Microsoft's Next SQL

Paul Flessner, senior vice president of Microsoft's .Net Enterprise Server division, is set to take the stage at the company's TechEd developer conference next week to detail the next version of SQL Server, code-named Yukon, which is due next year.

Yukon will form the basis of a new, more scalable data store for the next release of Exchange Server, code-named Kodiak.

"The fact that WSS was as complex and unnatural as it was suggests to me that its replacement by SQL Server will benefit everyone," said Frederick Volking, senior architect at Hunter Stone, a Columbia, S.C.-based solution provider. "We see a big part of our market will be helping convert all those WSS applications to the new Yukon store."

The Microsoft effort coincides with a move by IBM's Lotus Software unit to move to a DB2-based store for its Domino after it ships Domino 6 later this year.

Solution providers have complained about both Microsoft's WSS and IBM's Lotus Domino's Notes Storage Facility (NSF). They said the new data stores promise to provide a more uniform way of accessing and managing heterogenous data, leading to a new wave of applications.

The moves by Microsoft and Lotus mark a "big dislocation" that should level the playing field between IBM and Microsoft for the first time, Volking said. "They're both backpedaling, and that opens up opportunities for us."

Constantine Photopoulos, president of Eden Communications, a Lotus partner in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., said he was likewise thrilled about Lotus' DB2 direction. "We'll hopefully be able to remove the sentence 'That's a Notes issue' from our repertoire when people ask us why the application can't do this or that," he said.

Microsoft is also working on common underlying data services to be used in many of its products. Such technology would be somewhat analogous to the search technology now used across the Microsoft product lineup.

Microsoft hopes the Yukon release will erase any doubts that SQL Server can compete in the largest enterprises against Oracle.

"SQL Server never got all the way up into that high end, although it's great at the department level and for midsize corporations," said Rick Fricchione, vice president of Compaq Global Services' Enterprise Ready Microsoft group.

"We can do a lot of [enterprise work today with SQL Server, but a lot of

extra design and care goes into the implementations. A lot more of that will

be built into the product [over time," he added.

Even Microsoft insiders privately say Exchange Server has been hamstrung by its current data store. The current WSS "is still built on the old Access JET engine, which was designed for small applications,not running huge multiuser mail systems or directory services with replication. That's why [both Active Directory and Exchange have so much trouble scaling," one Microsoft source said.

Fricchione is also eager to see more unified data management and access across Microsoft's product line. "When you look at where people want to go with server products, it almost doesn't matter if it's a mail store or a SharePoint [portal or an application," he said. "It's problematic right now having all these different mechanisms [to access and manage data. It complicates availability, recovery and disaster planning."

While integrators might be thrilled with migration work afforded by vendor road map changes, corporate IT staffs may not be.

PAULA ROONEY contributed to this story.