Microsoft's SQL Server 2005

It's been about five years since the last major upgrade to SQL Server--time enough for Microsoft to update just about every component of the database platform and incorporate many new features.

T-SQL Developments

On the database development front, SQL Server 2005 provides more T-SQL (Microsoft's extension to SQL) functionality--enhancements that fill in some of the holes found in SQL Server 2000. T-SQL now has a ranking function, for example, that lets you return a specific group of records from a large query. With 2000, developers had to create temporary tables, then filter out what wasn't needed--not very efficient.

XML Support

SQL Server 2005 includes much more support for XML data than 2000, including a new XML data type that can hold XML documents or XML fragments (XML without a top-level element) to be stored in a column, parameter or variable. The XML data can be retrieved or updated with XQuery or XML DML (Data Modification Language).

Integrated .Net Support

SQL Server is now integrated with .Net CLR (Common Language Runtime), which controls tasks such as memory management and code compilation. This gives SQL Server the power of full-fledged development languages like VB.NET and C#.NET to create stored procedures, triggers and user-defined functions.

Keep It Safe

Microsoft's security problems keep it vigilant. The new default installation of SQL Server 2005 disables many services and features that were typically enabled in SQL Server 2000, including remote named pipes, TCP and HTTP connections, OLE automation and the xp_cmdshell extended stored procedure. Although these are disabled by default, Microsoft says an upgrade installation will leave enabled most of what you had enabled. Also, these services and protocols can be managed using the new Surface Area Configuration tool.