Infomet
is running a series of readiness workshops on SQL Server 2005 in
order to help managers, architects, developers and DBAs to understand the
real changes that SQL Server 2005 will bring. For contact information, go to
www.infomet.com
What
does Infomet say about SQL Server 2005?
SQL
Server 2005 is due to be released at the beginning of November 2005 and
is a much anticipated release for Microsoft development shops. In addition to
SQL Server 2005, Microsoft is launching Visual Studio 2005 and Biztalk Server
2006 at the same time meaning that a significant portion of Microsoft’s
software development environment and architecture will hit the streets at the
same time.
Just
as significant is the current availability of the first public SQL Server 2005
Community Technology Previews (CTPs), allowing those who are interested in
SQL Server 2005 to download the release, without all of the hassle of being on
a beta programme. With a fixed release date and something you can currently
review, SQL Server projects that are planned or underway must be assessed if
November 2005 is within your project window.
After
a five year wait one would expect something significant out of SQL Server
2005 and Microsoft has certainly done that. New features and enhancements
are extensive with enough changes to the database engine and core
functionality to warrant a closer look. Fancy functionality, tools, utilities and
wizards will have an influence on development projects and over time will be
taken up by developers, architects and DBAs until they become the de facto
way of delivering solutions based on SQL Server 2005.
What
is important to consider right now is not the flashy new features, but
rather what features and enhancements will affect the way we are architecting
and implementing our current applications based on SQL Server. There are
significant changes that will mean that our application architectures will
change, our development standards and approaches will change, our resources
will need to be trained, some code will be totally reworked and ultimately our
project plans and delivery dates will be affected. With wide ranging impacts on
what we have to deliver it would be foolish not to consider the impact that the
pending release will have on our projects.
The
detail on new features and enhancements is readily available and will no
doubt be extensively covered by Microsoft during and after their product
launch but certain changes (although they may seem small) will have an
influence on planned and currently active SQL Server projects; some, listed
below, I believe need to be considered:
-
.Net
Integration: Much is going to be said about the .Net Framework
CLR (COMMON Language Runtime) being hosted in the database
engine whereby functions, stored procedures etc. can be written in
.Net. While this does have some benefits I expect that traditional
Transact-SQL will still be favoured for most database functionality due
to performance considerations; however, the use of .Net components
within SSIS (SQL Server Integration Services) could add a lot of
flexibility when developing ETL applications.
- Transact SQL Error Handling:
The addition of try-catch constructs to T-
SQL is a long overdue enhancement that provides T-SQL with some
maturity as a programming language. Every stored procedure will
need to be re-written to take advantage of this important
enhancement.
- SQL Server Integration Services:
SSIS is a complete rework of DTS (Data
Transformation Services) and offers a sophisticated environment for
developing applications that need to Extract, Transform and Load data
(ETL). Development projects where ETL functionality was previously
hand-coded in external applications or T-SQL can now be developed
using a completely different environment. Since many projects do ETL
data, architects and project managers will need to understand the
suitability of SSIS for their projects and how it will affect their
implementations.
- Service Broker: The new Service
Broker is basically a message queue
based mechanism embedded within SQL Server 2005. While this may
seem to be trivial functionality, it could have an impact in terms of the
overall application architecture; as the existing Microsoft approach to
message queues is to develop using .Net components and MS
Message Queue, where the components themselves interface with the
database. The Service Broker places queues much closer to the data
itself, requiring a rethink of the architecture on some projects.
- Database Mirroring: Many manageability
and availability
enhancements exist in SQL Server 2005 and functionality such as
database mirroring will affect the hardware choices and the
deployment of databases.
The Microsoft approach and architecture is going to change
with the
release of SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005; and architects,
decision-makers and planners need to use the preview and available
documentation to understand the impact that this will have on their
projects as soon as possible.
