Introduction to SQL SERVER

Posted on Friday 13 January 2012 by SQL Developer

SQL is an acronym for Structured Query Language. It is a standard language for accessing databases. Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database server(DBMS), developed by Microsoft. It stores and retrieves data as requested by other software applications, be it those on the same computer or those running on another computer across a network.


Microsoft has launched various versions of SQL SERVER since it entered enterprise-level database market.Some of the popular versions of SQL SERVER are:
  • SQL Server 2000
  • SQL Server 2005
  • SQL Server 2008
  • SQL Server 2008 R2 (SQL Server 2010)
  • SQL Server 2012
Microsoft SQL Server 2000 is a full-featured relational database management system (RDBMS) that offers a variety of administrative tools to ease the burdens of database development, maintenance and administration.Some of the administrative tools in SQL Server 2000 are Enterprise Manager, Query Analyzer, SQL Profiler, Service Manager, Data Transformation Services and Books Online. We will discuss about these tools in deteail in coming sessions.


Microsoft SQL Server 2005  released in October 2005, is the successor to SQL Server 2000. Following are the new features added in SQL SERVER 2005 : .
  • ETL tool (SQL Server Integration Services or SSIS or Business Intelligence Studio)
  • SQL CLR
  • Reporting Server
  • OLAP and data mining server (Analysis Services)
  • Messaging technologies like Service Broker and Notification Services.
  • SQL Server 2005 Supports Xml Data type.
  • It has new indexing algorithms, syntax and better error recovery systems.
Microsoft SQL Server 2008  released in August 2008, is the successor to SQL Server 2005.
Enhancements in SQL Server 2008 are:
  • New data type FILESTREAM is introduced in SQL Server 2008.Structured data and metadata about the file is stored in SQL Server database, whereas the unstructured component is stored in the file system.
  •  Full-text search functionality is newly added in SQL Server 2008.This simplifies management and improves performance
  • Flat Earth and Round Earth are newly introduced data types to represent Geometric and Geographic data.
  • SQL Server includes better compression features, which also helps in improving scalability.
  • SQL Server 2008 supports the ADO.NET Entity Framework and the reporting tools, replication, and data definition will be built around the Entity Data Model.
Microsoft  SQL Server 2008 R2 or Microsoft  SQL Server 2010  was released on April 2010. New features in SQL Server 2008 R2 are :
  • Master data management or Master Data Services : Its a central management of master data entities and hierarchies.
  • Multi Server Management, a centralized console to manage multiple SQL Server 2008 instances and services including relational databases, Reporting Services, Analysis Services & Integration Services.
  • SQL Server 2008 R2 includes a number of new services, including PowerPivot for Excel and SharePoint, Master Data Services, StreamInsight, Report Builder 3.0, Reporting Services Add-in for SharePoint, a Data-tier function in Visual Studio that enables packaging of tiered databases as part of an application, and a SQL Server Utility named UC (Utility Control Point), part of AMSM (Application and Multi-Server Management) that is used to manage multiple SQL Servers.
Microsoft  SQL Server 2012 is the latest version of SQL Server .It was announced to be last version to natively support OLE DB and instead to prefer ODBC for native connectivity. This announcement has caused some controversy.


Though we have many versions of SQL Server , 2005 and 2008 SQL Server versions are popular.

Here is the comparision of various SQL server versions:



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5 Responses to Introduction to SQL SERVER

  1. Imaigal18 March 2014 at 10:19

    This is really a good one and as per internet its an rarely available comparison...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous8 May 2014 at 15:41

    Great work. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mayank Gaur29 June 2014 at 01:25

    Nice artcile

    ReplyDelete
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