Microsoft's SQL Server development team learned a hard lesson from its work on SQL Server 2005: Customers do not want to wait five years for an upgrade.
From now on, a new development regime called the Software Reengineering Initiative will ensure that releases ship every two years whether new features are ready or not, said Mark Souza, who heads the SRI team.
For many customers who signed up for Microsoft's Software Assurance licensing model in the summer of 2002, the wait for SQL Server 2005 has been particularly painful. One of the touted benefits of Software Assurance was that the cost of upgrades would be covered, but as some analysts pointed out at the time, this deal carried a potential sting for customers.
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