As you may know, I have been heavily involved in testing a lot of the new features in SQL Server 2008, and am likely as excited as anybody about its release. Since I work at a fairly progressive company, I spoke with two of my superiors today - independently - and I was surprised at the results. My proposal was, for the project that we are currently working on, that we hit the ground running by deploying SQL Server 2008 when we are ready to launch. Based, of course, on successful testing and adequate performance of RC0 (when we get it) in the meantime, and that the product ships on time.
My immediate superior was all for it. Having attended one of my presentations on the new features, he knew about some of the benefits we would enjoy pretty much right out of the box -- page/row/backup compression, filtered indexes, date columns, change data capture, the list goes on. And he is all for deploying the next CTP to our QA environment for serious functionality / load testing and analysis, with the intention of being on the "early adopter" side of the curve when the product ships.
His boss, however, is a lot more cautious. Not only is he uninterested in deploying SQL Server 2008 right away; he is not even interested in looking at it until SP1 is out, and tested, and has about a month of serious market penetration. Which, by rough calculations, based on the TPC benchmark publication date and the new servicing model, should be sometime in February or March of next year.
All of this stemming from the long-standing tradition of never installing a dot-oh release of a Microsoft product. Personally, I found the RTM of SQL Server 2005 a hell of a lot more stable than SP2. (And SP1, IIRC, did little in terms of "fixing" anything except that they finished the database mirroring functionality.) Service packs in SQL Server 2000 don't exactly give us great confidence, either. YMMV.
What I was hoping for was a balanced response, somewhere in the middle. Like, okay, we won't deploy the day it is out, but we will perform all the necessary tests, including upgrade scenarios, and consider it within a few months of release. For me, 9 months is a LONG time to wait (and no, it has nothing to do with having children :-)). But are you facing similar superstition? Do you feel that way yourself? I am curious how others are progressing in the "let's upgrade" battle. Tell me your stories! Do you align with my boss' boss? Or do you have any suggestions for changing his mind?