News

The end of SQL Server 2000 On 8 April 2008 SQL Server 2000 ceased to be in mainstream support. SQL Server 2000, which was originally released in November 2000, moves into an extended support phase. SQL Server 2000 will receive security only updates in the future from Microsoft for the duration of the extended support period (until 9 April 2013). The Microsoft Support Lifecycle details can be found here http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?LN=en-us&p1=2852&x=17&y=10. General details about the lifecycle of Microsoft products is http://support.microsoft.com/?pr=lifecycle The options available are 1. Stay with SQL Server 2000 2. Upgrade to SQL Server 2005 SP2 running in a backward compatibility mode (this should only be considered as a temporary measure) 3. Upgrade fully to SQL Server 2005 4. Upgrade to SQL Server 2008

The Release to manufacturing (RTM) of SQL Server 2008 is expected to be in the third quarter of 2008. The final feature complete Customer Technology Preview (CTP) is expected to be available shortly with a release candidate (RC) in Q2.