Friday, January 25, 2008

Shocker: SQL Server 2008 delayed

I didn't see this one coming. Microsoft announced today (Friday) that SQL Server 2008, originally due to ship in Q2, will now ship in Q3! Now in most cases this would hardly be news; Microsoft announces and delays products religiously. But what makes this announcement of particular interest is that SQL Server 2008 was slated to be one of the three pillars in the "biggest concurrent software release ever" kicking-off late next month. The Global Launch Wave was to feature VS 2008, SQL Server 2008, and Windows Server 2008.

So let's review. Of the three big products due to "launch" next month, one shipped really early (Visual Studio), one will ship really late (SQL Server), and (presumably) Windows Server will be the only product that ships "on time" at the launch (though it has already been delayed from 2007 to 2008). Somehow it hardly seems fair to call this the biggest concurrent release of business software anymore.

To be fair, Microsoft will be shipping a new release candidate of SQL Server 2008 at the big launch event, so it won't be a total no-show. The take-away: if you were planning on using SQL Server 2008 this spring/summer, your plans have changed.

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