GCN SQL Server 2005 Article

Today, Government Computer News posted an article on SQL Server 2005 on their web site.  The article contains a quote from me taken in an interview I gave about 7 months ago.  When I heard about this, I thought it was pretty cool.  It turns out that my quote was used to set up a story on the fact that Database Mirroring (DBM) would not be generally available at launch.  Don't you hate it when that happens? :)

Here is the official statement from Microsoft on DBM:

"One of the things we learned is that our Database Mirroring feature needs more time in the hands of customers before we make it generally available for production use. The feature is complete, has passed extensive internal testing, and we are committed to making it generally available in the first half of 2006. We will continue to field test the feature with customers and will release it for general use as soon as you tell us it is ready."  

As has been mentioned in numerous other blogs, Database Mirroring is actually in the product.  It is not turned on by default (it requires a trace flag), but customers are using it in production today with support from Microsoft.  Once we receive additional feedback from these customers we will make the feature available for everyone.

Our goal with SQL Server has always been to make complex features "just work", thereby reducing the burden on database administrators.  To ensure that database mirroring meets that bar, it needs testing beyond what can be done in a lab, or even in production, at Microsoft.  It needs extensive real world testing with real customers in a variety of environments.  While it is disappointing that we could not get that testing done before the release of SQL Server 2005, I believe that delaying the feature until we can verify that it "just works" is the right decision.

-David