Denali

Denali CTP1 is available for download, http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/en/us/product-info/future-editions.aspx, This will be the latest major Version release since SQL 2008, and will build upon the minor version release from SQL 2008 R2.  There look like some really interesting features that will need to be flushed out more.  Brent Ozar has blogged about Hadron here, http://www.brentozar.com/archive/2010/11/sql-server-denali-database-mirroring-rocks/ .

Hadron will be where mirroring is going for SQL 2011, some new features will be that it is built on top of Windows Clustering, you can have up to 4 mirrors (only 1 in CTP 1), and you can execute read only queries against the mirrors, no need for snapshots. For more info see here, http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff877884(v=SQL.110).aspx .

Columnar level indexes, this was teased during the keynote for PASS opening night.  This would be big for Data Analytics for SQL Server, this will allow SQL to scream and compete with Oracle, DB2, TeraData, and Informix.  The TCP benchmarks on this will be unlike anything SQL has seen before.

This will be a really interesting ride.  More to come.

Thanks,

Brad