Dear all,

Does anyone know if the next version of SQL will support load-balancing as
well as fail-over clustering? Thanks.

Regards,
Kueh.

Discover how the next version of SQL Server, code-named "Yukon," will
benefit you with the new and enhanced abilities and features described on
this page.

Top 10 Features for Database Administration

Feature Description
Database Mirroring Extend log shipping capabilities with a
database mirroring option. You will be able to use database mirroring to
enhance availability of your SQL Server systems by setting up automatic
failover to a standby server.
Online Indexing Operations The online index option will allow
concurrent modifications (updates, deletes, and inserts) to the underlying
table or clustered index data and any associated indexes during index data
definition language (DDL) execution. For example, while a clustered index is
being rebuilt, you can continue to make updates to the underlying data and
perform queries against the data.
New Integrated Toolset SQL Server "Yukon" will introduce SQL
Server "Studio," a new integrated suite of management tools. This toolset
will include new functionality to develop, deploy, and troubleshoot SQL
Server databases, as well as enhancements to previous functionality.
Snapshot Isolation A new Snapshot Isolation (SI) level will be
provided at the database level. With SI, users will be able to access the
last committed row using a transitionally consistent view of the database.
This capability will provide greater scalability for very large database
(VLDB) implementations.
Data Partitioning Data partitioning will be enhanced with
native table and index partitioning that enables efficient manageability of
large tables and indexes.
Mirrored Backups New support for mirrored backup sets,
increasing the reliability of SQL Server backups. The mirrored backup
capability will help resolve possible media corruption issues.
Online Restore With SQL Server "Yukon," you will be able to
perform a restore operation while part of the database being restored
remains available. Online restore improves the availability of SQL Server
because only the data being restored is unavailable; the rest of the
database remains online and available.
Fast Recovery A new faster recovery option will improve
availability of SQL Server databases. You will be able to reconnect to a
recovering database after the transaction log has been rolled forward.
Dedicated Administrator Connection SQL Server "Yukon" will
introduce a dedicated administrator connection that administrators can use
to access a running server even if the server is locked or otherwise
unavailable. This capability will enable administrators to troubleshoot
problems on a server by executing diagnostic functions or Transact-SQL
statements.
Replication Enhancements For distributed data, SQL Server
"Yukon" provides new peer-to-peer replication capabilities, the ability to
synchronize with Oracle databases, and the ability to utilize the HTTP
protocol for mobile replication. SQL Server "Yukon" also includes new
replication monitoring and scalability enhancements.



Top 10 Features for Development

Feature Description
.NET Framework Hosting With SQL Server "Yukon," you will be able
to create database objects using familiar languages such as Microsoft Visual
C#® .NET and Microsoft Visual Basic® .NET. Developers will also be able to
create two new objects-user-defined types and aggregates.
XML Technologies Extensible Markup Language (XML) is an
important standard for disseminating data between different applications
over local networks and the Internet. SQL Server "Yukon" will be able to
store XML documents natively, specify XML queries, and return query results
as XML documents.
ADO.NET 2.0 From new support for SQL Types to Multiple Active
Result Sets, ADO.NET in SQL Server "Yukon" will evolve dataset access and
manipulation to achieve greater scalability and flexibility
Transact-SQL Enhancements New language capabilities for
developing scalable database applications. These enhancements include error
handling, new recursive query capabilities, and support for new database
engine capabilities.
SQL Service Broker SQL Service Broker will provide a distributed
application framework for large-scale, line-of-business applications.
Notification Services Notification Services enables businesses
to build rich notification applications that deliver personalized and timely
information, such as stock market alerts, news subscriptions, package
delivery alerts, and airline ticket prices, to any device and to millions of
subscribers.
Web Services With SQL Server "Yukon" developers will be able to
develop Web services in the database tier, making SQL Server a Hypertext
Transfer Protocol (HTTP) listener and providing a new type of data access
capability for Web services-centric applications.
XQuery Support SQL Server "Yukon" will include deep XQuery
capabilities that enable XML object manipulation on the data tier, as well
as a new toolset for XQuery creation.
Full-Text Search Enhancements SQL Server "Yukon" will support
rich, full-text search applications. Cataloging capabilities will be
enhanced to provide greater flexibility when determining what is cataloged.
Query performance and scalability will be improved dramatically, and new
management tools will provide greater insight into the full-text
implementation.
Security Enhancements A new security model in SQL Server "Yukon"
will separate users from objects and enable greater control of data access.
Additionally, all system tables will be implemented as views, providing more
control over database system objects.



