SQL Server 2008 is a good follow-on to its predecessor, the gigantic SQL Server 2005, and as such it carries very nice new features for large deployments, including sparse columns, and compressed and filtered indexes.These are just the tip of the iceberg, Sean McCown explains, and many other new features will appeal to large and small shops alike. Every aspect of the product, in fact, has been touched significantly.“For most SQL Server shops, I think the big news in this release is going to be data compression and the CDC, because both are going to affect shops where it counts: their budgets,” McCown writes. Read the full Test Center Preview: Microsoft SQL Server 2008. Databases