911-SQL Server End of Support

  • Article

SQL Server 2000: On April 9, 2013, Extended Support for SQL Server 2000 will come to an end, and SQL Server 2000 will no longer be supported. After this date:

  • No more updates. Updates to this software will stop and so customers will no longer receive patches including security updates.
  • Self-Help Online Support will be available for a minimum of 12 months.

SQL Server 2005: On April 12, 2011, SQL Server 2005 will transition from Mainstream Support to Extended Support, which includes:

  • Paid support (charged on an hourly basis per incident). Customers will no longer receive no-charge incident support and warranty claims, and won’t be able to request design changes or features.
  • Security update support at no additional cost.
  • Paid Hotfix Support. Non-security related hotfix support will require a separate Extended Hotfix Support Agreement to be purchased within 90 days of the end of Mainstream Support – July 11th, 2011.

The most recommended and obvious choice will be migration to SQL Server 2008 R2. In case you want more information about this:

Why upgrade from SQL Server 2000?

BI specific reasons:

  • Analysis Services (SSAS) enhancement on productivity, performance, and extensibility
  • Reporting Services (SSRS) enhancement on self-service reporting with IT control, report design, and programmability
  • Integration Services (SSIS) enhancement on performance, scalability, and productivity
  • Enhanced Reporting Services performance and scalability allowing you to run and deliver richly formatted reports to users through a variety of mechanisms

More features like:

  • New editions: Datacenter and Parallel Warehouse
  • New Master Data Hub
  • Complex event processing
  • Database engine enhancements
  • Self-service BI enhancements on interactive reports collaboration, massive data analysis in Excel

New features:

  • New data types i.e.DATE, TIME, FILESTREAM, XML and Spatial data
  • Backup and Data Compression
  • New auditing features
  • New security features
  • Resource Governor

Top Benefits and Features

For the IT Pro

For the BI Practitioner

For the Developer

Enhanced database engines to increase local and remote availability, performance through better concurrency, and email scaling

Enhanced SSRS for end- user reporting (while preserving IT control), more flexible and productive reports

Enhanced database engine programmability to increase performance, flexibility, and extensibility of database applications

Better control over access and manipulation of data with new management UI

Enhanced SSAS for quicker online analytical processing (OLAP) cube creation and performance

Enhanced SSRS to increase the report connectivity and manageability

Enhanced search performance for full-text data and other data types

Enhanced SSIS to increase scalability and productivity of extract, transform, and load (ETL) applications

Enhanced SSAS to increase flexibility and extensibility of OLAP applications