The new SQL Server 2008 R2 lineup includes

• SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse Edition
• SQL Server 2008 R2 Datacenter Edition
• SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition
• SQL Server 2008 R2 Developer Edition
• SQL Server 2008 R2 Standard Edition
• SQL Server 2008 R2 Web Edition
• SQL Server 2008 R2 Workgroup Edition
• SQL Server 2008 R2 Express Edition (Free)
• SQL Server 2008 Compact Edition (Free)

More detailed information about the SQL Server 2008 R2 editions, their pricing, and the features that they support can be found in Table 1. SQL Server 2008 R2 supports upgrading from SQL Server 2008, SQL Server 2005, and SQL Server 2000.

Table 1: SQL Server 2008 R2 Editions

SQL Server 2008 R2 Editions	Pricing	Significant Features
Parallel Data Warehouse	$57,498 per CPU Not offered via server CAL	MPP scale-out architecture BI—SSAS, SSIS, SSRS
Datacenter	$57,498 per CPU Not offered via server CAL	64 CPUs and up to 256 cores 2TB of RAM 16-node failover clustering Database mirroring StreamInsight Multi-Server management Master Data Services BI—SSAS, SSIS, SSRS PowerPivot for SharePoint Partitioning Resource Governor Online indexing and restore backup compression
Enterprise	$28,749 per CPU $13,969 per server      with 25 CALs	64 CPUs and up to 256 cores 2TB of RAM 16-node failover clustering Database mirroring Multiserver management Master Data Services BI—SSAS, SSIS, SSRS PowerPivot for SharePoint Partitioning Resource Governor Online indexing and restore Backup compression
Developer	$50 per developer	Same as the Enterprise Edition
Standard	$7,499 per CPU $1,849 per server       with 5 CALs	4 CPUs 2TB of RAM 2-node failover clustering Database mirroring BI—SSAS, SSIS, SSRS Backup compression
Web	$15 per CPU per month Not offered via server CAL	4 CPUs 2TB of RAM BI—SSRS
Workgroup	$3,899 per CPU $739 per server      with 5 CALs	2 CPUs 4GB of RAM BI—SSRS
Express Base	Free	1 CPU 1GB ofRAM
Express with Tools	Free	1 CPU 1GB of RAM
Express with Advanced Services	Free	1 CPU 1GB of RAM BI—SSRS (for the local instance)

Support for Up to 256 Processor Cores

On the hardware side, SQL Server 2008 R2 Datacenter Edition now supports systems with up to 64 physical processors and 256 cores. This support enables greater scalability in the x64 line than ever before. SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition supports up to 64 processors, and Standard Edition supports up to four processors.

It’s noteworthy that SQL Server 2008 R2 remains one of the few Microsoft server platforms that is still available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. I expect that it will be the last 32-bit version of SQL Server that Microsoft releases.

PowerPivot and Self-Service BI

Without a doubt, the most publicized new feature in SQL Server 2008 R2 is PowerPivot and self-service BI. SQL Server 2008 R2’s PowerPivot for Excel (formerly code-named Gemini) is essentially an Excel add-in that brings the SSAS engine into Excel. It adds powerful data analysis capabilities to Excel, the front-end data analysis tool that knowledge workers know and use on a daily basis. Built-in data compression enables PowerPivot for Excel to work with millions of rows and still deliver subsecond response time. As you would expect, PowerPivot for Excel can connect to SQL Server 2008 databases, but it can also connect to previous versions of SQL Server as well as other data sources, including Oracle and Teradata, and even SSRS reports. In addition to its data manipulation capabilities, PowerPivot for Excel also includes a new cube-oriented calculation language called Data Analysis Expressions (DAX), which extends Excel’s data analysis capabilities with the multidimensional capabilities of the MDX language. Figure 1 shows the new PowerPivot for Excel add-in being used to create a PowerPivot chart and PowerPivot table for data analysis.