SQL Server 2008 R2 is ready

Posted: 22.4.2010 18.33.16 (EET/GMT+2)

April really seems to be a month of new software releases from Microsoft. Earlier this month, Visual Studio 2010, .NET 4.0, Silverlight 4 and Office 2010 have become available, and now it's the turn for SQL Server. That is, SQL Server 2008 R2 is now available.

The new product version is already available on MSDN (and presumably Technet, though I haven't checked) and thus available immediately for developers. Also an Express version is coming, so you should be able to download it soon enough from www.microsoft.com/express.

New features in SQL Server 2008 R2 include improved scalability and performance (thanks to Windows Server 2008 R2), improved business intelligence (BI) capabilities (remember PowerPivot for Excel and SharePoint?) and support for the company's Azure cloud-computing platform.