Microsoft has released the first evaluation build of SQL Server 2008 R2 Evaluation August CTP (quiet a handful isn’t it? Why not just call it SQL Server 2008 R2 Beta ?) to MSDN and TechNet subscribers. Downloads are available in the form of Enterprise Edition ( x86, x64, ia64 ) and Express Edition ( x86, x64, x86 and x64 WoW ). Public access to the CTP will be available tomorrow.

Some of the new features in SQL Server 2008 R2 are:

To find out more about these features, check out the blog post by Microsoft’s Data Platform Insider Blog.

More CTPs will be released this month according to the blog:

In the coming weeks we’ll also launch CTPs for low latency complex event processing now called StreamInsight, the first CTP for SQL Azure Database, a limited preview of Project “Gemini” Excel and SharePoint add-ins and a private technology preview of Project Madison,Microsoft’s massively scalable data warehousing solution, with a select group of customers.

It’s been a busy year for Microsoft so far, in terms of new products, and looks like it’ll remain so.

The public CTP for SQL Server R2 will be available for download tomorrow ( August 12, 2009 ) here.

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