With the impending End of Support for SQL Server 2005 coming up in April 2016, most companies know that they need to find an upgrade path in order to benefit from the new features.
There are many upgrade paths and targets you can take to get out of SQL Server 2005 and into 2014 or even straight into the cloud with Azure SQL Database or Azure SQL DataWarehouse.
Here at Pythian we have created a handy 45 minute webinar to cover upgrade scenarios, upgrade tools and we are even share our own process on how we approach SQL Server upgrade projects. We’re also including demos of upgrading to 2014 and to Azure SQL Database.
As much as we’ve enjoyed working with SQL Server 2005, it’s time to say good bye and jump 10 years ahead.
And just for fun, let’s go down memory lane and analyze what an amazing milestone SQL Server 2005 was for Microsoft data professionals.
– SSIS was introduced. And still going strong after 10 years with countless improvements.
– DMVs and DMFs were introduced. How did we ever do engine troubleshooting before!? Such a huge difference from SQL 2000 and was the foundation of the insane amount of instrumentation that is built into the product today.
– CLR was introduced. .NET into the engine, a whole new world of programming capabilities opened.
– Row multi-versioning was introduced in the engine. Opening up new levels of concurrency and closing the gap on a major piece of functionality that Oracle had from day 1.
– Table partitioning was introduced. Another major feature needed to take SQL Server into the VLDB and warehousing space.
– Database mirroring introduced. Shared-nothing, easy high availability without the need of shared storage. Obviously the foundation of the current AlwaysOn Availability Groups.
– DDL triggers, XML support, ranking functions, recursive CTEs, separation of user and schema. Not much to add here.
And that’s not a complete list. Truly, the 2005 release finally placed SQL Server as a real enterprise-grade relational database system. No wonder it took 5 years, as still to this day, SQL 2005 is the foundation that has taken us all the way to 2016 and the massive world of cloud relational databases on Azure. It also kick started many careers (mine included) as more and more companies began to see the potential of the product and adopted Microsoft’s data platform.
If you’re considering upgrading from SQL Server 2005, let us know. We’ll connect you with one of our SQL Server experts to review your requirements and discuss how we can work with your team to ensure the success of your upgrade.
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