Bank of New Zealand selected for global Microsoft early adoption

Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) has been selected to participate in the upcoming Microsoft SQL Server (code name Denali) Rapid Deployment Programme (RDP).

The company was nominated by Microsoft New Zealand and underwent a rigorous selection process by the Microsoft corporate team to gain acceptance to the global programme.

The next version of SQL Server is a cloud-ready information platform that will assist organisations to unlock business-critical insights and quickly build reporting solutions to extend data across on-premises and public cloud platforms.

The companies involved will have the opportunity to deploy and experience the next version of SQL Server before the software is made generally available. Company representatives will also travel to Seattle in September to provide feedback on their experiences – where all comments will be reviewed and ultimately used to shape the ongoing development of the product.

“The RDP involves a select group of only 70 organisations worldwide, many of whom are Fortune 500 companies, so to have a Kiwi company in the mix is fantastic,” says Steve Haddock, Business Group Lead, Server and Tools Marketing for Microsoft New Zealand.

“It’s a true reflection on how technologically advanced and innovative we are in this country and we are excited to see BNZ get the opportunity to participate on the world stage and really make a difference to this product.”

Dave Thompson, Head of Business Intelligence at BNZ, says involvement in the Denali RDP has been a huge opportunity for the organisation.

“Being one of the first New Zealand companies to deploy Denali gives us a strategic business advantage, and communicating back to the Microsoft engineering team means we can help steer development to suit our business needs – something which is invaluable.”

Designed to offer companies agility, scalability and optimal productivity, Denali comes complete with new tools such as AlwaysOn, a sophisticated disaster recovery solution designed to minimise staff and technology down time. Another new feature is Apollo, a query execution tool which dramatically speeds up analysis processes – with testing showing that query response rate was up to one hundred times faster.

“For companies who need rapid access to business insights from large volumes of data Denali provides a complete preconfigured solution designed to streamline all business processes,” says Steve Haddock.

The next version of SQL Server Community Technology Preview 3 (CTP3) and Product Guide can be downloaded for free at www.microsoft.com/sqlserver.