Download SQL Server Denali CTP1

Next version of SQL Server after 2008 R2 has started taking it's baby steps in the Microsoft parlance. This version is called SQL Server Denali as of now, and the first CTP is available for download. You can download the same from here.

From a business intelligence perspective, SSIS is expected to be launched with a couple of improvements in SSIS toolset as well as SSIS designer in BIDS. A new reporting client for SQL Server is also expected. To unlock the suspense of what's new in SQL Server Denali, the only way is to download, install and check out what's new in this version.

In my views, my curiosity to check out some of the enhancements in my expectation are as follows:

1) Is there any improvement in SSMS from a spatial data support point of view?

2) Has the Reports Viewer control in SSMS been fixed to support SSRS 2008 and higher formats?

3) Has Silverlight support been added in SSRS?

4) What are the new enhancements in SSIS toolset as well as SSIS BIDS Designer?

5) Has better support now been provided in SSRS reports designer for reports debugging or we still need to use Fiddler?

6) Has any enhancements been provided for SSRS reports deployment or we still need to depend upon RSScripter?

7) Is there any improvement in SQL Server Agent to support better scheduling and triggering of services and instruction sets like SSIS packages, for example FileWatcher support in scheduler?

8) SSAS reference relationship of dimension with measuregroups has the probability to induce corruption in aggregation due to triggering of processing through partition processing. Has this been improved ?

9) BIDS Helper covers lots of gaps that BIDS does not provide. Has this support been incorporated as a part of BIDS?

10) Freeware utilities like SSMS Toolspack, SQL Search Add-in from Redgate, and DB Pro in Visual Studio are some of the distinct utilities that DB professionals require a lot during development. Has SSMS managed to spare us from using any of these utilities?

The above questions are the rapid-fire 10 questions that came out of my mind while drafting this post. There are many more curious questions popping up at different corners of my mind, and I am going to figure it out myself by checking out Denali. In case if you need food for your curiosity, I suggest doing the same.