Microsoft announced the release to manufacturing of the latest version of its SQL Server, which comes with new features, such as support for policy-based management, auditing, large-scale data warehousing, geospatial data, and advanced reporting and analysis services.

As Ted Kummert, corporate vice president of the Data and Storage Platform Division at Microsoft, pointed out, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 is the only major database to include comprehensive, tightly integrated functionality for data management, as well as advanced business intelligence out of the box.

“Microsoft developed this release of SQL Server with the customer in mind,” Kummert said. “By offering a complete solution, we save customers time and money and allow them to focus on deriving the most value from their data assets.”

According to Microsoft, SQL is the only database management system capable of delivering scalable results on TPC-E, the Transaction Processing Performance Council’s (TPC) newest and most challenging online transaction processing (OLTP) benchmark.

Among those who have already begun testing Microsoft’s SQL Server 2008 are Clear Channel Communications Inc., Fidelity Investments, Hilton Hotels Corp., Simon & Schuster Inc., Siemens AG and Xerox Corp., as well as many others.

Gary Olberg, vice president of IT and development at Applied Discovery, talked about a 35 percent improvement in throughput on the system after upgrading to SQL Server 2008. “This translates straight to the bottom line for us, as the more documents we can upload, the more we can process.”

The SQL Server 2008 is available to MSDN and TechNet subscribers, and will be available for evaluation download starting August 7, 2008, Microsoft unveiled. The company also added that the pricing of the SQL Server will not increase with SQL Server 2008.