We’ve sort of had this glass ceiling, and bang, the glass ceiling goes, said Andy Lees, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of server and tools marketing and solutions, of the capabilities of SQL Server 2005, which is due for release during the week of November 7.
In certain types of solutions where you want very high capacity or scalability, there were certain technologies Oracle had that we did not have, he said, citing advanced clustering and log shipping functionality. Those capabilities are now built into the box.
Microsoft trails behind Oracle and IBM in terms of relational database market share by revenue, with research firm Gartner Inc giving IBM 34.1% share in 2004, Oracle 33.7%, and Microsoft 20.0%.
However, Lees said that in terms of unit shipments, Microsoft sells more than both IBM and Oracle combined, and with SQL Server 2005, the company is looking to convert its volume dominance into increased revenue market share.
Codenamed Yukon, SQL Server 2005 will deliver new scalability, performance (partitioning), security, availability (mirroring and back-up), and integration capabilities, as well as a new price tag, which should also help the company increase database revenue share.
The product is expected to cost just under $25,000 per processor, while its predecessor, SQL Server 2000, cost at least $5,000 less. Nevertheless, SQL Server 2005 will still cost less than its nearest competitors.
Microsoft was the fastest growing relational database management vendor in 2004, with revenue up 18%, while Oracle grew 15.6%, and IBM 5.8%, despite the tempting offer a major release on the horizon, giving Lees confidence that it can grow even faster when SQL Server 2005 hits the market.
The product is heading towards being five years old. Oracle has had two new products in that time but we’re still growing faster than they are, he said, adding that the new release is the result of four years of engineering, development, and testing.
The delivery of SQL Server 2005 will coincide with the launch of Visual Studio 2005, codenamed Whidbey, and BizTalk Server 2006, in what will be Microsoft’s most significant server releases of the year. These teams have been sat in a bunker for some time working on these releases, said Lees.
Developers and testers got a first look at SQL Server 2005 in April when it was released as a Community Technology Preview, CTP, where it is being incrementally updated with new features until its general availability.
Lees also revealed that where possible, Microsoft would be looking to make use of the CTP model for other server products as a means of enabling users to experiment with new features rather than be surprised when a product becomes generally available. In the server and tools area we’re pretty much moving for everything to be done that way, he said. We grew up in this situation where releases were – Tadaa! – and the world has changed in terms of the community model.
He said the model showed that Microsoft had learned to be more open with its technology and make use of the feedback from its community of users earlier in the development process, adding that 25% of the IT professionals on the planet come to Microsoft.com once a month. We don’t want to just use that as a transaction, we want to use that as a relationship and a community thing.
Lees stopped short of agreeing entirely that the CTP model showed Microsoft had learned from some of the benefits of the open source development model. Have we learnt from open source? Some of it, he said.
