Are you going to adopt SQL Server 2005 in the next year?

It's an interesting question and one that I've been asked many times each time there is a new version of SQL Server. Managers and other decision makers constantly want to know what the compelling reasons are to spend money and make a change. And answering them often requires some justification, which is hard to come with on your own. Especially when you are trying to learn more about the product yourself.

A great way to get some justification, and learn a bit more about where you stand in relation to other companies is to use a survey of some sort to get answers. Since not everyone runs a SQLServerCentral.com, it's not easy to get an idea of whether you should be pushing harder or waiting awhile.

Edgewood Solutions, a SQL Server consulting company, has specialized in all aspects of SQL Server and does a great job supporting the user community. They donate a lot of time and resources to the Northern Virginia SQL Server User's Group and New Hampshire SQL Server Users Group, speak and have a booth at the PASS Summit every year, and in general are a great SQL Server community resource and a good friend of SQLServerCentral.com.

We announced their survey awhile back and they have completed the survey and compiled the results. The Overview is available for download and the complete survey for purchase for $49. If you are looking to make a decision on SQL Server 2005, I'd urge you to purchase the survey, which contains some great information and helps support this type of endeavor in the future.

The Results

I can't talk about all the results since this is a purchased product, but the breakdown of percentages is interesting and worth the money to anyone making a business decision.

However, the Overview has some overall results in it. Interestingly, the top benefits to upgrading are performance, .NET, SSIS, SSRS/BI, and T-SQL changes. I guess I could argue that's most of the product, but the HA pieces aren't really put up there, so unless people are thinking of mirroring and snapshots as performance items, that's surprising. Remember this survey was done before the announcement that Database Mirroring would not be in the RTM, so I was surprised.

It does seem that most companies, of all sizes, are looking to wait a year before adopting the platform, so if you are counting on getting lots of real world stories from people, you might be disappointed. There will be some, but it means that you should be doing your own testing and learning about the product as much as you can, and as soon as you can. We'll be working to get you more information here at SQLServerCentral.com, but we may find information from the real world as hard to come by as you. Hint, if you upgrade, send us an article 🙂

Conclusions

In some companies you'll be upgrading strictly as a result of some support contract. But even in large companies, many times you'll need some business case or justification for choosing one system over another. Or maybe even to delay an upgrade. A survey such as this can help you make the decision.

So take a moment, grab the Overview and if you think there's something you can use, support Edgewood and grab a copy of the full survey results.

• SQL Server 2005 Adoption Plans - Overview
• SQL Server 2005 Adoption Plans - Complete Survey US$49