Top 10 Features for Business Intelligence

Feature Description
Analysis Services With SQL Server "Yukon," Analysis Services
moves into the realm of real- time analytics. From scalability enhancements
to deep integration with Microsoft Office, SQL Server "Yukon" will help
extend business intelligence to every level of your business.
Data Transformation Services (DTS) DTS is a set of graphical
tools and programmable objects that you can use to extract, transform, and
load (ETL) data from disparate sources and move it to a single or multiple
destinations. SQL Server "Yukon" will introduce a complete redesign of DTS
that provides a comprehensive ETL platform.
Data Mining Four new data mining algorithms will be introduced,
as well as improved tools and wizards that will make data mining easier for
businesses of any size.
Reporting Services Easily integrate business data from
heterogeneous data sources and data warehouses into rich, interactive
reports that can be managed and customized through Web browsers.
Clustering Support Analysis Services improves availability with
support for failover clustering, enhanced multi-instance support, and
support for backing up and restoring Analysis Services objects and data.
Key Performance Indicators Key performance indicators (KPIs)
provide businesses with the capability to define graphic, customizable
business metrics to help generate and track key corporate benchmarks.
Scalability and Performance Features such as parallel partition
processing, creation of remote relational online analytical processing
(ROLAP) or hybrid online analytical processing (HOLAP) partitions,
distributed partitioned cubes, persisted calculations, and proactive caching
will greatly improve the scalability and performance of Analysis Services in
SQL Server "Yukon."
One-Click Cube When creating a cube in a data warehouse project,
the Cube Wizard will include an option to enable one-click-cube detection
and suggestions. This option will examine the relationships in a data source
view and make suggestions for fact tables, dimension tables, and measures.
Architecture Enhancements SQL Server "Yukon" will introduce a
new architecture for Data Transformation Services (DTS). The architecture
will consist of two engines:

a.. Data Transformation Runtime (DTR) engine. The DTR engine
runs DTS packages, executes tasks, persists the layout of a package, and
provides services for tasks.
b.. Data Transformation Pipeline (DTP) engine. The DTP engine
extracts data from sources, applies transformations against column data, and
loads data into data storage systems.

Integration with the Microsoft Office System Reports that are
served up by the Report Server in Reporting Services can run in the context
of Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server and Microsoft Office System
applications such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. You can use
SharePoint features to subscribe to reports, create new versions of reports,
and distribute reports. You can also open reports in Word or Excel to view
HTML versions of the reports.













"KA Kueh" <kka (AT) ksm (DOT) com.my> wrote

Fail over clustering is available now and will continue to work but load
balancing is not an option.

--
Andrew J. Kelly SQL MVP


"KA Kueh" <kka (AT) ksm (DOT) com.my> wrote

SQL Server 2005 code name Yukon is still in Beta 1. Beta 1 is under NDA.
We are not allowed to discuss what features are or are not available in
Yukon until the NDA gets lifted. We have not yet been told when that will
happen. When the NDA is lifted, you will certainly know. Until then, the
only information available is what has been publicly published either by
Microsoft or through other channels approved by Microsoft. AND, all of the
information published thus far is subject to change without notice.

--

Mike
Principal Mentor
Solid Quality Learning
"More than just Training"
SQL Server MVP
http://www.solidqualitylearning.com
http://www.mssqlserver.com