With SQL Server hitting Winter's Top 10 biggest OLTP database list for the first time, it's time to drag the oft-maligned DBMS out from the closet and into the data center.
While Microsoft's DBMS has done some slick work recently on TPC benchmarks, it's still the butt of jokes like that to many Oracle pros. And you have to admit, it has deserved snickers on the basis of reliability and security.
With Tuesday's release of Winter Corp.'s surveys of the largest and most heavily used databases, Microsoft for the first time ever can boast that SQL Server on Windows made the Top 10 list for biggest OLTP databases. Verizon Communications weighed in with a 5.3-terabyte SQL Server transaction-processing database, reaching sixth place in size for all environments, the top transaction-processing database on the Windows platform.
Microsoft Corp. spent years trying to persuade the U.S. court system it was not the 800-pound gorilla that the Justice Department made it out to be. Now it's giving a command performance to European regulators.
The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant begins hearings today in Brussels to persuade the European Commission that the Windows operating system and its, shall we say, aggressive business practices are no threat to competition in the software industry. The company will argue that the European antitrust complaint "focuses unfairly on the company and disregards its intellectual property rights and consumers' demands. In a showpiece hearing, the company will seek to appeal beyond the staff of Mario Monti, competition commissioner, to other parts of the European Commission and national regulatory agencies in the hope they might rein back the Commission," The Financial Times reported.
Microsoft began its defense against European antitrust charges on Wednesday, optimistic a deal could still be reached to avoid penalties that could be the toughest it has been hit with in years of battling trustbusters on both sides of the Atlantic.
'Hope springs eternal,' said Brad Smith, Microsoft's senior vice president for law and corporate affairs, as he entered the closed-door hearings at a European Union office block in Brussels. The hearing is 'another opportunity to continue our discussion' with European officials.
Microsoft on Wednesday detailed tools planned for increasing database administration capabilities in the current and upcoming versions of the company's SQL Server database. The company revealed the details during its 2003 Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) Community Summit meeting in Seattle.
One of the tools to be featured in the planned "Yukon" version of SQL Server due in 2004, a reconstituted Data Transformation Services (DTS) technology for extracting, transforming, and loading (ETL) of data, is intended to provide scalable and manageable ETL services. DTS will feature graphical debugging and built-in transformations such as "fuzzy lookup" to allow developers to more easily develop enterprise applications. Also to be featured in the DTS architecture are transaction support, the ability to restart, data error handling, and data cleansing.
Platform Computing has released a software module that enables Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet software to tap into the power of a grid computing system, the company said Tuesday.
The Excel adapter is now a standard part of Platform's Symphony Suite, software the Toronto-based company sells to join groups of computers together into a single pool of processing power.
Platform is aiming the Excel adapter software at financial services companies, where analysts often must perform high-speed calculations such as calculating the risks incurred by a particular change to a stock portfolio.
Bowing to pressure from Microsoft, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and other trade groups, the US Patent Office has agreed to reexamine the Eolas Web browser patent that lies at the center of the company's lawsuit against Microsoft. Eolas, you may recall, obtained the exclusive rights to a patent granted to the University of California in 1998 which describes the ways in which a browser can access add-in programs typically called plug-ins. The patent earned Eolas, a one-man company, a $521 million jury verdict against Microsoft in August, and analysts fear Eolas would set its sights on other browser makers if its Microsoft suit is ultimately successful.
Concurrent with last month's release of other components of Microsoft Corp.'s Office 2003 , the company released a 2003 version of Project that is aimed at improved interaction with mainstream Office tools and data stores.
In eWEEK Labs' review of Project 2003, which starts at $599, with upgrade prices beginning at $349, we found an impressive effort to bring powerful time and resource visualization and management aids to the desks of users who don't have "project manager" in their job titles.
Microsoft will undertake a last-ditch effort today to avoid harsh penalties in Europe for alleged monopolistic behavior that could force it to change the way it sells its ubiquitous Windows software.
Yet beyond the fireworks expected as the software giant faces off with its critics during three days of hearings, Microsoft's underlying aim is likely to be sniffing out the remaining prospects for a settlement with the European Union.
"I think there'll be quite a lot of grandstanding, with a view on Microsoft's part to achieve a negotiated settlement," said Martin Baker, chief antitrust lawyer at Taylor Wessing in London. "They're going to want to limit the economic impact."
Today Microsoft ignites the Windows gaming world with a trio of new tools and content just for Windows XP, the best version ever of Windows for PC gamers. Microsoft Windows XP users can now complete their holiday gift list with the Windows XP Game Advisor, a new Web-based tool that sorts through a variety of genres and age-group choices to present the best matches for them from more than 100 of the hottest titles available for Windows today. Gaming enthusiasts will enjoy Windows XP Extras, a free collection of cool downloadable game add-ons from publishers of some of the season's hottest games including "TRON 2.0" from Buena Vista Interactive, "FINAL FANTASY XI" from Square Enix, and the much-anticipated "Half-Life 2" from Valve. The new Games for Windows Web site, launching today, offers how-to articles, tips, the hottest new gaming hardware and software for Windows XP and more. All of the above can be accessed at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/games/.
This is just in from Ditto, (thanks)!
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Welcome to the Microsoft® SQL Server Reporting Services Beta Program! We are very excited about what Reporting Services has to offer, and hope you are as well. We consider your participation in this beta as absolutely critical to our success, so please accept our welcome!
The Beta is READY!!!!
The beta is ready to go! Please visit www.betaplace.com and download "Reporting Services Beta 2" file.
By the way - the code name for SQL Server Reporting Services is "Rosetta". You may occasionally see some of us slipping and using the code name.
Can't Download?
If you have a low-speed connection or firewall issues prevent you from downloading these files, you may request a CD by sending mail to rosetta@microsoft.com (you must include your Beta ID and mailing address). CDs are not sent to anyone by default, they must be specifically requested.
Newsgroups
The entire Reporting Services development team is monitoring the newsgroups just dying to hear your feedback. I can't begin to relay the excitement in the team that they are finally getting this into your hands. So, please take advantage of this opportunity to ask questions, make suggestions and get to know the Rosetta team.
Filing Bugs
This is a beta - so we expect you to find bugs in the product. When you come across a bug, please use the bug reporting form at www.betaplace.com to report it to us. Please include as much information as possible about the bug - can you reproduce it, what are the steps to reproduce it, do you lose data, what were you trying to do when this happened? Often the hardest part of fixing a bug is reproducing it, so a good detailed report helps. If you have product improvement suggestions, we would love to hear those as well. You can use the same Bug Reporting Form for suggestions, just be sure to categorize it as "Suggestion/Wish".
Getting Started
That's it! Get started! We look forward to seeing you on the newsgroups!
For administrative issues (including BetaID/PWD issues or newsgroup issues), send mail to ?????@microsoft.com .
If you need to update your email or address information, go to the www.betaplace.com, Modify Contact Info section.
The beta may be downloaded from www.betaplace.com.
Michael O'Connor
Program Manager - SQL Server