No Job Too Big for SQL Server 2005, Ballmer Boasts

by Alex Woodie

It took more time than it should have, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer admitted, but SQL Server 2005 is finally available for purchase. The new database, along with the new Visual Studio 2005 development tools, were formally unveiled during a gala event Monday in San Francisco, where Ballmer scolded his development crew for being tardy, while at the same time touting the enormity of the release and how it will erase any doubts that the Microsoft platform can run mission critical applications.

Ballmer kicked off the 90-minute keynote presentation at the Moscone Center by trying to come clean on the multiple delays and setbacks plaguing SQL Server 2005 and, to a lesser extent, Visual Studio 2005, over the last few years. "I want to start by just giving a little bit of a sense of my enthusiasm for what we've got," he said. "It's been, albeit, a little bit long in the making on some of these products. And maybe a little bit less bake time, at least a little more rapid cycle time, would be appropriate in the future. We have a little bit of work to do."

But apparently, the years of waiting will be worth it, because the products are now secure, Ballmer suggested. "We learned a lot over the last few years about security, and I'll be darned if weren't going to apply that learning wholeheartedly in these major releases," the excitable CEO said. "But we've got absolutely a phenomenal set of products today--a new app platform with business intelligence deeply ingrained in it. Yeah, baby!"

While it has yet to be seen if Microsoft did get security right with SQL Server 2005, there is little doubt that the new database is, in fact, the most important new product Microsoft has launched for business customers in years, and will continue to be the most important new product launch until Windows Server "Longhorn" is brought to market sometime in 2007. Benchmarks show the new database, which introduces support for 64-bit X64 processors and the tremendous increase in addressable memory those volume systems bring, has made big gains in the performance department.

Scalability, Benchmarks, Yada Yada Yada

While Microsoft has gobbled up tons of market share in the volume-server market over the past few years, it has been dogged by the widely held notion that Windows can't support very large, enterprise-level implementations. "The oldest issue we've dealt with is scalability," Ballmer said. "Today we should be able to completely convince you that there is no job that is too big to run completely on the Microsoft platform."

Ballmer had numbers to go along with those claims. He showed graphs that demonstrated the performance gains that SQL Server 2005 has made over its predecessor, SQL Server 2000. Ballmer referenced the SAP S&D three-tier test, which is useful for measuring database performance. SQL Server 2000's high-water mark of 26,000 concurrent users on a 32-way Unisys server in July 2003 was eclipsed in July 2005 by a 64-way Hewlett-Packard server running SQL Server 2005 that was able to maintain 93,000 concurrent users.

Ballmer also mentioned new TPC-C benchmarks for four-way and 16-way systems. Ballmer said a SQL Server 2005-based system owns the top slot for the best price-performance in the four-way market, while another owns the top slot for best price-performance and total performance in the 16-way market.

By reminding the IT world of these benchmarks, Ballmer implies it will be easy to convince everyone there's "no mission critical enterprise job of any form than you shouldn't feel confident today running on the Microsoft platform. There's a reason why the London Stock Exchange, Jet Blue, Merck, and blah blah blah blah blah blah, are embracing these products," he said.

Intel and Microsoft Together

Intel CEO Paul Otellini joined Ballmer onstage to talk about the future of X64-based computing. "Together we invented the standard high-volume-server business, and we've been able to drive this and change data center economics year after year after year," Otellini said.

Along the way, the companies have reached some notable milestones, Otellini said, including getting SQL Server to support eight processors in 1999 and adding support for 64 GB of memory in 2000. Microsoft and Intel products were also involved in another notable milestone a few weeks ago with a SQL Server-based system from volume-server leader Dell: "We've crossed the dollar per TPC for the first time ever," he said.

At this point, Ballmer looked to the front row and said: "I want our press friends to note that [we have] strong support for Pentium and strong support for Itanium, both." Otellini paused, looked at Ballmer while undoubtedly wondering why his partner had mentioned Intel's desktop processor at a server event, then quickly and simply set the record straight with one word, "Xeon." The partnership between Microsoft and Intel, while awkward at times, is still a driving force in the market.

Don't Overlook AMD

While Intel shared the stage with Microsoft, AMD is practically salivating at the chance to start processing SQL Server 2005 transactions on two-way and four-way Opteron-based servers, which continues to be the sweet spot in the X86 and X64 Wintel and Lintel volume-server market. AMD's Opteron processors right now hold an edge over Intel Xeons in the high-end X64 market, and AMD is looking to hit the ground running with the availability of SQL Server 2005.

New benchmarks show very good returns for running SQL Server 2005 on dual-core, 64-bit Opteron-based servers, according to Margaret Lewis, the chipmaker's chief software strategist. "AMD is very exited about this because [the database] is 64-bit compatible for X86," she said. "Databases are key applications for 64-bit performance, and respond well to dual core."

Lewis cites a recent TPC-C benchmark that shows a four-way Opteron- and SQL Server 2005-based server performing on par with a four-way Unix server from IBM running Power5 RISC processor and DB2. "AMD's 64-bit technology with SQL Server 2005 provides customers with an alternative to the high-end proprietary servers that they've traditionally been running their database with," she said.

As far as database pricing goes, SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition will cost $25,000 per processor, a 25 percent increase from the $20,000-per-processor price tag of SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition. Users of SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition, which runs on servers with up to four processors, will pay $6,000 per processor, a 20 percent increase from SQL Server 2000 Standard Edition--or pay a similar increase if they opt for the Client Access License (CAL) licensing schemes. New with SQL Server 2005 is a Workgroup Edition that installs on servers with up to two processors and will cost $3,899.

Like the free "Express" version of Visual Studio 2005 that Microsoft unexpectedly announced at the show (see "Visual Studio 2005 Is So Ready to Rock"), Microsoft is also offering a free "Express" version of SQL Server 2005.

But wait! The generosity from the world's richest software company didn't stop there: Ballmer also announced that Microsoft will be giving 50 percent discounts on SQL Server 2005 licenses to customers who migrate off competing databases, "like Oracle!"