Microsoft announced SQL Server 2008 on February 27th, and potential users are interested in its capabilities, particularly regarding server consolidation and resource management in order to plan for future deployments. When implementing a hardware consolidation project, one major step involves consolidating corporate data, which is mostly managed by multiple database engines. This activity requires high-performance servers with multiple CPUs and addressable memory capacity. Experience shows that the average size of databases grows exponentially, with the result that business processing applications like data warehouse and business intelligence become more demanding and complex.

This whitepaper discusses how SQL Server 2008, particularly 64-bit server configurations, together with the resources and technologies available on HP ProLiant and Integrity servers, offers a valid option for consolidating corporate data on one single device.