As we get closer to launch, I wanted to spend a moment to highlight some recently published case studies for SQL Server 2008. Its great to see the excellent work that our customers and partners are doing on our upcoming release.

  • Healthcare Group Upgrading to SQL Server 2008 to Better Protect 2 Terabytes of Data
    CareGroup Healthcare System is responsible for protecting the privacy and integrity of 2 terabytes of patient information and related data. CareGroup hosts its data on 390 databases on 30 instances of Microsoft SQL Server 2005. The organization is updating databases to SQL Server 2008 to take advantage of new features includ ing advanced auditing and transparent encryption to help it meet HIPAA and other regulatory requirements. CareGroup is using the Declarative Management Framework, new for SQL Server 2008, to enforce policy and schema across its operations, and is centralizing reporting using SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services accessed through a portal created using Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.

 

  • Software Company Creates Automated 'Database Factory' Using SQL Server 2008
    CyberSavvy believes in using software automation to make life easier for its customers. Its Software as a Service solution, DataPlace, which it terms a "database factory," enables technical and business oriented customers to create and modify their own databases, hosted by CyberSavvy. The company needed a rock-solid database with a faultless data transfer mechanism to support communication between its client-side SmartClient and backend databases. CyberSavvy deploys its solutions on the Microsoft Application Platform, using Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition on the hosted server side, and SQL Server 2008 Express Edition on the client side.

 

  • Austrian Broadcasting Corporation Prepares for Euro Cup Soccer with SQL Server 2008
    Austrian Broadcasting Corporation Radio & Television (ORF) has an IT group that helps its sportscasters and other reporters provide exceptional live sports coverage by providing nearly instantaneous analytics and other sports information from its sports database and related data warehouses. Looking ahead to the live coverage it will provide for the 2008 Euro Cup soccer championship games, which will be held in Austria and Switzerland, ORF wanted to ensure it had the best database infrastructure possible. After testing Microsoft SQL Server 2008, ORF decided to upgrade from SQL Server 2005 even before the official release of SQL Server 2008. The organization has seen even faster data processing since upgrading, and is enjoying enhanced data management through using new SQL Server 2008 features such as the Declarative Management Framework and Change Data Capture.

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  • Hitachi Consulting - IT Consulting Firm Eases Move from Crystal Reports to SQL Server Reporting Services
    Hitachi Consulting, a global organization recognized for delivering proven business and IT solutions to a wide range of industry leaders, needed an easier way to help organizations migrate from Crystal Reports to Microsoft® SQL Server® Reporting Services. The company had customers that had originally deployed business intelligence solutions using SQL Server for the relational data store but Crystal Reports for reporting, and wanted to gain the efficiency and savings of a single-vendor integrated solution. Hitachi Consulting, which is deploying SQL Server 2008, created its Reporting Center of Excellence, which provides cost-effective migrations, and a tool that automates conversion of reports to the Report Definition Language that Reporting Services uses. The company has found that moving to Reporting Services helps reduce complexity, enhance visibility, and lower reporting costs.

Also, even though this one is a SQL Server 2005 case study, I think that its particularly interesting

  • Citi - Market Montage Solution Supports 200,000 Updates per Second with SQL Server 2005
    When Citi’s Lava Technology team needed to create a compliance solution for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Regulation NMS (requiring dealers to use best-available pricing when executing securities orders), it thought it would need a Cray supercomputer or other specialized solution. This is because terabytes of data are required to recreate market conditions at the point of an order execution at any point in time. After doing a “bake-off” competitive testing with other solutions, the company, which provides a suite of products to support real-time feeds across multiple equity markets, determined that the Microsoft® Application Platform, including Microsoft SQL Server® 2005, provided the best performance and lowest total cost of ownership. The solution supports peak loads that exceed 200,000 messages per second.