After over 3 months of hard graft we're getting ready to give you the chance to get your fingers on the Alpha of the next version of SQL Data Compare. We're currently just doing some final install testing and hope to release it next week.

Bear in mind the product is an Alpha and as such it isn't actually complete yet, some of the features that didn't make it yet are...

• Backup before synch
• UI for project actions warnings
• UI to allow you to select backup files from multiple directories

However we're really keen on getting people playing with the new features as early as possible. The main reason for the Alpha is to get your feedback on the compare to Backup feature that has been the main focus of our work to date. This will allow you to use data compare to compare to a SQL Server Backup file or Red Gate SQL Backup file (sqb) as if it was a live database. We would love for you to try it out on your backups, we've tested it against several hundred databases that we have in house but there'll always be something missing so the earlier we get feedback the more time we have to fix it prior to release.

Some of the other things we would like people looking at and giving opinions on is the improved usability features of the UI. For example projects are no-longer saved automagically when you don't expect it, behaving instead much more like a standard windows project system so you can save your changes (or not) whenever you see fit. Also the 'pivot' view that I've previously blogged about is something we're keen for feedback on.

We'll be following the Alpha with a feature complete Beta in roughly a month and your feedback from the Alpha will be key in making it work how you need it to.

So next week - watch this space....