Free e-book offer : SQL 2008

Free e-book offer: Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 by Peter DeBetta, Greg Low and Mark Whitehorn

Reviewed by Kathleen Atkins, project editor, Microsoft Press

Peter DeBetta, the principal author of this book, welcomes readers to the soon-to-be-released SQL Server 2008. An MVP for SQL Server and a holder of many other credentials and longstanding SQL Server experience, DeBetta (with his coauthors) offers in this electronic beta book a discerning view of the new version of SQL Server.

DeBetta and his coauthors—Greg Low and Mark Whitehorn, who are also database experts, consultants, developers, and writers—divide their discussion of SQL Server 2008 into seven topics: Security and Administration, Performance, Type System Enhancements, Programmability, Storage, Enhancements for High Availability, and Business Intelligence Enhancements. In each of these chapters, the authors describe new or improved features. They could not address every additional capability of or improvement in SQL Server 2008, however, because their view (and thus their readers' view) into the product is an early one. Given the goals of the book—to introduce and explore the product in a preliminary way, both conceptually and practically (with sample code)—readers will find plenty to interest them.

For example, database developers might be very glad to know that T-SQL remains part of the product, and is, as yet, "still most often the best choice for retrieving and manipulating data." CLR integration has been improved since SQL Server 2005 and the new product introduces system CLR types, but "T-SQL is still not going anywhere."

Because Peter DeBetta hopes to be the first technical book author on The New York Times' bestseller list, he recommends Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 to everyone. But the people who really ought to read it are those who want to begin using the new and improved tools in SQL Server 2008.

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