Specifications
10 CHAPTER 1 SQL Server 2008 R2 Editions and Enhancements
PowerPivot data access in the farm. This new approach promises better integration
with SharePoint while also enhancing SharePoint’s support of PowerPivot workbooks
published to SharePoint. Chapter 10, “Self-Service Analysis with PowerPivot,” discusses
PowerPivot for SharePoint.
NOTE In order to use this new installation feature option, SharePoint 2010 must be
installed but not congured prior to installing SQL Server 2008 R2.
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Premium Editions SQL Server 2008 R2 introduces two new premium editions to
meet the needs of large-scale data centers and data warehouses. The new editions,
Datacenter and Parallel Data Warehouse, will be discussed in the “SQL Server 2008 R2
Editions” section later in this chapter.
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Unicode Compression SQL Server 2008 R2 supports compression for Unicode
data types. The data types that support compression are the unicode compression and
the xed-length nchar(n) and nvarchar(n) data types. Unfortunately, values stored off
row or in nvarchar(max) columns are not compressed. Compression rates of up to 50
percent in storage space can be achieved.
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Extended Protection SQL Server 2008 R2 introduces support for connecting to the
Database Engine by using Extended Protection for Authentication. Authentication is
achieved by using channel binding and service binding for operating systems that sup-
port Extended Protection.
Advantages of Using Windows Server 2008 R2
The database platform is intimately related to the operating system. Because of this relation-
ship, Microsoft has designed Windows Server 2008 R2 to provide a solid IT foundation for
business-critical applications such as SQL Server 2008 R2. The combination of the two prod-
ucts produces an impressive package. With these two products, an organization can achieve
maximum performance, scalability, reliability, and availability, while at the same time reducing
the total cost of ownership associated with its database platform.
It is a best practice to leverage Windows Server 2008 R2 as the underlying operating
system when deploying SQL Server 2008 R2 because the new and enhanced capabilities of
Windows Server 2008 R2 can enrich an organization's experience with SQL Server 2008 R2.
The new capabilities that have direct impact on SQL Server 2008 R2 include
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Maximum scalability Windows Server 2008 R2 is capable of achieving unprece-
dented workload size, dynamic scalability, and across-the-board availability and reli-
ability. For instance, Windows Server 2008 R2 supports up to 256 logical processors
and 2 terabytes of memory in a single operating system instance. When SQL Server
2008 R2 runs on Windows Server 2008 R2, the two products together can support
more intensive database and BI workloads than ever before.