Microsoft pushes back SQL Server 2008

According to Microsoft, SQL Server 2008 is delayed to the third or fourth quarter of 2008. That’s a disappointment, as SQL Server 2005 is getting long in the tooth, and developers have been looking forward to the new release… and had hoped it might ship in the first or second quarter of this year.

In his TechNet posting, “Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Roadmap Clarification,” Microsoft’s Francois Ajenstat, director of SQL Server marketing, writes,

“To continue in this spirit of open communication, we want to provide clarification on the roadmap for SQL Server 2008. Over the coming months, customers and partners can look forward to significant product milestones for SQL Server. Microsoft is excited to deliver a feature complete CTP during the Heroes Happen Here launch wave and a release candidate (RC) in Q2 calendar year 2008, with final Release to manufacturing (RTM) of SQL Server 2008 expected in Q3. Our goal is to deliver the highest quality product possible and we simply want to use the time to meet the high bar that you, our customers, expect.”

Translation: The software’s running late due to quality problems.

Heroes Happen Here,” by the way, doesn’t refer to a new computer game. It’s the combo launch of Windows Server 2008 (“Longhorn Server”), Visual Studio 2008 (“Orcas”) and SQL Server 2008 (“Katmai”), happening on Feb. 27. The fact that the software’s not ready has little do with the launch, apparently.

Indeed, as Microsoft’s Anthony Carrabino, SQL Server’s senior product manager, explains in his blog post, “SQL Server 2008 and Launch,”

We often get questions about our upcoming Launch event in Los Angeles on Feb. 27th, and when SQL Server 2008 will actually ship. The two events are loosely connected but they are not the same. The Launch event in Los Angeles is actually a marketing event designed to tell the world about SQL Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and Windows Server 2008. The Launch event allows the marketing teams for each product to efficiently deliver in-depth product information to our customers, partners and to our own sales field. Since all three Microsoft products are being Released to Manufacturing (RTM) within months of each other, it makes sense for us to create a single event for delivering information about these exciting new releases. As a result, the Launch event provides IT Professionals, Developers and Software Enthusists alike with an exciting and convenient way to have fun learning about all three products in one place. In honor of our customers worldwide, the Launch event is called “Heroes Happen Here”.

It’s good news that we’ll at least have a real Community Technology Preview in February; the November CTP was incomplete. It seems possible that we’ll have the first release candidate by June’s TechEd conference.

If you are bemused, as I am, by the Microsoft-speak in these official announcements, you’ll enjoy Phil Factor’s application of that “technology” to another deadline-driven environment: high school history class.

Z Trek Copyright (c) Alan Zeichick
2 replies
  1. Alan Zeichick
    Alan Zeichick says:

    One comment on Phil Factor’s blog resonated with me:

    “How could I explain to my friends or relatives that I was going to go to a launch event call ‘Heroes Happen Here’ and retain even a shred of self-respect. Do these marketing men understand, as they continue to abuse the English language, what a hero actually is? I feel sure, from my reading of history, that it means more than going to a Microsoft publicity bash.”

  2. Golden Davis
    Golden Davis says:

    Maybe they’re waiting to try to get it right. That would be a novelty. Then what will the guys complaining about Vista do with their spare time? Attend ‘Heroes Happen Here’ ?

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