Microsoft is targeting close to zero downtime with SQL 2008 with availability and recovery features that only used to be available via third-party solutions. This white paper discusses the evolution of High-availability from SQL 2005 to SQL 2008, and the tools available to minimize downtime in the Enterprise. 

In August 2008, Microsoft Corporation commissioned Forrester Consulting to examine the total economic impact and potential return on investment (ROI) enterprises might realize by upgrading from SQL Server 2000 or 2005 to SQL Server 2008. Read the results here. 

Double-Take Software provides organizations with a solution that offers distinct recovery and protection advantages over manual Microsoft SQL built-in replication capabilities: Double-Take Availability saves more data real-time and restores that data in a much faster manner. 

This technical guide for database administrators and IT security experts demonstrates how you can protect your sensitive data with the native database encryption functions of Microsoft SQL Server 2008, such as cell-level encryption and Transparent Data Encryption, and manage and protect encryption keys with hardware security modules (HSMs). 

SQL Server 2008 has many compelling features, but not all of them are necessary. See what's a good fit for your enterprise and what can wait. 

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 has many great new features that will allow you to develop higher performing, more scalable next-generation applications using more than just relational data. 

Authored by Ron Ben Natan, Ph.D., author of "HOWTO Secure and Audit Oracle 10g and 11g" (CRC Press, March 2009), this white paper describes 8 essential best practices that provide a holistic approach to safeguarding databases and achieving compliance. 

In large networks, the sheer number of permission settings makes it almost impossible to gain a clear overview of overall security, and checking that all those permission are in compliance with corporate and regulatory standards is a Herculean task. 

This paper describes a comprehensive set of best practices that allow mid-market enterprise SAP customers to appropriately configure and use HP management software to monitor, manage, and operate an SAP® environment. 

Because of the success of SQL Server in recent years, unintended consequences have developed. These include low levels of utilization, poor availability, and an enormous management burden inflicted on many IT departments. This paper describes a solution: HP PolyServe Software for Microsoft SQL Server. 

This white paper provides an overview for deploying SQL Server in a virtualized environment for VMware ESX 3.5 Update 4 (U4) running on the latest PowerEdge M610 and M710 blade servers and EqualLogic PS6000XV iSCSI storage arrays. 

With Microsoft SQL Server 2008, small and mid-sized businesses have a variety of options for creating state-ofthe art strategies for ensuring high availability and disaster recovery for their databases. This article explains why upgrading to SQL Server 2008 may help IT sleep better at night. 

The ever present demand to maximise the value delivered by business-critical applications requires that we optimise the use of all the resources that execute and manage them. BMC Software is one of the major vendors offering such support and has a highly regarded set of solutions collectively called BMC SQL Performance for DB2.