SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse Technology Preview 2

Microsoft has wrapped up the first technology preview for SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse and is now moving onward, searching for additional companies looking to test drive the technology while it is still in development. Previously code named project "Madison," the solution is designed to provide corporate customers with a highly scalable appliance that with massively parallel processing (MPP) at its foundation. The promise from Microsoft is that SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse is capable of delivering extra performance at low costs.

“Our new, massively scalable data warehousing solution is unique because it offers hardware flexibility with configurations from the major hardware vendors - Bull, Dell, EMC, HP and IBM. Parallel Data Warehouse also offers customers very high scalability through a MPP (Massively Parallel Processing) architecture, low total cost of ownership and rich business intelligence experience through integration with Microsoft BI technologies,” revealed a member of the SQL Server Team.

According to the Redmond company, no less than 10 companies from 7 industries deployed and tested SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse Technology Preview 2. For at least one customer, embracing Madison proved to be the right choice, even if the product is yet to be finalized. The Redmond company indicates that First Premier Bankcard, managed to boost loading speeds, but as much as 300% and that query performance improved 70 times over existing scale up data warehouses.

“We’re not done yet though! We are now taking customer nominations for the second technology preview as well as the Technology Adoption Program (TAP). For more information on the TAP, email mdsontap at microsoft.com,” the SQL Server team representative added.

Obviously, having not even started the second Technology Preview testing phase of the SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse development process, Microsoft still has a lot of work before it finalizes the product. However, the promise from the Redmond company is that the General Availability deadline for SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse is planned by mid-2010.

At the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) Community Summit, Ted Kummert, senior vice president of the Business Platform Division, Microsoft announced a couple of new high-end editions of its next generation data platform, namely Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Datacenter and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse (formerly codenamed “Madison”). While SQL Server 2008 R2 is planned for availability by May 2010, Madison will be released later in the first half of 2010.