Software major Microsoft Corp. has launched SQL Server Fast Track Data Warehouse, a new set of reference architectures for data warehousing that will help eliminate many of the barriers companies traditionally face while creating data warehouses.

For as little as $13,000 per terabyte, SQL Server Fast Track Data Warehouse gives customers immediate access to pretested, preconfigured industry-standard hardware from partners Bull, Dell and HP that increases Microsoft SQL Server 2008 scalability up to 32 terabytes, and helps reduce the time and effort necessary to deploy mission-critical projects. In addition, Microsoft is partnering with systems integrators Avanade, Cognizant Technology Solutions, HP and Hitachi Consulting Corp. to provide solution templates specially tailored for the new reference architectures.
 
Stuart Frost, general manager of SQL Server Data Warehousing at Microsoft, said: "In this difficult economic climate, organizations relying on their data to inform critical business decisions need an enterprise data platform that provides access to huge volumes of data at a low cost. With SQL Server Fast Track Data Warehouse, we are offering customers choices in reference configurations and technical guidance to create a customized, highly scalable enterprise-class data warehouse solution that fits their needs and their budget."
 
Unlike some data warehouse appliances available today, Microsoft's unique delivery model allows customers more flexibility and choice by letting them select industry-standard hardware that conforms to their existing infrastructure environments. The new configurations use symmetric multiprocessing architectures to build enterprise data warehouses on a standard platform, providing better capacity, price and same or better performance as comparable systems right out of the box.
 
Mike Gill, vice president of Industry Standard Servers at HP, said: "For organizations to be competitive in today's global marketplace, they need affordable, easy-to-deploy technology solutions that are powerful and secure. Industry-leading HP ProLiant servers running the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Fast Track Data Warehouse bring the benefits of data warehousing to a broader customer base than ever before."
 
Avanade, Cognizant, HP and Hitachi Consulting are also offering solution templates and technical guidance to help customers create customized architectures for their industry-specific data warehouse needs. With a choice of hardware configurations, customers can apply industry best practices to help achieve much higher scalability and performance, thereby reducing the total cost of ownership for an enterprise-class data warehouse.