Use Policy-Based Management to define configuration policies and apply them across the enterprise

  • Enforce policies proactively, after changes are made, on a schedule, or explicitly by performing ad hoc checks in real time

Centralize and consolidate monitoring

  • Use Performance Data Collector to troubleshoot, tune, and monitor the state of one or more instances of SQL Server 2008

  • Collect information from multiple sources

  • Store performance data in a centralized management data warehouse or provide the data to System Center Operations Manager for centralized storage and analysis

  • Display all relevant troubleshooting information in one place by using Reporting Services

 

Additional Resources

 

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