Scalability is key to Microsoft's plans for SQL Server database

Microsoft has detailed part its drive into larger enterprises, with a road map for its SQL Server database emphasising scalability through clustering and transaction monitoring middleware.

The strategy, outlined at a special event in the US, calls for a 1997 release of SQL Server, code-named Sphinx, that supports Microsoft's Wolfpack APIs for fail-over clustering and its Viper transaction processing middleware, Microsoft officials said. The Wolfpack APIs are due later this year, and Viper will enter beta testing later this month.

Microsoft will also release a scaled-down version of SQL Server for Windows 95 that will be aimed at desktop and mobile users, said Paul Flessner, general manager of SQL Server development at Microsoft.

The desktop version will have the same API as the Windows NT version, and remote users will be able to replicate data with other SQL Server installations.

Despite its focus on the low-end, Microsoft is still interested in the high end. In the 1997 Sphinx release of SQL Server, Microsoft will implement "shared nothing" clustering technology. Servers coupled in this fashion share no CPU, memory, or storage resources, so offering greater fault tolerance.

Sphinx will also feature increased automation for easier installation and more versatile locking functions, officials said. The SQL Server storage engine will grow and shrink table spaces automatically to optimise performance, and Sphinx will have a de-escalation locking policy that will support both page and row-level locking.

Developers have already voiced interest in Microsoft's clustering plans, and its Viper technology promises more high-end distributed applications for Windows NT. Microsoft's OLE-based transaction middleware will let users work with distributed ActiveX objects.

The company plans to extend Viper through third parties to existing transaction systems on Unix and mainframes so Windows NT can operate well in mixed operating environments, said Mike Pizzo, program manager for database APIs at Microsoft. "The plan is to have Viper work with other databases," Pizzo said.