Since the release of SQL Server 7.0 in 1998, SQL Server has been on the enterprise fast track, easily clearing the hurdles that hindered the adoption of earlier SQL Server versions in the enterprise. Support for a new scale-out technology called distributed partitioned views boosted SQL Server to the top of the TPC-C rankings for clustered database systems. (TPC-C is a standard benchmark for database systems, designed by the Transaction Performance Processing Council—or TPC—which consi...