Spatial Enhancements of SQL Server 2008 gets support from ESRI

ESRI’s ArcGIS 9.3 software, the next scheduled release of ESRI’s ArcGIS suite, will take full advantage of the new spatial technology in the upcoming release of SQL Server 2008. With the November SQL Server 2008 community technology preview (CTP), Microsoft Corporation is extending the use and value of spatial technology by integrating it directly within SQL Server at no additional cost.

This integration of ArcGIS 9.3 with SQL Server 2008 Spatial will benefit ESRI’s government customers who are using spatial technology to improve operational efficiency, data sharing, and public service. It will also benefit business customers who are using spatial technology to improve customer support, decision making, logistics, market analysis, and energy conservation.

“We have worked with Microsoft for many years and have many customers in common. The new integration between SQL Server 2008 Spatial and ArcGIS represents a significant opportunity for companies to work cooperatively around the world,” said Jack Dangermond, president of ESRI. “ArcGIS 9.3 and the spatial enhancements in SQL Server 2008 will help meet the needs of our many customers who have been asking for SQL access to spatial features stored in SQL Server.”

“This integration between SQL Server 2008 Spatial and ArcGIS will help provide our joint customers with powerful solutions to allow them to address complex environmental and business problems,” said Kim Saunders, senior director of SQL Server marketing at Microsoft. “ESRI’s support will provide SQL Server 2008 customers with the application tools they need for desktop and Web mapping as well as sophisticated spatial analysis.”

“This support is a result of a close, multiyear collaboration with Microsoft in the development of SQL spatial extensions to SQL Server 2008,” said John Baleja, ESRI product manager. “The combination of the next evolution of ESRI’s full suite of geographic information system applications (ArcGIS 9.3) with SQL Server 2008 Spatial will further enable our customers to build, manage, analyze, visualize, and distribute spatial analysis, advanced geomodeling, and powerful visualization to distribute spatial information and knowledge.”

ESRI offers a complete suite of geospatial software solutions that can work as clients to the SQL spatial extensions to SQL Server 2008. ESRI’s ArcGIS suite of products includes geographic information system (GIS) solutions for server, desktop, mobile, and online technology.

About ESRI
Since 1969, ESRI has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS, ESRI software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. ESRI applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of Web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world’s mapping and spatial analysis. ESRI is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at www.esri.com.