Microsoft Corp has upgraded its ageing SQL Server product line with the announcement of four new products covering everything from entry- to enterprise-level businesses. The new products promise better reliability and security as well as improved user tools. The four new editions that comprise SQL Server 2005 are SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition targeted at large mission-critical business applications, a Standard Edition for medium-sized businesses, the Workgroup Edition a database solution majoring on ease of use for small to medium-sized organizations. Finally, the Express Edition will be made available as a free download easy-to-use version of SQL Server 2005 designed for building simple data-driven applications. Presumably it will also introduce a new generation of coders to SQL Server who at the moment are turning to the open source MySQL. At the other end of the scale, Microsoft has taken a pop at Oracle but emphasising that SQL Server 2005 licences will be based on a per processor model rather than on a per core. Originally announced to deal with the forthcoming range of multicore offerings from AMD and Intel, the SQL Server 2005 licencing model is worth emphasising in contrast to the silence coming from its main commercial rival.