BI Roadmap for SQL Server Redefines Self-service Tools, Reporting, Data Warehousing

The roadmap for business intelligence (BI) applications written in SQL Server was announced at the Microsoft Business Intelligence Conference this week in Seattle.

Codename Kilimangaro

The next version of the SQL Server, code-named Kilimanjaro, is scheduled for release in the first half of 2010 with a focus on self-service and reporting capabilities for BI. A community technology preview (CTP) should be available within the next 12 months.

Codename Gemini

The self-service features are wrapped up in a set of technologies code-named Gemini. The idea is to empower users to build BI applications that can access data across many sources, aggregate the data, build charts and reports and share the resulting applications via SharePoint. Gemini is closely tied to Excel, allowing users of that desktop program access to the self-service analytics.

Another key feature of Gemini is in-memory BI, which analyzes large amounts of data in memory in order to speed performance.

Office Communications Server Integration

The tools will integrate the unified communications capabilities of Office Communications Server to aid the sharing of BI results.

Code-named Madison

Also a highly scalable database technology code-named Madison that would be available in an appliance. Madison integrates SQL Server with technology acquired from DataAllegro earlier this year. DataAllegro developed large-volume data warehousing appliances to handle hundreds of terabytes of data. At the conference, Microsoft showed a demo using 1 trillion rows of data.

CTPs of Madison will roll out in the next 12 months with the appliances available in the first half of 2010. Dell, HP, Unisys, Bull Systems and EMC have signed on as hardware partners.

Conference Videos

You can see the conference keynotes online. Links to Conference Highlights are found on the main page at https://www.msbiconference.com/