Organizations are consolidating applications to fewer servers to simplify critical data center operations. Consolidation can reduce cost, management complexity, and physical space requirements in the data center.

This white paper describes the following:

• The advantages and features provided by 64-bit servers
• The benefits of updating database applications to the Microsoft SQL Server 2005 platform
• A description of the HP Integrity server family, its architecture, best practices for successful implementation, and use of appropriate HP storage technologies
• An illustrated guide to performing an update from SQL Server 2000 to SQL Server 2005, including discussion of the update advisor
• A brief discussion of some example migration/update tests performed in the HP Performance Labs