SQL Server 2008 RTM

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SQL Server 2008was released to manufacturing (RTM) today (see press release).  

You can download it on MSDN Subscriber Downloads and TechNet Subscriber Downloads.  Either search for SQL Server 2008 or navigate under Servers then to SQL Server 2008.

SQL Server 2008 is a big release and includes very significant changes and enhancements in Reporting Services 2008.  Over the next months, you can expect blog postings with drill-downs into particular functionality areas.  For now, you may want to take a closer look at some of the major new functionality areas in Reporting Services 2008:

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  • Improved Report Designer in Business Intelligence Development Studio
     

  • Report Builder 2.0
    Stand-alone report designer; more details about the release plan for Report Builder 2.0 are available in this blog posting.

  • Author reports with any structure, using the unique Tablix grouping and layout capabilities.
     

  • Leverage the enhanced Textbox (aka "RichText") to define mixed formatting within the same textbox.  In addition, HTML strings of text can be imported into the report from a database or other source.
     

  • Enhanced scalability and performance; more details covered in a previous posting.
     

  • Render reports to Microsoft Office Word format.
     

  • SharePoint Integrated Mode
    Integrate Reporting Services with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 for central delivery and management of business insight, or run it stand-alone in native mode. 
     

  • Data Visualization
    Gain insight into complex sets of data by displaying data graphically with enhanced visualization capabilities (chart, gauge).
     

  • New on-demand report processing and rendering architecture, including a new RenderingObjectModel.
      

  • New and enhanced data source types (Teradata).
     

  • New memory configuration options in the report server.  Parts of the underlying infrastructure rely on the so-called SQLOS, which has been used by the SQL Server database for several major releases.
     

  • No IIS dependency.  HTTP.SYS, and the CLR including ASP.NET are now directly hosted within the report server.
     

  • New and enhanced Reporting Services Configuration Tool.

Enjoy!

Comments

  • Anonymous
    August 06, 2008
    Great news for Microsoft BI fans everywhere, as we're excited to announce the launch and availability

  • Anonymous
    August 07, 2008
    With SQL Server 2008 RTM announced, we wanted to give you an update on the release plans for Report Builder

  • Anonymous
    August 07, 2008
    We've just released SQL Server 2008 (it feels great by the way!) and there have already been many e-mails

  • Anonymous
    August 07, 2008
    SQL Server SQL Server 2008 RTM [Via: Robert M. Bruckner ] SQL Server 2008 RTM Requires/Installs .Net...

  • Anonymous
    August 08, 2008
    Hi friends, I'm really happy to say that SQL Server 2008 was released on Wednesday! This is by far our

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2009
    BIDS SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio CRI Custom Report Item MDX Multi Dimensional