REDMOND, Wash., Aug. 7, 2000 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that following the release of Microsoft® SQL Server™
2000 to manufacturing, over 100 enterprise customers will be going live on SQL Server 2000 over the next three months as part of a Rapid Deployment Program supported by Microsoft. In addition, Microsoft revealed that a select group of customers has been in production on SQL Server 2000 for up to six months as part of an Early Adopter Program. These customer applications will be among the many featured in the Enterprise 2000 launch on Sept. 26, 2000, which will unveil the first customer successes built on the recently announced .NET Platform.
SQL Server 2000, the first .NET enterprise server product, is the data management and analysis backbone for the coming wave of .NET applications and services. It is tailored to rapidly deliver Web-enabled applications for e-commerce, data warehousing and line of business that are highly scalable and reliable.
“SQL Server 2000 has received unprecedented quality-assurance testing,”
said Paul Flessner, vice president of .NET enterprise servers at Microsoft.
“We have worked with tens of thousands of beta customers; we have been running two of the top 10 Internet retailers in production for over three months; we have 20 other customers running their mission-critical business operations on SQL Server 2000; and Microsoft has been running all its own critical business operations on SQL Server 2000 for more than six months. This product is ready to go, and we will continue to invest resources to ensure that quality improves with every release of Microsoft SQL Server.”
A Database Platform for E-Commerce
A comprehensive set of features in SQL Server 2000 ensures that organizations have the support they need to Web-enable existing systems as well as build new applications. Integrated XML support allows database and application developers to easily store XML in the database or retrieve data in XML format – enabling fast application-to-application integration and Web site flexibility. Additional self-management and tuning, improved programmability, and datacenter management capabilities help ensure that enterprises and dot-coms can deliver e-commerce applications to customers and partners quickly and reliably.
“Using SQL Server 2000, we were able to launch a new, highly reliable Web business in record time,”
said Lyle Anderson, chief information officer of TV Guide Online.
“With features such as integrated XML support, we will be able to enhance future versions of our site even more quickly.”
Integrated Business Intelligence Capabilities
SQL Server 2000 extends the integrated business intelligence and data warehousing capabilities of SQL Server with improved data transformation tools, advanced data analysis and highly scalable online analytical processing (OLAP). Data mining – a new feature in SQL Server 2000 – is used to detect trends that would otherwise go unseen in large quantities of data. Moreover, with the ability to expose analytical information over the Internet, true Web-based access to analysis solutions will be possible, even through firewalls.
“SQL Server 2000 has allowed us to deliver Alinea, a proactive Web-based business analysis capability, to our Fortune 500 consumer packaged goods customer base through a secure and personalizable Internet portal,”
said Doug Bordner, vice president of technology at Inmar Enterprises Inc.
“Looking forward, we see opportunities to incorporate additional capabilities such as data mining and Internet-linked cubes, which can add even greater value to the services we provide.”
Line-of-Business Leadership
Demonstrating its scalability and performance in a number of transaction-processing scenarios, SQL Server has earned an impressive slate of record-setting benchmarks:
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Four of the top-five TPC-C industry-standard transaction processing performance records as well as the best price/performance for TPC-C
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Record performance results on enterprise resource planning (ERP) benchmarks from ISVs including SAP AG, PeopleSoft Inc., J.D. Edwards & Co. and Baan Co. NV
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Record performance results on customer relationship management (CRM) benchmarks from Pivotal Corp. and Onyx Software Corp.
In e-commerce and transactional systems, SQL Server 2000 on industry-standard hardware has proven to be more capable than its competitors on the largest UNIX systems.
“We’ve been running our business on SQL Server 2000 and J.D. Edwards One World software for the past six months,”
said Lee Fromson, vice president and chief financial officer of Cascade Designs Inc.
“SQL Server has proven that it can meet our current requirements and also provide all the headroom we need for future growth.”
About SQL Server
Created by a world-class development team, Microsoft SQL Server is the leading database for the Windows® platform and is a core part of the .NET enterprise servers, Microsoft’s comprehensive family of server applications for quickly building, deploying and managing scalable, integrated Web-based solutions and services.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software – any time, any place and on any device.
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