StreamInsight and SQL Server

There has been some disussions recently about StreamInsight and how it fits into SQL Server; especially as it was said that StreamInsight is a SQL Server 2008 R2 technology.

Well, as it stands at the moment, (the operative words here are “at the moment”), is that right now, the CTP of StreamInsight has no dependencies what so ever on SQL Server. Now – some of you that has installed StreamInsight may say; “Niels what are you saying, in the installation instructions it says you should install SQL Server CE”. Well, yes – that is true; it says “you should”, but that is a bit like when your mum said you should stay away from loose men / women – you did not pay much attention, did you?!.

The truth is, you are not dependent on SQL Server CE or SQL Server 2008 R2. You can live a happy and fulfilling life and run StreamInsight without any trace of SQL Server 2008 R2 or SQL Server CE what so ever. At the moment, the only reason you would need SQL Server CE, is if you wanted to persist StreamInsight metadata in order to (more or less) automatically re-load it later (this is for another blog-post).

As I aid in the beginning, this is as it stands at the moment – what will happen in the future, no one knows (at least no one outside of Microsoft). So there you have it, if you want to test StreamInsight, but are allergic to SQL Server, for one reason or another, do not worry – go ahead, you can still use it.