The launch of an invite-only SQL 2008 hosting private beta program has been announced by DiscountASP.NET, Windows hosting leader. An opportunity to test SQL 2008 in a live hosted environment and provide valuable feedback is provided to select private members by the private beta program.

VP Marketing at DiscountASP.NET, Takeshi Eto, commented: "Under the SQL 2008 Go Live program, we are currently inviting customers who are active in the ASP.NET Community to participate in a SQL 2008 hosting private beta. We hope to get early feedback to help us get closer to finalizing our production SQL 2008 hosting offer." "We also plan to open up SQL 2008 beta hosting for all our customers in a few weeks."

Being currently in CTP-6 release, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 is a major update to its enterprise database product. The final release of SQL Server 2008 is said to be slated for Q3 2008, although no launch date has been officially stated. For developers, new SQL 2008 features include new data types, such as geospatial data types and date/time data types. Language Integrated Query (LINQ), in addition, integrated sparse columns, full text search, and large user-defined types are improvements that help build next-generation data-centric applications.

Focused on providing the best value in ASP.NET hosting and SQL database hosting, DiscountASP.NET is an innovative leader in Microsoft Windows hosting. A Microsoft Gold Certified partner, DiscountASP.NET is one of the first hosts to offer Windows 2008 shared hosting and recently won the 'Best ASP.NET Hosting Service' award in asp.netPRO Magazine's Readers' Choice poll. DiscountASP.NET has become, through strong word-of-mouth and their commitment to ASP.NET and SQL technology, the choice for affordable enterprise-class ASP.NET web hosting.