With the year end update to SAFE (10.4) we will be ending support for SQL Server 2000. As is typical, this fourth annual update is scheduled for release around Halloween. Our records show that there are very few customers still on this platform and we expect this to shrink further with the next round of releases from Microsoft (including Windows 8.)

Key Difference

It is quite unusual for us to make such a fundamental change within a minor release cycle. A big part of the reason is the fact that there are so few companies still on SQL Server 2000. The other is that there are many, many changes we have been chomping at the bit to implement, though there is really only one driving this change: record size.

SQL Server 2000 had a hard limit on the size of any given record of 8,192 bytes. As the years went by and customers needed to store more and more descriptive information about orders, customers, contacts, etc. we found ourselves constantly bumping up against this ceiling; a ceiling that later releases do not impose.

Start with SQL Server 2008, SQL Server became far more efficient in data storage, allowing for massive compression in the size of data records. Those ‘size’ is not really a big issue these days for most local hard drives, it definitely is a big deal for users at remote offices accessing data over the Internet.

We started noticing that the performance penalty for remote users was becoming onerous at the very time that more and more people want to move to remote solutions. In other words, a larger percentage of our customers were paying a performance penalty to support a very few users.

Also, making the slight change to SAFE which breaks compatibility with SQL 2000, actually makes compatibility with MySQL much easier. And since we need to get that sewn up fairly quickly (in time for next year’s major release) it made sense to switch now and give ourselves that little extra bit of help.

Conclusion

Current in-office users will probably not notice much of a difference. IT managers will likely see a big reduction in the size of the databases (though not backup files, which are stored in a very different manner). But again, users of WebSAFE and ThinSAFE will certainly notice improved speed of most every type of transaction.

If your company is still using SQL Server 2000 and need help migrating to a newer release, please contact your tech support rep for advice.