Microsoft posts new SQL Server 2008 CTP

The rolling pre- launches of the Windows 2008 “platform wave” continue apace a week before the February 27 launch event.

Microsoft made what it calls a feature-complete Community Technical Preview of SQL Server 2008 available for download on February 19.

Data compression, improved policy-based management, and integrated text search are all in there, a Microsoft said in e-mail. The first CTP went live in June of 2007.

Last month the company acknowledged (although it buried that tidbit in a blog’s fine print) that final release date for the database had slipped into Q3 2008. It had been promised in the first half of 08.