Partners; 64-Bit SQL Server Will Find Home In Midmarket

The database, code-named Liberty and officially called SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition (64-bit), is slated for release to manufacturing next week, along with Windows Server 2003, the operating system it will require. Both are expected to be available next month. The official launch is set for April 24.

Microsoft touts the fact that SQL Server takes advantage of the latest 64-bit microprocessors as proof that it can compete with high-end Oracle databases on Unix.

But it is also of interest to "midsize companies looking for faster transactional processing without having to spend a million [dollars] on hardware," said Rand Morimoto, president of Convergent Computing, a solution provider in Oakland, Calif.

"You don't need a 16-proc Unisys box, but off-the-shelf Dells, and [you] get two, three, four times the performance with just incremental hardware spending," he said.

Smaller organizations wanting to consolidate servers are also looking into the new database.

In the past, companies adding back-office applications tended to put them on dedicated servers. "With this database, you can run multiple instances of the database on the same box and the applications, and SQL Server will have enough memory," said Mitch Gatchalian, SQL Server product manager at Microsoft.

Customers running SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition, which costs $19,999 per CPU, can upgrade to the 64-bit version on the same number of processors for no additional charge, Gatchalian said. They will be charged to use additional processors, he said.

Because the database is built on existing SQL Server 2000 code, some partners were concerned after a worm ravaged SQL Server databases last month.

Gatchalian said Liberty incorporates all the Service Pack 3 updates, which fix the vulnerability that the SQL Slammer worm exploited.