Microsoft has adjusted its announced release date from Q2 ’08 to Q3 ’08, according to a post in Microsoft’s Data Platform Insider blog. The blog also mentions that the delay in finishing the software won’t delay the launch party for it in February. Why cancel a perfectly good party just because one of the guests of honor won’t be ready?
Microsoft is excited to deliver a feature complete CTP during the Heroes Happen Here launch wave and a release candidate (RC) in Q2 calendar year 2008, with final Release to manufacturing (RTM) of SQL Server 2008 expected in Q3.
So, how significant are target release dates to corporate planning? Honestly, not much. Microsoft is vague about them to begin with and then often misses the vague targets it sets for itself. When it does release new, major software release, most corporations don’t roll it out right away. Rarely do first adopters go for the software before its first major bug-fix release. On top of that, corporations will simply upgrade when their licensing contracts expire, rather than moving to new software because it is available.
Still, there is something wrong with such a picture. Imagine the auto industry if the new models only appeared every few years and then their release dates were pushed back quarter after quarter. Enterprise software today is complicated (the manufacturers have made it so). But is it really more complicated than vehicle manufacturing?
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