SQL Server Users Slow on ‘Serious Uptake’ of New DB

Kevin Kline is president of the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS), an independent group for users of Microsoft Corp.’s flagship data�base. PASS is holding its annual conference in Seattle this week, and about 2,500 people are expected to attend, according to Kline, who works as technical strategy manager for SQL Server products at Quest Software Inc. Kline spoke with Computerworld last week about issues such as how PASS members feel about SQL Server 2005 a year after its launch.

Microsoft won’t support versions of SQL Server prior to the 2005 release on Windows Vista. In fact, Vista users will need to upgrade to Service Pack 2 of SQL Server 2005. Are users feeling pressured to upgrade? I think it is an issue. I’m hearing some grumbling about it, and it might actually slow down the adoption of Vista itself. People are telling me they don’t want to give up their existing database just for a new operating system. There’s not enough in Vista to force them to do that.

From your conversations with PASS members, what percentage have upgraded to SQL Server 2005? There are many shops with one or two instances of SQL Server 2005 running. I don’t consider that a strong commitment. Most SQL Server DBAs support a dozen instances of the database or more. So in measuring serious uptake — that is, DBAs who have half or more of their boxes [running] SQL Server 2005 — I’d say it’s about 20% or so.

What features are users still looking for Microsoft to add? There is a widespread desire for better tools. SQL Server 2005 [includes] a whole new interface called SQL Server Management Studio. In some ways, it’s a step back. There are a lot of new and neat features, but you hear a lot of complaints about what it doesn’t do. For example, SQL Server made its name going back to Version 7.0 with its GUI and not forcing DBAs to learn all of this SQL code. With 2005, new features like database mirroring or partitioning have to be addressed in code.

Visual Studio has long had a feature called Intellisense, which is like an auto-complete feature in Word. SQL Server users have been begging for something similar for eons. It was in the betas for Management Studio at one point, but Microsoft pulled it out.

Compliance is another huge issue. In the old days, people needed to know who had changed data. Now, many shops need to know who has looked at data. That capability is hard to build in without building in a lot of overhead. But people are looking to Microsoft for an answer.

There is also pain around change management. That isn’t a big deal if you’re an Oracle DBA with just one or two servers, but if you’re a SQL Server DBA with 24 servers to patch, it can be a real pain in the rear. Right now, the answers mostly come from other Microsoft products, like Systems Management Server. But that doesn’t soothe a lot of DBAs, because they don’t necessarily want to hand this [issue] off to another team.

Microsoft is expected to release SP2 of SQL Server 2005 early next year. It ties in with collaboration features, especially in Office. What impact will there be on SQL Server DBAs? After a certain point, adding another spell checker or template doesn’t change Office much. But SQL Server’s tie-ins with SharePoint and Excel will help people make more sense of data and turn it into actionable information. Most DBAs are still assessing [SP2]. They don’t know what will work and how much is going to be involved for them.