is a
Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) produced by
Microsoft . Its primary query language is
Transact-SQL , an implementation of the ANSI/ISO standard Structured Query Language (
SQL ) used by both Microsoft and Sybase. SQL Server is commonly used by businesses for small- to medium-sized databases, but the past five years have seen greater adoption of the product for larger enterprise databases.
The
Code Base for
Microsoft SQL Server (prior to version 7.0) originated in
Sybase SQL Server , and was
Microsoft 's entry to the enterprise-level database market, competing against
Oracle ,
IBM , and, later,
Sybase itself. Microsoft, Sybase and
Ashton-Tate originally teamed up to create and market the first version named SQL Server 1.0 for
OS/2 (about 1989) which was essentially the same as Sybase SQL Server 3.0 on
Unix ,
VMS , etc. Microsoft SQL Server 4.2 was shipped around 1992 (available bundled with Microsoft
OS/2 version 1.3). Later Microsoft SQL Server 4.21 for Windows NT was released at the same time as Windows NT 3.1. Microsoft SQL Server v6.0 was the first version of SQL Server that was architected for NT and did not include any direction from Sybase.
About the time
Windows NT was coming out, however, Sybase and Microsoft parted ways and pursued their own design and marketing schemes. Microsoft negotiated exclusive rights to all versions of SQL Server written for Microsoft operating systems. Later, Sybase changed the name of its product to
Adaptive Server Enterprise to avoid confusion with Microsoft SQL Server. Until 1994 Microsoft's SQL Server carried three Sybase copyright notices as an indication of its origin.
Since the parting of the ways, several revisions have been done independently. SQL Server 7.0 was the first true
GUI based database server and was a rewrite away from the legacy Sybase code. A variant of SQL Server 2000 was the first commercial database for the Intel
IA64 architecture. During this time there was a rivalry between Microsoft and Oracle's servers for winning the market over enterprise customers.
The current version, Microsoft SQL Server 2005, was released in November of 2005. The launch took place alongside
Visual Studio 2005 and
BizTalk Server 2006. The SQL Server 2005 Express edition is currently available for free download. The Microsoft SQL Server product is not just a database; it also contains (as part of the product) an enterprise ETL tool (SQL Server Integration Services or SSIS), a Reporting Server, an
OLAP implementation, and several messaging technologies, specifically Service Broker.
- 1993 - SQL Server 4.21 for Windows NT
- 1995 - SQL Server 6.0, codenamed ''SQL95''
- 1996 - SQL Server 6.5, codenamed ''Hydra''
- 1999 - SQL Server 7.0, codenamed ''Sphinx''
- 1999 - SQL Server 7.0 OLAP, codenamed ''Plato''
- 2000 - SQL Server 2000 32-bit, codenamed ''Shiloh'' (version 8.0)
- --- Standard Edition
- --- Enterprise Edition
- --- Developer Edition
- --- Evaluation Edition
- 2003 - SQL Server 2000 64-bit, codenamed ''Liberty''
- 2005 - SQL Server 2005, codenamed ''Yukon'' (version 9.0)
- Next release - codenamed ''Katmai''
MS SQL Server uses a variant of SQL called T-SQL, or '' (ODBC).
Microsoft's freely downloadable and distributable version of its database engine, known as
Microsoft SQL Server Express (formerly known as
MSDE ) offers a database solution specifically targeted for embedded and smaller-scale applications. Although the Express edition is freely available and distributable, it contains some technical restrictions that make it unsuited for many large-scale or production deployments. Most notable of these restrictions is a maximum database size of 4 GB per database (compared to 2 GB in the former MSDE), and hardware utilization limits of a single CPU and 1 GB of RAM. The 4 GB limit is per database (log files excluded) and can be extended in some scenarios through the use of multiple interconnected databases.
Although its predecessor, MSDE, was virtually devoid of basic GUI management tools, the 2005 Express version now includes several GUI tools for database management. Among these tools are the SQL Server Configuration Manager, the SQL Server Management Studio Express, the SQL Server Surface Area Configuration tool, and the SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio. A relatively late addition to the SQL Server Express product line is a reduced functionality version of Reporting Services. Although the addition of Reporting Services significantly expands the "out-of-the-box" functionality of the SQL Server Express product, enterprise features such as Analysis Services, Data Transformation Services, and Notification Services are only available in the "Standard" version and above.
Microsoft's primary competition includes
Oracle and IBM
DB2 and is currently ranked #3 in revenue share among these "big three" database vendors. Oracle tends to be more competitive with the mid-range database market, especially among the many customers concerned about cross-platform compatibility.
In contrast to many of its competitors, SQL Server runs solely on
Microsoft Windows based operating systems. As a result, the relative strength and viability of SQL Server is directly affected by the relative strengths and weaknesses of the Microsoft platform. IBM tends to fare decently in the mid-range market and dominates the high-end market, particularly with its
Z/OS database which is preeminent for enterprise
OLTP . Like Oracle, IBM beats Microsoft in any cross-platform contests by default. However, many large organizations run two or even all three of these vendors' products in some combination. Other commercial competitors include
Teradata ,
Sybase , and IBM
Informix .
Recently,
Open Source Databases such as
MySQL ,
PostgreSQL and
Firebird have further increased the competition among database vendors. These databases offer no-cost and low-cost licensing and, for many clients, offer "good enough" functionality for their database needs. Both Oracle and IBM now offer free versions of their databases. Although Microsoft has for several years offered a scaled-down, license-free version of its database engine (
MSDE in previous versions and
MS SQL Server Express in version 2005), Microsoft does not, at this point, offer any true
Open Source software licensing. As with most of its high profile products, however, it does offer source code to companies that become Microsoft Solution Partners with both Non-Disclosure Agreements and subscription based annual fees.
Future versions of Microsoft SQL Server
aim to make data management self-tuning, self organizing, and self maintaining with the introduction of ''SQL Server Always On'' technologies, to provide near-zero downtime. It will also intrinsically support all forms of digital data, including Pictures, Audio, Video and other multimedia data. Today, such multimedia data can be stored as BLOBs (Binary Large Objects), but they are generic bitstreams. Having intrinsic awareness of multimedia data will allow specialized functions to be done on them. Better support for unstructured and semi-structured data will be there as well.
A
Computer Worm , named the
SQL Slammer Worm , which exploited a previously patched
Security Vulnerability in MS SQL 2000 was discovered in
January 2003 , and caused a large
Internet slowdown on
January 24 . It is possible that this worm caused the largest degradation in Internet performance since the infamous
Morris Worm (
November 2 ,
1988 ).
- Kalen Delaney (2001). "Inside SQL Server 2000". ''Microsoft Press''. ISBN 0-7356-0998-5.
- Scalability Experts (2005) "SQL Server 2005 : Changing the Paradigm". ''Sams'' ISBN 0-6723-2778-3
- Thomas Rizzo, Adam Machanic, et al (2005) "Pro SQL Server 2005". ''Apress'' ISBN 1-59059-477-0
- Fernando Guerrero, Carlos Eduardo Rojas (2001). "Sql Server Programming By Example", ''QUE'' ISBN 0-7897-2449-9
- Tony Bain, et al (2004) "Beginning SQL Server 2000 DBA From Novice to Professional", ''aPress'' ISBN 1-59059-293-X
