SQL Server 2011 Denali is recently released with new intriguing features. This recent version is also referred as MS SQL server 2011 CTP1 where CTP stands for Community Technology Preview. It is public beta of upcoming release of SQL server. It is enhanced form of SQL database which posses various improved features and functionalities than earlier versions. It is much superior in terms of performance, reliability and scalability. The feature pack of this recent edition includes JDBC, OLEDB, ODBC and PHP drivers. It comes with various tools and add-ons like Report builder, Add-in for Excel, PowerPivot for Excel, Master data services and Compiler etc. It also offers the facility of FileTable which is special table of files with Windows API compatibility and non-transactional access.

Enhancements in SQL Server 2011 Denali

• Improved web development environments
• Better data quality services
• Business Intelligence enhancements
• Simplified project templates
• Improved developer tools which will help in editing of data and database objects
• Data-tier Application Framework
• Offers full-text search tweaks and ad-hoc query paging
• Enhancements in error handling features
• Addition of new data warehouse query acceleration feature
• Better data integration management
• Enhancements in SSIS
• Improved functionalities of ‘Order by’ clause

Apart from these high-end features and functionalities, SQL Server 2011 Denali has introduced new procedures which enable users to read query metadata without executing it. These procedures are as follows:

• sys.dm_exec_describe_first_result
• sys.dm_exec_describe_first_result_set_for_object
• sp_describe_undeclared_parameters

All these features and functionalities show that it is much improved version of MS SQL which eases your task. Evaluation edition of SQL Server 2011 CTP1 is supported on Windows Vista SP2, Windows Server 2008 SP2, Windows 2008 R2 SP1 and Windows 7 SP1 operating system. It requires at least 3.6 GB of free hard disk space.