Microsoft SQL Server
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Microsoft SQL Server 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.
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History
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 4.2 for OS/2 (about 1989) which was essentially the same as Sybase SQL Server 4.0 on Unix, VMS, 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, 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 (Integration Services), a Reporting Server, an OLAP implementation, and several messaging technologies, specifically Service Broker.
Versions for Windows
- 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
Description
MS SQL Server uses a variant of SQL called T-SQL, or Transact-SQL, an implementation of SQL-92 (the ISO standard for SQL, certified in 1992) with some extensions. T-SQL mainly adds additional syntax for use in stored procedures, and affects the syntax of transaction support. (Note that SQL standards require Atomic, Consistent, Isolated, Durable or "ACID" transactions.) MS SQL Server and Sybase/ASE both communicate over networks using an application-level protocol called Tabular Data Stream (TDS). The TDS protocol has also been implemented by the FreeTDS project ([1]) in order to allow more kinds of client applications to communicate with MS SQL Server and Sybase databases. MS SQL Server also supports Open Database Connectivity (ODBC).
Variants
A stripped-down version of Microsoft SQL Server known as MSDE (Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine) is distributed with products such as Visual Studio, Visual FoxPro, Microsoft Access, ASP.NET Web Matrix, and other products. MSDE has some restrictions: it limits database size to 2 GB, and it comes with no GUI tools to administer it. It also has a workload governor which reduces its speed once you exceed 8 concurrent workloads on the engine.
Microsoft recently released the successor to MSDE, dubbed SQL Server Express. Similar to MSDE, SQL Express includes all the core functionality of SQL Server. The workload governor was removed, but there are still restrictions on the scale of databases. It will utilize only a single CPU and 1 GB of RAM, and it imposes a maximum size of 4 GB per database (not counting log sizes). Microsoft provides a separate download ("feature pack") for the Express edition that includes a less feature-rich version of Reporting Services. SQL Express also omits enterprise features such as Analysis Services, Data Transformation Services, and Notification Services. Unlike MSDE, SQL Express includes a management console, called SQL Server Management Studio Express.
Competition and Market Analysis
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 open source 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 development
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.
Security exploits
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).
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
- 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
External links
- SQL Server Official Site
- SQL Server 2005 Express download
- UK SQL Server User Community
- High Performance SQL Server
- YukonXML.com aka SS2005.com SQL Server 2005 Resources Web site
- SQL Junkies weblogs
- SQL Server Worldwide Users Group Database Help Site
- SQLTEAM - enthusiasts and practitioners
- SQLSecurity.com - SQL Security
- MS SQL Security Documentation
- Developer Fusion SQL Server Tutorials & Articles
- Longer version of the history from a dev team memberde:Microsoft SQL Server
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