I am very pleased to see that version 5.0 of SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) was released on April 28th, 2011. This release will reduce the time to do a migration significantly. Some of the new features include:

  • Reduced data migration time by SSMA exploiting multi-core processors and multiple-sockets.
  • Globalization support for migrating non-English databases to SQL Server.
  • Built-in support for clustered SQL Server environments in the SSMA Extension Pack.

If you are running your ISV offering on MySQL, Sybase or Oracle, you may wish to try a migration on a test system without any software costs. This is happening more and more often. Welly Lee, from the SSMA group, tells me that SSMA downloads are regularly exceeding 100K downloads/month.

  • Download the free 180 Trial of SQL Server Enterprise Edition
  • Download the appropriate SSMA below
  • Try a DIY (Do It Yourself) migration of the data
    • With ISV Offerings, there is rarely a need to migrate any of the "As Installed" code, just move the data.
    • Any custom coding will need to be migrated. You will likely be surprised by how little manual conversion is needed.

Downloads are available below:

For free SSMA product support just email ssmahelp@microsoft.com (they often respond in just a few hours).

Additional Resources: