If you were hoping to purchase a Parallel Data Warehouse appliance for your environment this summer, you're going to be sad to hear that the Parallel Data Warehouse release date won't even be announced until early this summer. According to Microsoft's Data Platform Insider blog, "Although our intent was to deliver SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse in the first half of 2010, we are still gathering customer feedback and working to ensure the high quality release our customers expect. Based on feedback from the customer Technology Adoption Program, we expect to announce more specific release timing, final configurations and pricing for our hardware partners in early summer (northern hemisphere)."
Microsoft announced today that it has shipped the final Technology Preview of SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse, and the company also announced the availability of the Technology Adoption Program (TAP). If you're interested in taking part in the Technology Preview or the TAP, email [email protected].
This Technology Preview is significant because it offers the ability for the Parallel Data Warehouse to run on both SQL Server and Windows. According to the Data Platform Insider, this Technology Preview adds support for the following features:
- Integration with Microsoft's BI tools, including PowerPivot, SQL Server Reporting Services, SQL Server Analysis Services, and SQL Server Integration Services
- High scalability (up to hundreds of terabytes)
- High performance via the Massive Parallel Processing architecture
- Appliance availability planned for HP, Dell, IBM, and Bull
Microsoft says that early performance testing shows that the final Parallel Data Warehouse Technology Preview is about 45 percent faster than the first Technology Preview.
Watch for our upcoming article on the Parallel Data Warehouse. In the meantime, check out these articles about the Parallel Data Warehouse and SQL Server 2008 R2:
