SQL Server 2008 R2 November CTP

Hello,

November CTP of SQL Server 2008 R2 is out. If you are a technet or MSDN subscriber then its available now. If you don't have a subscription to any of these then you can download it from 11th Nov 2009.

Major changes from August CTP are:

• PowerPivot for SharePoint to support the hosting and management of PowerPivot applications in SharePoint
• Application and Multi-Server Management for enrolling, gaining insights and managing up to 25 instances
• Master Data Services for data consistency across heterogeneous systems
• Data Compression now enabled with UCS-2 Unicode support

SQL Server 2008 R2 delivers higher mission-critical scale, more efficient IT, and expanded reporting and analytics through self-service business intelligence. SQL Server 2008 R2 introduces two new premium editions to meet the needs of large scale datacenters and data warehouses.

 SQL Server 2008 R2 Datacenter

• SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse

 Following capabilities are new to SQL Server 2008 R2 Standard:

• Backup Compression to reduce data backups by upto 60% and help reduce time spent on backups *
• Can be managed instance for Application and Multi-Server Management capabilities

The PowerPivot for Excel 2010 component of SQL Server 2008 R2 (formerly known as "Gemini") will be available in the November CTP.

PowerPivot for Excel 2010 (formerly known as "Gemini") is a data analysis tool that delivers unmatched computational power directly within the application users already know and love—Microsoft Excel. It provides users with the ability to analyze mass quantities of data and IT departments with the capability to monitor and manage how users collaborate by integrating seamlessly with Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2.

You can sign up to get Notification on PowerPivot for Excel 2010 here:

https://profile.microsoft.com/RegSysProfileCenter/wizard.aspx?wizid=27d33a54-f9f5-4357-b652-6f03ba8a4d23&lcid=1033

Download it & start using it.

Regards.........