Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals

Today Soma has announced that we've extended the Visual Studio Team Edition range to include an edition for Database Professionals.  This is a new area for us (actually so are the architect and tester editions) that should cater for those who are mostly focused on developing database applications (such as working with SQL Reporting services) as well as anyone maintaining databases or even managing lots of stored procs, etc.

One question we are likely to get (and I know this because I've already feilded a question on it) is "I want to switch to the new Database SKU and I've got the (for example) Architect SKU - how can I switch?".  The answer is that the Team Editions are all sold based on a subscriptions, and the subscriptions dont allow you to switch editions mid subscriptions.  Instead you have two options.  Either you can wait for the subscription to expire and then switch or you can upgrade to the Team Suite which includes all the role based SKU's.

However, given that the Database Professional SKU is about to go to its first CTP (the week of June 11), I dont think this will be a problem until later in the year when it is released (note that I dont actually know the release time table so this is my guess).

Full details of this new SKU can be found here.

*UPDATE* I have just been chatting over email with Dave Dustin - he thinks this is a good thing and might give RedGate some competition - it was actually Dave that asked about switching :-)