Microsoft has today released SQL Server 2008 R2, for download by businesses with volume licences.
The latest edition includes a new tool called PowerPivot, which Microsoft said is "delivering on the promise of managed self-service BI."
"Until now, if business users wanted to take advantage of the large volumes of data their company collected, they had to ask their IT department to generate a report but with the managed self-service BI capabilities in SQL Server 2008 R2, they'll be able to do such analyses themselves," said Donald Farmer, principal program manager for SQL Server, in a statement.
"That means they'll be able to answer questions more quickly, experiment more, and test what if' scenarios. Organisations can become more agile. That's exciting," he said.
To try out PowerPivot, users will have to have Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010, which was also released to volume license customers this week. Alternatively, customers can download the trial versions for free to check it out.
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