Read this expert E-Guide to discover strategies and best practices essential for effective SQL Server consolidation and optimization. Gain insight into the common challenges associated with consolidation initiatives and learn how to maintain a high level of availability and performance in SQL Server virtual machines. 

It isn't always easy to know when to upgrade to the latest hardware or software release. In the case of Microsoft SQL Server 2008, there are many compelling reasons to make the move, including: Enhanced business intelligence; improved business continuity features; better performance and better management capabilities. 

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. 

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). 

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. 

IT needs tools that help their database and application developers produce high quality SQL code faster. To meet the demands of the business they need to accelerate application devlopment cycles and improve team collaboration and resource sharing. 

Dynamic management views and functions were extraordinary additions to SQL 2005, and they have only improved in function and increased in number in SQL 2008. This white paper will explore a few of their capabilities and give examples as to how they can ease the workload of a database administrator. 

This white paper documents the performance of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Business Intelligence and Data Warehouse solutions deployed on Dell PowerEdge servers with Dell PowerVault storage. Using the knowledge gained through joint development this white paper illustrates the cost-effective performance of Dell Solutions for SQL Server 2008. 

Microsoft SQL Server has steadily gained ground on other database systems and now surpasses the competition in terms of performance, scalability, security, developer productivity. This paper highlights some of the mission-critical areas in which SQL Server 2008 excels. 

Through a series of test scenarios that are representative of SQL Server application fundamentals, this document provides best practice recommendations on running SQL Server in Windows Hyper-V environment. 

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. 

In this transcript of the "Data Warehousing Basics for SQL Server Analysis Services" webcast, learn how to build your data warehouse for your SQL Server environment. Discover the necessary steps involved and learn about major concepts, including relational data warehousing and supported SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) storage formats.