Advantage of Sql Server 2008 over Sql Server 2005

 Introduction

This article is explaining advantage of Microsoft Sql Server 2008 over Sql Server 2005.

Sr No	SQL Server 2005	SQL Server 2008
1	XML datatype is introduced.	XML datatype is used.
2	Can not encrypt the entire database.	Can encrypt the entire database introduced in 2008.
3	Datetime is used for both date and time.	Date and time are seperately used for date and time
4	No table datatype is included.	Table datatype introduced.
5	SSIS is started using.	SSIS avails in this version.
6	CMS is not available.	Central Management Server(CMS) is Introduced.
7	PBM is not available	Policy based management(PBM) server is Introduced.

There are following new feature of Microsoft Sql server 2008 over Sql Server 2005.

1.  SQL server 2008 has the ability to encrypt the entire database by using (TDE)).I.e  transparent data encryption. Where as in sql server 2005 we have cell-level encryption.
2. SQLserver 2008 provides Backup encryption and that will executed at backup time to prevent tampering.
3. External Key Management. Storing Keys separate from the data.
4. With SQL Server Audit, SQL Server 2008 introduces an important new feature that provides a true auditing solution for enterprise customers. While SQL Trace can be used to satisfy many auditing needs, SQL Server Audit offers a number of attractive advantages that may help DBAs more easily achieve their goals such as meeting regulatory compliance requirements. These include the ability to provide centralized storage of audit logs and integration with System Center, as well as noticeably better performance.
5. Data Compression. Fact Table size reduction and improved performance.
6. Collection of performance monitoring tools.With Performance Data Collector in SQL Server 2008, you can now store performance data from a number of SQL Servers in one central location. This data is collected by a collection set on each server and stored in a shareable management data warehouse (MDW). Reports can be generated from this data using the built-in reports or generating your own with reporting Services. Brad McGehee explains more.
7. installation improvements. Disk images and service pack uninstall options.
8. Dynamic Development. New ADO and Visual Studio options as well as Dot Net 3.
9. Entity Data Services. Line Of Business (LOB) framework and Entity Query Language (eSQL)
10. LINQ. Development query language for access multiple types of data such as SQL and XML.
11. Data Synchronizing. Development of frequently disconnected applications.
12. Large UDT(User-defined types). No size restriction on UDT(User-defined types).UDTs were restricted to a maximum size of 8 kilobytes. In SQL Server 2008, this restriction has been removed for UDTs that have a format of UserDefined.
13. The DATETIME function’s major change in SQL Server 2008 is the four DATETIME data types introduced. They are DATE, TIME, DATETIMEOFFSET and DATETIME2. IN addition to these newly introduced data types, there are new DATETIME functions all well.
14. FILESTREAM was introduced in SQL Server 2008 for the storage and management of unstructured data. The FILESTREAM feature allows storing BLOB data (example: word documents, image files, music and videos etc) in the NT file system and ensures transactional consistency between the unstructured data stored in the NT file system and the structured data stored in the table. 
15. Table-Valued Parameters is a new feature introduced in SQL SERVER 2008. In earlier versions of SQL SERVER it is not possible to pass a table variable in stored procedure as a parameter, but now in SQL SERVER 2008 we can use Table-Valued Parameter to send multiple rows of data to a stored procedure or a function without creating a temporary table or passing so many parameters.
16. sql server 2008 provides Full Text Search. Native Indexes, thesaurus as metadata, and backup ability.
17. SQL Server Integration Service(SSIS). Improved multiprocessor support and faster lookups.
18. SQL Server Reporting Server(SSRS). Improved memory management and better rendering.
19. SQL Server Analysis Services.(SSAS) Stack improvements, faster block com***tions.
20. One of the fantastic new features of SQL Server 2008 is Merge Statement. Using a single statement, we can Add/Update records in our database table, without explicitly checking for the existence of records to perform operations like Insert or Update.