Upgrade to SQL Server 2005 or SQL Server 2008?

by
Denny Cherry

Upgrading to SQL Server 2005 may seem like a waste of time, considering SQL Server 2008 is scheduled for release in Q2 of 2008. Get an expert's opinion.

As our company evaluates a transition to either SQL Server 2005 or SQL Server 2008, we need to know whether our learning curve spent on 2005 will be a wasted effort. In other words, should we wait eight months to make a switch, if the SQL Server 2008 interface is very different from 2005 interface?

We could wait, but we also have a hankering to upgrade from 2000 to 2005 sooner rather than later. What are your thoughts for how to make this decision?

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No, your time spent learning SQL Serve 2005 will not be wasted. The SQL Server 2008 GUI is very similar to the SQL Server 2005 GUI. SQL Server 2008 will be based on SQL Server 2005, much in the same way that SQL Server 2000 was based on SQL Server 7. If you upgrade your systems from 2000 to 2005 now, you can take advantage of the benefits of SQL Server 2005 now, rather than having to wait for SQL Server 2008 to be released.

This was first published in December 2007

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