SQL Server is a software product from the Microsoft. It is a relational database or RDBMS product. Microsoft SQL Server is addressed to same users as the other RDMS products from major software product companies such as DB2 from IBM, Oracle from Oracle Corporation and MySQL is an open-source product. Like all of these competitive products, SQL Server too has a query language that conforms to the SQL standard ( no link) yet has extensions. The MS SQL Server query language is known as the Transact-SOL or the T-SQL.

Microsoft SQL has a limited set of operations available that are sufficient to query the target database, obtain the required data and be able to edit/ modify and then store it back. You could delete data elements too. The syntax used in the statements of the query language is simple. There is a handful of command words and simplified syntax to add necessary parameters. The SQL Server query language includes an operation, “select” for example. This helps select a specific table for searching/editing/deleting data in it. The syntax just requires you to specify the table name in the select statement. Deleting of data is carried out via “delete” operation. “Drop” is another keyword/command you could use. The SQL Server TSQL set also includes operations like, update, create, insert, etc. SQL Server also implements the commands specified in the SQL standard for modifying the data table. These help you create, delete and otherwise modify the tables themselves.

Microsoft SQL Server product is available as different editions. For example, the latest MS SQL 2012 version is available in the following editions:

  1. Business Intelligence edition
  2. Enterprise edition
  3. Standard edition
  4. Express edition

These offer additional features as you go up to the higher edition. The lowest edition offered by SQL Server is the Express edition. This one is available free and is meant for familiarization and making sure the product is suitable for your use. Your cost of ownership obviously goes up as you go up the value chain from the standard edition through the enterprise edition and then onto the BI edition. Availability and disaster proofing too increases as you go through to higher editions. Security features improve with higher edition of MS SQL Server products.

SQL Server was launched into the market in 2000. Updated versions have been released subsequently in 2005, 2008, 2010 (SQL Server 2008, r2) and 2012. Application scalability and performance improvement are focus areas as newer versions were launched. The 2012 version onwards in-memory OLTP and working with cloud has been a new focus area. In-memory operations help improve performance significantly. Cloud readiness for SQL Server has become an imperative as the computing model is becoming cloud based. Another version, the MS SQL 2014 is due for release next year. The Microsoft SQL Server 2014 is expected to offer improved cloud support. Relational databases like the SQL server are in use in several areas of industry. One large growth segment is dynamic websites. The SQL Server is a leading product in this area, MySQL being another contender in the same area.

Visit the following SQL Tutorial sites to learn more:

  1. http://www.sqlserver2008tutorial.com/
  2. http://sqlserver2012tutorial.com/
  3. http://www.sqlserver2014tutorial.com