computerwoche.de

Archiv

Users slow on serious SQL Server uptake

09.11.2006
Kevin Kline is president of the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS), an independent group for users of Microsoft Corp.'s SQL Server database. PASS is holding its annual conference in Seattle next week, and about 2,500 people are expected to attend, according to Kline, who works as technical strategy manager for SQL Server products at Quest Software Inc.

Kline spoke with Computerworld Wednesday about issues such as how PASS members are feeling about SQL Server 2005 a year after its launch. Excerpts from that interview follow.

Microsoft won't support versions of SQL Server prior to the 2005 release on Windows Vista. In fact, Vista users will need to upgrade to the Service Pack 2 release of SQL Server 2005. Are users feeling pressured by Microsoft to upgrade? I think it is an issue. I'm hearing some grumbling about it, and it might actually slow down the adoption of Vista itself. People are telling me they don't want to give up their existing database just for a new operating system. There's not enough in Vista to force them to do that.

From your conversations with PASS members, what percentage have upgraded to SQL Server 2005? There are many shops with one or two instances of SQL Server 2005 running. I don't consider that a strong commitment. Oracle DBAs usually only have to support one to three instances. Most SQL Server DBAs support a dozen instances of the database, or more. So in measuring serious uptake -- that is, DBAs of whom half or more of their boxes are [running] SQL Server 2005 -- I'd say it's about 20% or so. That's higher in the enterprises, as well as smaller shops that are heavy users of SQL Server Analytical Services. Those users are the ones upgrading the fastest across the board.

What features are users still looking for Microsoft to add? There is a widespread desire for better tools. SQL Server 2005 [has] a whole new interface called SQL Server Management Studio. In some ways, it's a step back. There are a lot of new and neat features, but you hear a lot of complaints about what it doesn't do. For example, SQL Server made its name going back to Version 7.0 with its GUI interface and not forcing DBAs to learn all of this SQL code. With 2005, new features like database mirroring or partitioning have to be addressed in code.

Visual Studio has long had a feature called Intellisense, which is like an auto-complete feature in Word. SQL Server users have been begging for something similar for eons. It was in the betas for Management Studio at one point, but Microsoft pulled it out.