Microsoft SQL Server |
Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database management system produced by Microsoft. It supports a superset of Structured Query Language (SQL), the most common database language. It is commonly used by businesses for small- to medium-sized databases, and - in the past five years - large enterprise databases. Microsoft SQL Server competes with other relational database products for this market segment.
=History=
The code base for Microsoft SQL Server originated in Sybase SQL Server, and was Microsoft s entry to the enterprise-level database market, competing against Oracle database, International Business Machines, and Sybase. Microsoft, Sybase and Ashton-Tate teamed up to create and market the first version named SQL Server 4.2 for OS/2 (about 1989) which was essentially the same as Sybase SQL Server 4.0 on Unix, Virtual Memory System, etc. Microsoft SQL Server for NT v4.2 was shipped around 1992 (available bundled with Microsoft OS/2 version 1.3) and was a simple port from OS/2 to NT. 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, 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.
Several revisions have been done independently since with improvements for SQL Server. SQL Server 7.0 was the first true GUI based database server, and 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 2000, was released in August of 2000. Microsoft is beta testing its successor, SQL Server 2005, codename Yukon. This is scheduled to launch during the week of 7th November 2005, alongside Visual Studio 2005 and Microsoft BizTalk Server Server 2006. The September CTP (Community Technology Preview) release is currently available for free download.
=Versions for Windows=
=Description=
MS SQL Server uses a variant of SQL called T-SQL, or (ODBC).
=Variants=
A stripped-down version of Microsoft SQL Server known as MSDE (Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine) is distributed with products such as workloads on the engine.
Microsoft recently announced the successor to MSDE, dubbed SQL Server Express. Similar to MSDE, SQL Express includes all the core functionality of SQL Server but places restrictions on the scale of databases. It will only utilize a single CPU, 1 GB of RAM, and imposes a maximum size of 4 GB on databases. SQL Express also doesn t include enterprise features such as Analysis Services, Reporting Services, Data Transformation Services, and Notification Services. Unlike MSDE, SQL Express includes a management console, called SQL Server Express Manager. A beta version of SQL Server Express is now available for download.
=Sub Products=
*SQL Server Integration Services *SQL Server Analysis Services *SQL Server Reporting Services *SQL Server Notification Services
=See also=
*Windows Server System *List of relational database management systems *Comparison of relational database management systems
=Further reading=
=External links=
*[http://www.microsoft.com/sql/default.asp SQL Server Official Site] *[http://msdn.microsoft.com/express/ SQL Server 2005 Express Beta download] *[http://www.microsoft.com/sql/2005/productinfo/ctp.mspx SQL Server September 2005 Community Technology Preview] *[http://www.yafla.com/papers/SQL_Server_Performance/high_performance_sql_server.htm High Performance SQL Server] *[http://www.YukonXML.com YukonXML.com aka SS2005.com SQL Server 2005 Resources Web site] *[http://www.sqljunkies.com/weblog/simons Simon Sabin s SQL Server blog for everything SQL related] *[http://www.sswug.org SQL Server Worldwide Users Group Database Help Site]|
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