Microsoft adds embedded SQL Server Everywhere Edition to line-up

Microsoft have announced SQL Server Everywhere as part of their line-up for SQL Server.

Everywhere is based upon SQL Server Mobile Edition but available for Windows XP platform. It is already used by MSN Client and Media Center PC.

Being embedded means there is no background service publishing the information to any application interested. This means it is also quite unsuitable for hosting web applications — if you want a free database server for that you could try SQL Server Express.

Anywhere will ship as 7 DLL’s that weigh in at about 1.4MB but there are some restrictions. The maximum database size is 4GB and Everywhere only supports pure data — no stored procedures, views, triggers, CLR defined types or macros. It has no support for XML or Xpath a simplified security model and a subset of the usual SQL types.

What it does support is up to 256 connections, synchronization, encryption and full file compatibility with Mobile.

The current timetable shows a CTP around July and a full release by end of year. For now you can develop against Mobile but won’t be able to deploy until Microsoft issue a go-live licence for Anywhere.

This brings us up to 7 versions — you may find the feature matrix helpful in determining which one you need.

SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition

Includes all the features of Standard but adds vertical partitioning, indexed views, high-availability features, advanced transforms, replication with Oracle, scalability features, text mining and advanced data warehousing. Prices around £17,000 per-processor or £380 per -client.

SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition

All the features of Workgroup but adds proper 64-bit support, support for up to 4 CPU’s, basic mirroring and clustering, the database tuning advisor, notification services, basic integration services, web services, analysis and basic analytics and data mining. Prices around £4,000 per-processor or £250 per-client.

SQL Server 2005 Workgroup Edition

All the features of Express but with the memory limit at 3GB and no limit on database size. Also includes backup-log shipping, management studio, SQL Agent/job scheduling, full-text search, import/export and business intelligence & enterprise management tools. Prices around £2,700 per-processor or £110 per-client.

SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition

Same features as Enterprise Edition but license is for development, test or demo use only. It must not be deployed to live production scenarios and as such can be had for just £36 or as part of your MSDN Subscription.

SQL Server 2005 Express Edition

Express is Microsoft’s entry-level database service on Windows. It supports only 1 CPU (although multi-core chips are utilized) and a maximum database size of 4GB. It includes auto-tuning, encryption, XML, TSQL & CLR stored procedures, triggers, views and can be a subscriber to service broker, merge replication and transactional replication. It also supports running reports and is free to download and deploy. It makes a great database free database back-end for web sites!

SQL Server 2005 Everywhere Edition

The forthcoming Windows-desktop version of Mobile Edition that provides a free-to-deploy embedded database for your applications.

SQL Server 2005 Mobile Edition

Embedded database for the Windows CE, Mobile 2003, Mobile 5 or Tablet PC. Free-to-deploy but development requires a fully licensed version of Visual Studio 2005.

Now maybe we’ll finally see the back of Jet and the dreary .mdb.

[)amien