Windows Server 2008 R2 Unleashed

A complete introduction to SQL Server 2008 R2 and its new database abilities

I have two whole bookshelves devoted entirely to SQL Database books. The later ones all have a similar development organization. This book is a pleasant departure from the tired old introduction. The 2008 R2 database deserves this improved introduction because it signals a change in the direction that Microsoft is making for its signature database usage. Considering all the advertizing on Business Intelligence, anayletics, and data mining, the enhansed features of this new release indicate a higher level of wisdom concerning database use. So, a more comprehensive introduction is needed in this book in order for the user to understand the proper use of this database. The book starts with the usual requirements and specifications and a short section on new features. Each section has a place to introduce the new features and how to use them properly. I wish the older books had more of these explanations, it would have saved me years of wondering. Still, this is a book intended to support large database design and many of the things covered here, like mirroring compression, Filestreaming, and encryption, are beyond the needs of small clients like mine. Other chapters, such as the use of Powershell, and spacial data types are of practical use to me and others. I have never seen such a complete coverage of a database product in one volume. In fact the 1550 printed pages, not including the index, make this one of the thickest books on the shelves. However pages 1551 to 2351 have to be included on the CD in order to finish the material. It took me several weeks to finish reading the book and I skimmed many chapters. I develop databases and application interfaces for small systems. As the demands for data collection have increased, I have come to find that the express version maximum database size of 4GB has become too small. Even at Microsoft, which uses this version in VSTS testing, has come to find that their testing jams up at around 60 hours of testing due to this li...