Microsoft SQL Server 2005 has been positioned in the Leaders quadrant of the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Warehouse Database Management Systems, 2007.

“In my opinion, this report is a strong statement about Microsoft’s continued commitment to providing a comprehensive data platform that scales with the needs of enterprise applications and data storage requirements,” said Ted Kummert, corporate vice president of the Data and Storage Platform Division at Microsoft. “Customers such as Danske Supermarket, PREMIER Bankcard and TDC are using the data warehousing functionality of SQL Server 2005 and are seeing amazing business results. With the upcoming release of SQL Server 2008, customers will realize even greater innovations designed to help them access, manage and utilize their business data.”

According to the Gartner report, “The data warehouse database management system (DBMS) market continues to show intense, increasing competition. Interestingly, 2007 saw the market continuing to embrace the appliance solution — while many organizations are deploying technically elegant solutions, a larger part of the market is following the mantra of ‘easy to install, rapid time to productivity and 80 percent of needs met.'”*

The Magic Quadrant, an esteemed evaluative model established by Gartner, positions vendors according to their ability to execute and completeness of vision. According to the report, “The data warehouse DBMS market is in transition due to new entrants, the data warehouse appliance fever, large DBMS vendors challenging the data warehouse-only vendors and the changing workloads affecting the performance of the data warehouse.”*

In addition to manageability and scalability, Microsoft is committed to broadening the reach of business intelligence by providing an easy and integrated user experience for accessing and working with business information. As demonstrated through recent collaboration with partners such as Dell and HP to offer data warehousing reference configurations, Microsoft helps customers build BI solutions that help enable real-time decision-making throughout the organization.

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 is comprehensive, integrated data management and analysis software that helps enable organizations to reliably manage mission-critical information and confidently run today’s increasingly complex business applications. SQL Server 2005 allows companies to gain greater insight from their business information and achieve fast results for a competitive advantage. SQL Server 2008, planned for release next year, builds on those innovations to help customers access and manage the rapidly increasing volumes of data for mission-critical applications, better understand the organization with business insight, and reduce difficulties associated with managing complex systems. SQL Server is part of Microsoft’s Application Platform, a suite of products and technologies designed to help customers build, run and manage dynamic business applications.