SQL Server 2005 end of support is on April 12, 2016. Many of our customers agree that it's time to think about migrating/upgrading to something better and faster soon. If you are still using SQL Server 2005, here are some points to consider.

SQL Server 2014 New Features This is a major upgrade packed with new features of SQL Server 2014 include In-Memory online transaction processing (OLTP), updateable Columnstore indexes, and AlwaysOn availability groups.

Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) So why should you consider Cisco UCS to take advantage of these SQL Server 2014 features? Let's start with performance.
Cisco UCS C460 M4 running Microsoft SQL Server 2014 outperformed:

• Fujitsu SPARC M10-4S by 80 percent
• Dell PowerEdge R820 by 31 percent
• IBM x3859 by 13 percent

Why are we so good?

• Optimize OLTP workloads
  The new OLTP engine helps facilitate high performance, low latency data access. Cisco UCS has high memory capacities that support you to take advantage of the SQL Servers' In-Memory OLTP engine. Progress Insurance used Cisco UCS and In-Memory OLTP and saw a 4x performance gain. They saw a 320% increase in processing rate, from 5,000 transactions/second to 21,000 transactions.
• Optimize BI and Data Warehousing workloads
  Columnstore index provides significant performance improvement for Data Warehouse queries. You no longer need to drop and recreate the index when making changes. We have seen 10x better performance results. Such workloads are increasing tenfold every 5 years. With high memory support, Cisco UCS Blade Servers provide up to 3TB of RAM and the Cisco UCS Rack Servers up to 6TB of RAM. You can trust us to give you the best experience.
• Maximizing Availability
  Cisco UCS's service profiles and the stateless architecture allow SQL Server workloads to be introduced back into production in 5-7 minutes regardless if it's virtualized or bare metal. Children's Hospital in Colorado leveraged the service profiles and provisioned 15 servers in 1 day. Without them, it usually takes up to weeks to configure the new servers.
  SQL Server's AlwaysOn AGs provide protection against unplanned downtime. During a failure, Cisco Unified Fabric ensures the connection between the primary and the secondary replicas has the best performance of bandwidth.

These are just a few of the key benefits. If you are one of our partners and are interested in learning more, please register here for the upcoming webcast:

• Title: Modernize Your Data Platform with SQL Server 2014 and Cisco UCS
• Date: Thursday, February 26, 2015
• Time: 10:00 AM PT / 1:00 PM ET
• Moderator: Scott Bekker, Editor in Chief, Redmond Channel Partner
• Webcast Overview:Microsoft has announced the end-of-support for SQL Server 2005, creating an opportunity for partners to help customers migrate their data platforms to a modern solution based on SQL Server 2014 and the Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS).
• Register Here: http://rcpmag.com/webcasts/list/webcast-list.aspx

Want to meet up with Cisco and Microsoft representatives live? Join us at the one of the following SQL Saturdays. Upcoming SQL Saturdays (1-day free training events for SQL Server professionals): Phoenix (2/28), Silicon Valley (3/28), Boston (4/18), and Baltimore (5/9).

More information

• Technical White Paper: Optimizing Microsoft SQL Server 2014 on Cisco UCS White Paper
• ESG White Paper: Data Management and Analysis: Cisco and Microsoft-Optimal Infrastructure Strategies
• Unleashing IT Article: SQL Server 2014: Tuned for applications, business intelligence, hybrid cloud

Follow me (@ReneeYao1), Gary Serda (@gserda), Rex Backman (@RexBackman) and Bill Shields (@HighTechBill) on Twitter for real time updates.