SQL Server isn’t just the name of Microsoft’s relationship database engine, it’s also the name on the box that now contains over a dozen Microsoft data-centric products. Learning just how broad and deep this technology toolbox is should help stop us re-inventing the wheel - or worse, trying to make do with the wrong tool for the job.
When SQL Server first shipped, it had a single service – the relationship database engine. Then, Microsoft began adding extra services into the SQL Server box. The next was the analytical services that went on to become SSAS, then reporting services that became SSRS, then SSIS etc. Roll forward to SQL Server 2016 and we now find fifteen data-centric products in the SQL Server family:
How you define individual products within a big technology toolbox is always debatable. I’ve taken a marketplace led approach and identified SQL Server functionality that other vendors provide as individual products. While that creates a relatively long list, it’s a helpful reminder of how much functionality we get from a single vendor and a single SQL Server licence.
With such a wide range of functionality available in the SQL Server family today, we should now always be able to architect and implement solutions using the right tool. That might explain why there’s so much business intelligence and data analytics functionality packed into SQL Server. The increase in BI business requirements in the last decade has without doubt justified the creation of a new generation of SQL Server functionality.
Knowing about every member of today’s SQL Server family can easily overwhelm us. Their capabilities span from high performance transactional data processing, to data mining, to end-user graphical dashboards. In fact, being an expert in more than a small handful of product areas is now considered challenging and something few can claim to be.
However, not everyone needs a deep knowledge of every feature. For one organisation I’ve worked with, just learning how much functionality Microsoft provides with a single SQL Server licence helped them standardise on a Microsoft data platform. For others, it’s stopped them re-creating functionality in one part of the product that another was available in another (for example transactional replication vs. SQL Server Integration Services).
To help with your SQL Server 2016 learning whatever your experience, I recommend the following Microsoft resources: