Database Mirroring: Extend log shipping capabilities with the new database mirroring solution. You will be able to use database mirroring to enhance availability of your SQL Server systems by setting up automatic failover to a standby server.
Online Restore : With SQL Server 2005, database administrators will be able to perform a restore operation while an instance of SQL Server is running. Online restore improves the availability of SQL Server because only the data being restored is unavailable; the rest of the database remains online and available.
Online Indexing Operations: The online index option will allow concurrent modifications (updates, deletes, and inserts) to the underlying table or clustered index data and any associated indexes during index data definition language (DDL) execution. For example, while a clustered index is being rebuilt, you can continue to make updates to the underlying data and perform queries against the data.
Fast Recovery : A new faster recovery option will improve availability of SQL Server databases. Administrators will be able to reconnect to a recovering database after the transaction log has been rolled forward.
Security Enhancements: SQL Server 2005 includes security enhancements such as database encryption, secure default settings, password policy enforcement, fine grained permissions control, and an enhanced security model.
New SQL Server Management Studio: SQL Server 2005 will introduce SQL Server Management Studio, a new integrated suite of management tools. This toolset will include new functionality to develop, deploy, and troubleshoot SQL Server databases, as well as enhancements to previous functionality.
Dedicated Administrator Connection : SQL Server 2005 will introduce a dedicated administrator connection that administrators can use to access a running server even if the server is locked or otherwise unavailable. This capability will enable administrators to troubleshoot problems on a server by executing diagnostic functions or Transact-SQL statements.
Snapshot Isolation : A new Snapshot Isolation (SI) level will be provided at the database level. With SI, users will be able to access the last committed row using a transitionally consistent view of the database. This capability will provide greater scalability.
Data Partitioning : Data partitioning will be enhanced with native table and index partitioning that enables efficient manageability of large tables and indexes.
Replication Enhancements:For distributed databases, SQL Server 2005 provides comprehensive schema change (DDL) replication, next-generation monitoring capabilities, built in replication from Oracle to SQL Server, merge replication over https, and significant merge replication scalability and performance improvements. Additionally, the new peer-to-peer transactional replication feature improves support for data scale out using replication.
