Over the last year we have successfully established the Incremental Servicing Model (ISM), which has to date delivered 7 cumulative updates (CU) to our customers, in regular 8 week intervals. We’ve heard feedback from customers of the need for a third service pack for SQL Server 2005. I’m happy to inform you that we will in fact deliver an SP3 following the release to manufacturing of SQL Server 2008. Our goal is to get SP3 released in the market in CY2008.
The Incremental Servicing Model has been very effective ensuring that customers receive the latest updates for SQL Server on a regular predictable schedule. We are hearing positive comments from customers, who like the ease and predictability the ISM provides. Customers rely on the predictable time frame to pre-select the day that the fix will go into production, which eliminates any downtime for its servers.
In the spirit of transparency, we wanted to let customers know about SP3 in advance of the availability to make sure customers have as much time as possible for proactive testing and deployment planning. Let us know what you think.
