SQL Server 2008 July CTP available for download
The July CTP of SQL Server 2008 is now available for download on the SQL Connect site. You can see a nice graphical representation of what's new on the SQL Server 2008 Improvement Pillars page. Highlights incude:
- Reporting Services Enhancements to core processing and redering engine, Tablix support and removal of IIS dependency as well as new Report Designer and configuration tools
- New date and time data types
- Performance Data Collection
- Object Dependencies improvement provides reliable discovery of dependencies between objects through newly introduced catalog view and dynamic management functions.
- Database Mirroring Enhancements
One thing to note if you currently use Notification Services is section 5 of the readme for the July CTP
5.0 Deprecated Features
This section covers SQL Server 2005 features that are no longer included with SQL Server 2008.
5.1 SQL Server Notification Services Removed from SQL Server 2008
SQL Server Notification Services will not be included as a component of SQL Server 2008, but will continue to be supported as part of the SQL Server 2005 product support life-cycle. Moving forward, support for key notification scenarios will be incorporated into SQL Server Reporting Services. Existing Reporting Services functionality, such as data driven subscriptions, addresses some of the notification requirements. Features to support additional notification scenarios may be expected in future releases.