Has Microsoft's SQL Server missed the boat?
Has Microsoft's SQL Server missed the boat?
Nov 17, 2005: With five years between updates Microsoft SQL Server 2005 is out, but can it deliver in the face of energetic open source competition?
The gap left by Microsoft's missing updates has been rapidly filled by competitors such as MySQL, IBM and Oracle. And filled so well the behemouth corporation may have a hard time winning back customers that were simply tired of waiting. Oracle and IBM both manage releases every two years, while MySQL's open source development can see updates every four to six weeks.
Even the most patient system administrator may draw the line at five years. A gap made even more stinging to those who signed up for Microsoft's Software Assurance licensing program in 2002.
The program assured customers that costs of upgrading would be covered, but something can only be covered if it is actually released. No one expected SQL Server or Exchange to be absent the whole way through the first Software Assurance term.
Microsoft is currently dealing with the issues surrounding this lack of covered updates and to stop this situation from happening again, it has put a new development system called the Software Reengineering Initiative in place. The company claims that this new regime will ensure that releases are boucned out the door every two years whether new features are ready or not.
To do this, Microsoft says projects will be engineered from day-one with enough flexibility to remove features if they are holding up the show. If a new feature is taking longer than forseen to develop, it simply gets held over to the next release.
With deft competition from Oracle, IBM and the open source MySQL how much lost time Microsoft can make up for will be interesting to see. In Australia SQL Server 2005 has already been picked up by Australian organisations such as the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR), Minicom, the BlueArc Group, Financial Network Services (FNS) and the Dental Health System of Victoria.
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