Microsoft Touts OLAP Strides For Yukon, Renames Mobile Database
SQL Server 2005, code-named Yukon, will include updated Reporting Services that let developers send out report-processing capabilities with their custom applications. That will be done in the form of embeddable, distributable, Visual Studio-built controls. Bill Baker, general manager of SQL Service Business Intelligence at Microsoft, announced the news at VSLive in San Francisco.
Integral reporting services were being developed for Yukon when it was slated to ship last year. When the database date was postponed, Microsoft accelerated the reporting services and said it would launch them for the current SQL Server 2000 last June.
Some Microsoft partners said that decision took some of the sting out of the database delays.
"Reporting services were so important that Microsoft broke them out early. We're doing a lot of stuff with them, so that helped us," said Frank Cullen, principal of Blackstone and Cullen, an Atlanta-based solution provider.
Baker also touted new numbers that show Microsoft's growing clout in the online analytical processing (OLAP) market. The OLAP Report shows OLAP leaders such as Hyperion, Cognos and others experiencing a market-share decline while Microsoft's share expanded. Microsoft said it did not finance the report.
Microsoft's crowing about its OLAP clout contrasts starkly with the company's stance last year when its plans to enter the market emerged. At that time, the the Redmond, Wash., company was careful to downplay any direct competition with those analytics vendors (see story).
Also at VSLive, Baker unveiled a name change for the pint-sized version of SQL Server. The new version, tied to the Yukon release of the bigger database, will be called SQL Server 2005 Mobile Edition and add support for Tablet PCs. This database, code-named Laguna, tied to both the SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005 releases, Microsoft said.
The current SQL Server 2000 Windows CE Edition targets PocketPC devices. Microsoft also offers an even more compact Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine, or MSDE, for embedding in smaller devices.