Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 is the most advanced, trusted, and scalable data platform released to date. Building on the success of the original SQL Server 2008 release, SQL Server 2008 R2 has made an impact on organizations worldwide with its groundbreaking capabilities, empowering end users through self-service business intelligence (BI), bolstering efficiency and collaboration between database administrators (DBAs) and application developers, and scaling to accommodate the most demanding data workloads.
This chapter introduces the new SQL Server 2008 R2 features, capabilities, and editions from a DBA's perspective. It also discusses why Windows Server 2008 R2 is recommended as the underlying operating system for deploying SQL Server 2008 R2. Last, SQL Server 2008 R2 hardware and software requirements and installation strategies are also identified.