April 8, 2008, was a big day for the SQL Server community and for many customers, but not in a good way. After almost eight years on the market, Microsoft ended mainstream support for SQL Server 2000. For full details see the “Microsoft SQL Server Release Services” MSDN blog (http://tinyurl.com/2a7k6e). In addition, Microsoft has ended support for SQL Server 2005 prior to Service Pack 2 (SP2).

Customers can still get technical support on pre-SQL Server 2005 SP2 versions for another five years, through April 2013. But Microsoft won’t be producing any more hotfixes, which allows Microsoft’s development teams to concentrate on SQL Server 2005 maintenance and the imminent launch of SQL Server 2008. But there is a loophole. Customers can pay extra for an extended support agreement if they need deep, code-fix levels of support. It’s not cheap, but some customers who are tightly dependent on SQL Server 2000 may find it cheaper than embarking on a major upgrade project.

As I speak with SQL Server users all over the world, I’m impressed by how well-liked SQL Server 2000 is. Although Microsoft is trying hard to drive adoption of its newest versions, it appears that SQL Server 2000 still has about a 50 percent penetration, a significant number by anyone’s measurement. In fact, SQL Server 2000 is seen as so stable by most users that I strongly doubt many shops will drop it simply because Microsoft is no longer issuing hotfixes. For many customers, it’s like the Energizer Bunny - SQL Server 2000 is the platform where not much can go wrong and it simply runs forever.

In many ways, I’m reminded of Oracle’s experiences a few years ago. I even said as much to a program manager at Microsoft when I first learned of their planned release schedule for SQL Server 2008. “Are you ready to support lots of versions of your product and lots of upgrade paths?” I asked. The answer now seems self-evident. SQL Server 2000 reminds me of Oracle 8i with SQL Server 2005 taking the role of Oracle 9i. In that history lesson, Oracle 8i (especially v8.1.8) hung around forever. (I can still write clean PL/SQL code for that version of Oracle, and I haven’t done much on Oracle since the mid-1990s.) Oracle 9i, on the other hand, was the version everyone avoided until Oracle shipped version 10gR2.

In a nutshell, aggressive product release schedules can magnify the difficulty of a strong support matrix. Every product that you must keep on support means that you must sap developer vitality from the new product in development. In addition, a deep support matrix muddies the water for migration plans. One of the most common questions I get now at user group meetings is, “How can I migrate directly from SQL Server 2000 to SQL Server 2008?” This question doesn’t frighten me, but the follow-up question does - “Shouldn’t I wait until SQL Server 2008 SP1 before upgrading my production applications?” That means that many customers are likely contemplating an upgrade of SQL Server 2000 instances perhaps as much as two years from today!

SQL Server 2008 will be a great release. I’ve worked with the CTPs (Community Technical Previews) quite a bit since their inception. However, SQL Server 2000 has cast a long shadow in the overall marketplace and, in order to maximize their adoption of SQL Server 2008, Microsoft will need to deliver a strong upgrade mechanism for those shops that want to go directly from SQL Server 2000 to SQL Server 2008.

About the Author:

Kevin Kline is director of technology for SQL Server Solutions at Quest Software. A Microsoft SQL Server MVP, Kline is the current president of PASS and the author of SQL in a Nutshell and Transact-SQL Programming (O’Reilly & Associates). He is a frequent speaker at trade shows and has been active in the IT industry since 1986. For information about Quest Software, go to www.quest.com.