It is probably old news to most of you by now, but SQL Server 2008 was built late the night of July 31st and made publically available on August 6th.

 This will, over its lifespan, be a truly awesome release and should be one you should be very excited about. That said, my initial recommendations on the product are "don't rush in". I make this same recommendation on any "just released" mission critical product, but this time it's particularly strong.

 This release of SQL Server, while it may well be my favorite since the 7.0 release, has had the highest velocity of change I've seen in a product approaching release. The number of features that weren't in the widescale betas (ok, CTP's) until RC0 was really surprising. Other key features received notable changes in behavior at RC0. This means that a significant piece of the product was only in widescale beta for just over a month before the release to manufacturing.

Now, I know several of the members of that team and have a lot of faith in them, but I've also been doing software for nearly 30 years and know what the math looks like on likelihood of bugs in a product that size with that short of a beta cycle.

Nutshell: Use the next few months to ramp up on the features of SQL Server 2008. I'm sure, as a developer or admin you'll be chomping at the proverbial bit to get to this upgrade, but watch the community for significant issues and figure on upgrades post SP1 (no reason not to start the planning part of your upgrades sooner though!).

 I'll post more general comments on the upgrade in the weeks to come. Until then, realize that SQL Server 2008 is distinguished as being an "everyman's release" of the product. It is, compared to the last several releases, notably short on splashy marketing features. What it is simply terrific on is how many real features it has - that is, how many features virtually every developer or admin will use in their every day work.