10 reasons why you should try Microsoft SQL Server right now

Reason # 1 - Microsoft SQL Server Now Works on Linux

On November 16, 2016, Microsoft published the first public cross-platform version of SQL Server VNext , which now runs on Linux: Public preview of the next release of SQL Server - Bring the performance and security of SQL Server to Linux and Windows

Download the distribution kit for Windows by direct link without registration.

Reason # 2 - Microsoft SQL Server Developer Edition is Free for Development and Testing

In April 2016, Microsoft finally made a free version for developers, which in its functionality fully coincides with Enterprise. Prior to this, the cost of one development license was in the region of 2-3 thousand rubles.

At the same time, in fact, Microsoft allows the use of Developer Edition 2016 for testing, this is described in more detail in this article Is User Acceptance Testing Covered Under Developer Edition?

In order to download your own version of SQL Server Developer Edition, you just need to join the Visual Studio Dev Essentials program . After registration , the following distributions for installation will be available via the link :

Reason # 3 - Support and development of the R programming environment

Microsoft is making great efforts to popularize and develop the R language, trying to make it a leader in the field of statistical calculations. At the same time, Microsoft offers 2 own versions of distributions of the R environment, the difference between which and Open-Source R is shown in the table below:

Read more about this here Advanced Analytics with R & SQL: Part I - R Distributions

Reason # 4 - There is a free and monthly updated SSMS development environment for Microsoft SQL Server

At one time, I started working with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and at that time SSMS was a buggy meager interface, which, compared to TOAD for Oracle and even PLSQL Developer, caused only tears and pain. In general, 10 years ago, working in the SSMS environment was a complete punishment. But for more than 4 years now I have not seen the best tool for working with a database (unfortunately only with SQL Server, but it will start working with others), although I tried a lot of other tools and utilities of Microsoft SQL Server at one time . Moreover, if you add a few free extensions , then SSMS becomes simply out of competition among similar commercial and free products.

Starting in July 2016, SSMS began to be released as a separate distribution monthly, which significantly accelerated the process of introducing new functionality and eliminating current bugs. Currently, the version list for SSMS looks like this:

Table taken from here

SQL Server Management Studio (17.0 RC1) notes:

1. Not recommended for use on production servers .
2. Works with CTP v.Next on Windows and Linux.
3. Fixed problem with ShowPlan.
4. You can use both 16.x and 17.x versions independently of each other on the same machine, but some settings (for example, Tools / Options) will be common.

Reason # 5: The update plan for Microsoft SQL Server has been simplified and updates are now released on a regular basis.

If previously the abundance of various distributions and fixes for SQL Server was perplexing, and the correct order of their installation was the lot of the chosen administrators, now with the transition to an incremental update model, you need to know the following:

1. Installing the Right Version and Edition of SQL Server - Microsoft SQL Server Versions
2. Install the latest service pack for the current version of SQL Server - SP Service Pack
3. Install the latest cumulative update for the current service pack - CU Cumulative Update
4. If there are certain problems, then we are looking for the fix necessary to fix them - COD Critical On-Demand

See the article Announcing updates to the SQL Server Incremental Servicing Model (ISM) for more information on the benefits of upgrading to an incremental update model.

COD, CU, CTP, GDR, QFE, RC, RDP, RTM, RTW, TAP, SP - what is all this and how to live with it? Read more in the great #BackToBasics: Definitions of SQL Server release acronyms article

Reason # 6 Microsoft SQL Server can now be installed in 3 clicks

If you are frightened at first glance by the cumbersome installation interface of SQL Server and the many Next buttons, then a simplified version of the installer (the so-called basic installer) has been specially developed for you, which reduces everything to 3 clicks: The SQL Server Basic Installer: Just Install It! .

But I still recommend using the standard scheme or mastering the installation through the command line - Install SQL Server 2016 from the Command Prompt . You can also look in the direction of the Open Source project SQL Server FineBuild .

Reason # 7 - A very developed community of developers

The amount of resources for studying and solving problems related to SQL Server is simply huge - in my estimation there are more than 170 high-quality and really useful projects, some of which are collected here: Microsoft SQL Server resources . The community itself is very friendly and always ready to help, quickly answer correctly posed questions, twitter and slack channels are especially actively used:

• SQLServerCentral Forum (> 10 ^ 6 Members)
• Slack #sqlhelp (> 700 Members)
• Slack #firstresponderkit (> 70 Members)
• Twitter #sqlhelp (> 500 Members)
• SQL.ru SQL Server Forum (> 10 ^ 5 Members)
• VK.com #sqlcom (> 3600 Members)

The most active representatives of the SQL Server community with their blogs and contact details can be found here .

Reason # 8 of Microsoft Azure CloudDB

If you don’t want to download, install and configure SQL Server on your machine, you can try it out in the Azure cloud for free very quickly. Starting with the CloudDB 2016 version, all the new functionality is implemented exactly in the cloud platform, and then the engine for non-cloud versions is finalized. At the same time, the whole headache for supporting, maintaining and updating SQL Server will lie on the shoulders of Microsoft Azure engineers.

You can try Microsoft Azure CloudDB for free in test mode by registering here SQL Database - Cloud Database as a Service .

Reason No. 9 - Many improvements and additions to the functional in version 2016

Read more in the article T-SQL Enhancements in SQL Server 2016

Briefly for T-SQL:

• CREATE OR ALTER
• DROP IF EXISTS
• STRING_SPLIT Function
• TRUNCATE TABLE with PARTITION
• FOR SYSTEM_TIME Clause
• FOR JSON Clause
• JSON Functions
• OPENJON Function
• FORMATMESSAGE Function
• Stored procedure sp_execute_external_script to execute R scripts

Reason # 10 - With the release of SP1 for SQL Server 2016, most of the functionality from the business edition is also available in the standard edition.

This news was published on November 16, 2016 and was very positively received by most developers.

Briefly, what was included in the standard edition:

• Performance features - in-memory OLTP (Hekaton), in-memory columnstore, operational analytics
• Data warehousing features - partitioning, compression, CDC, database snapshots
• Some security features - Always Encrypted, row-level security, dynamic data masking

So it remained in the editorial office for business:

• Full Always On Availability groups (multiple databases, readable secondaries)
• Master Data Services, DQS
• Serious security features – TDE, auditing
• Serious BI – mobile reports, fuzzy lookups, advanced multi-dimensional models, tabular models, parallelism in R, stretch database

Подробнее о нововедении можно узнать на SQL Server 2016 SP1 editions

Заключение

Я ни в коем случае не утверждаю, что Microsoft SQL Server является лучшей реляционной базой данных в нашей Вселенной и тем более не агитирую бросать все дела и начинать ее использовать (и да, она не бесплатна для коммерческого использования и у нее хватает проблем). Просто за последние 2 года Microsoft приложил огромное количество усилий (чего только стоит выкладывание в Open Source PowerShell и ASP.NET Core MVC), чтобы сделать данный продукт удобным, быстрым и надежным. И мне, кажется, у него отчасти это получилось. Так это или нет, решать только вам.