A long awaited feature after the July CTP, Transparent Data Encryption or TDE is one of the features which makes the developer life easier. Well DTE was almost available in the version 2005 of SQL Server at the cell level but here in 2008 its available on database level - it doesn't mean that we can't use on cell level but its an added functionality.

In the past developer has to take care by making the application encryption aware and as the database application is I/O intensive the encryption/decrytpion degrade the performance. Now with SQL Server 2008 Katmai - developers no need to make the application encryption aware, with the Transparent Data Encryption feature the developer can easily control the encryption without letting the application encryption aware, whenever the request comes from database application, SQL Server 2008 Katmai decrypts the database and when not needed encrypts again.

To check whether your CTP possess this feature simply execute the DDL command

ALTER DATABASE [database_name] SET ENCRYPTION ON

and you will come to know whether your CTP is TDE aware or not.

While the TDE can be controlled using the above command their is more to be use to encrypt or decrypt, Database Encryption Key or DEK.

DEK is always stored in database boot record for instant recovery and can be controlled using CREATE | ALTER | DROP command.

Download the new CTP and enjoy this new feature.

Bandagi!