Since its introduction, SQL Server has
played catch-up with other enterprise-level relational database products. Oracle and
IBM's databases were well established when
Microsoft and Sybase collaborated on the
first edition of SQL Server in 1989.
Knowing that it started the race a few
steps behind, Microsoft opted to compete
with the relational-database big boys by
making the database easier to use and the
data more accessible. Early SQL Server
releases provided a Windows-based management UI. The SQL Server 6.0 and 6.5
releases included built-in database replication
to simplify distribution of data through the
organization.
When Microsoft released SQL Server 7.0
as an enterprise-oriented database, it was the
first major vendor to offer built-in business
intelligence (BI) capabilities as part of the
base relational database product. Microsoft
continued this trend in SQL Server 2000
by offering built-in data-mining functionality. SQL Server 2005 continues to expand
the role of the relational database system by
adding built-in application-development
frameworks such as SQL Server Service
Broker and SQL Server Reporting Services.
SQL Server's relational database capabilities
now rival Oracle and IBM DB2, and features such as Analysis Services, SQL Server
Integration Services (SSIS), and Reporting
Services have no parallels in the competing
database products.
Many of Microsoft's current database
products are geared toward extending SQL
Server beyond pure database capabilities and
further improving its accessibility and manageability. Microsoft's newly released Visual
Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals (Team Data) attempts to mitigate
the risk involved in making and deploying
database schema changes. Team Data provides centralized management for schema
changes, offers tools to deploy schema changes to your databases, and generates TSQL unit tests for database schema changes.
For more information about Team Data,
see the product home page at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/teamsystem/aa718807.aspx and Matt Nunn's Team Data
article series at http://www.sqlmag.com,
InstantDoc IDs 50303, 92843, 93209, 93533,
93728, and 94217.
In addition, Microsoft has recently released
SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 (SP2), a
sure sign that the SQL Server 2005 release
has matured. SP2 delivers several important
updates including data compression, security
updates, Oracle support for Report Builder,
integration with Microsoft Office SharePoint
Portal Server 2007, support for Windows
Vista, and BI integration with the 2007 Office
system.
Microsoft's far-reaching plans for SQL
Server further its goal of enhancing the database services and features beyond traditional
relational database services. Dave Campbell, Microsoft's Technical Fellow in charge
of SQL Server Strategy and Architecture,
shared some of Microsoft's plans for future
SQL Server editions. Dave mentioned that
one of the focuses for the next SQL Server
release, code-named Katmai, is to improve
the database's ability to provide "end-to-end
business insight, strengthening the marriage
of structured and unstructured data." Moving
toward this goal, Microsoft will architect SQL
Server around an entity model framework
that enables diverse custom views in SQL
Server's data store depending on the client's
requirements. SQL Server has come along
way in its quest toward making data more
accessible and meaningful, and the future
offers even bigger changes to come.
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