First I will start by saying that the Microsoft has no official position regarding the project codenamed MatrixDB. Everyone from Microsoft you will ask unofficially or officially about this project has the same answer: “I DO NOT KNOW ANYTHING!”. So, the following are just my own suppositions.
In 2007 a job posting on Microsoft site made a mistake by mentioning a product named SQL Server 2007 and this way the imminence of a new version of SQL Server was unveiled. The product was in the end SQL Server 2008 but the mistake wasn’t the only one. In 2008 another job posting revealed a Microsoft project codenamed MatrixDB that at least in description resembles a lot with the Oracle RAC technology. I included the original text of the job posting later in this article (meanwhile the text was modified but google cache still has it).
What is certain?
If enough customers require a feature Microsoft will deliver it (if it’s possible). Now, that the MatrixDB leak occurred what is certain is that Microsoft tries to come up with a solution similar to the Active-Active Cluster (or RAC) from Oracle.
MatrixDB has nothing to do with Katmai (SQL Server 2008).
Is there any other leak besides the job posting? Yes! There are more than one but I am not going to tell you more.
Another certain thing is that at this point no one under any kind of NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement) will comment about it.
What is uncertain?
Will this technology be available in a future release of SQL Server? I suppose that no one can say an authoritative YES! Vista promised lots of things that weren’t delivered.
If MatrixDB becomes a SQL Server feature, then when will this happen? Considering the SQL Server release cycle (36 months), probably not sooner than 2010-2011.
Can we blame Microsoft for keeping this a secret? I personally don’t. I don’t like false hopes!
I will end here this post hopping that now you know a little more !
Various links on the same subject:
Scalability features I would like to have in SQL Server
Software Development Engineer (google cache of the post that started the fire).
[quote from=”job description”]
Software development engineer position focused on database server scale-out cluster manageability tools and infrastructure
Full Description:
Imagine a database system that could automatically adapt to the scaling needs of our most demanding customers and workloads and would run on commodity hardware. You could add additional hardware resources online, and it would automatically use them to run your workload faster. Components could fail, and it would seamlessly adapt without any downtime or any admin intervention. And no query or workload would be too big for it, because to get more horsepower, all you would need to do would be to add more hardware components. The SQL Server team is building exactly such a system in the next SQL release, under a project codenamed MatrixDB - a shared-nothing, large scale-out architecture fully integrated into the SQL codebase.
SQL Server is one of the big 3 enterprise-level database products in the industry, a 2.6 billion dollar business growing rapidly, and facing fierce competition. Within Microsoft itself, SQL Server has also gained strategic importance, as a core on which future server and storage technology will be built. MatrixDB is the next big bet for SQL Server. This is your chance to get involved at the V1 release of the product that will shake up the database industry. This is a ground-breaking opportunity to become the industry leader in ease-of-use innovation.
The SQL Server Manageability team (MPU) is looking for Software Design Engineers to work on MatrixDB project. The team is chartered with ensuring ease-of-use and constant management cost for the database system as it scales out. Those are the key factors to win over competition. Getting in at the beginning of the product cycle, you will contribute to a critical area and help to drive it from concept to a shipping product. As a member of the MPU development team you will work closely with development, program management, and test in a scenario-based feature team to contribute to our programming and user interface designs, prototypes, infrastructure, and implementation to enable enterprise SQL Server management scenarios using state of the art infrastructure and visualization tools. You?ll work with the latest development technologies, like Visual Studio, Power Shell, MMC, and SQL Server, and clustering technologies. This is a rare opportunity to help build a V1 product that will change the industry perception of enterprise database servers.
Required Skills:
A Bachelor?s degree in Computer Science or related field is key, and a master?s degree is preferred.
Excellent problem solving skills.
Strong track record in development & debugging skills in C#/C++.
Strong OO design and development skills.
Experience with infrastructure and management tools development.
Ability to work in cross-collaborative environments with commitment to Engineering Excellence.
Ability to transition between different complex algorithmic implementations over short periods of time.
Experience with concurrent programming or distributed programming models is a plus.
Experience with ADO.NET, XML, and TSQL preferred.
[/quote]
Information Week Article - Microsoft Plans Internet Scaling With MatrixDB For SQL Server After 2008