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As well as integration with Windows Vista and Office 2007, new features of SP2 include: improved data mining (for use directly within Excel 2007 and Visio 2007); integration with the Report Center in SharePoint to enable the consumption of SQL Server data within SharePoint; and Oracle support in the database's Report Builder feature.

In terms of manageability improvements, Microsoft says it responded to customer feedback in providing improvements in database maintenance plans, management reports and a new copy database wizard.

Microsoft has also expanded virtualization use rights to allow unlimited virtual instances on servers that are fully licensed for SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition.

'SP2 realizes a step forward in enabling organizations to bring the business intelligence capabilities of SQL Server 2005 directly to end users in the tools they use every day,' said Microsoft's corporate VP of the Data

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and Storage Platform Division, Ted Kummert.

There was a time when Microsoft - beleaguered by accusations of poor software reliability - promised to restrict service pack updates to bug fixes and corrections rather than adding new features. But it seems this is now more honoured in the breach than the observance (see, for example, Windows Server 2003 SP1 and Windows XP SP2), and this service pack for Microsoft's enterprise-scale database platform follows the new pattern.

More information, and the full download, can be found on the Microsoft website, where you can also download SQL Server 2005 Express Edition SP2.

SQL Server 2005 Service pack 1 was released in April 2006. SP1 included support for database mirroring and a Microsoft .NET Data provider for feeding data in to SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence systems.

Microsoft has also made a move on the standards front, when it comes to SQL Server 2005. It says that the Common Criteria evaluation of SQL Server 2005 has been submitted for approval to the German Federal Office for Information Security. 'Applying for Common Criteria certification - a procurement requirement of many governments and a preference for several industries and customers - demonstrates Microsoft's commitment to building security technology into SQL Server 2005,' states the company.