Moving Beyond MySQL - High End Database Solutions

Microsoft SQL Server

SQL Server is the cornerstone of Microsoft's Enterprise data strategy. Technologies from it are used in everything from the Exchange to .NET architectures. It's the preferred database for many companies that use other Microsoft Software because it's all designed to fit together.

You'll most frequently find SQL Server offered by those hosting companies that use Windows Operating Systems for their servers. SQL Server is not cheap, but it will provide you with a scalable architecture for any kind of data. Microsoft's SQL Server started life as a licensed copy of Sybase ASE ported to Windows NT, and both systems are still very similar, as it was only recently that Microsoft started to make large modifications to the underlying engine.

SQL Server is designed to be scalable. You can share one database over multiple machines and maintain data integrity using replication. Each machine can support up to 32 processors and 64 gigabytes of RAM for the ultimate in processing power. Like Sybase, SQL Server is Web-enabled, allows direct data access through queries from HTTP, and can output data in XML format.

T-SQL

SQL Server also comes with its own procedural language, which, thanks to its Sybase Roots, is based on Transact SQL. Microsoft simply shortened the name to T-SQL. T-SQL allows the developer to rapidly create enterprise level applications with full Internet capabilities. The SQL Server client application contains a full debugger to make the development process easier. With the debugger you can control and monitor your application as it runs, to create the best optimizations in your queries and other code.

Some of SQL Server's Strengths

Full Text Search - SQL Server 2000's full text search capabilities give you the power to search not only character-based fields in tables rapidly, but to also search text files stored on the hard drive, formatted files such as Word Documents, and more.

.NET Integration - This is a .NET server, and as such it can be integrated with any other capable server, and will exchange information directly. This allows for the rapid development of online applications, from communities to online stores.

Clickstream Analysis - This functionality allows you to data-mine the information captured every time a visitor clicks on a Web page within your site. You can find out where they came from, where they're going, and plot this over time to generate valid predictions about your traffic. You can also determine if your customers buy more red socks on Wednesday or Thursday, and what else they buy to go with those socks. This gives you powerful information that will allow you to streamline your business and data.

If you use a Windows Server for your Website, or need to access Windows Services using ActiveX, then SQL Server is your obvious choice. SQL Server provides a strong, scalable platform for use on NT and Windows 2000. It's also offered by most Windows NT Hosting Companies either free or for a small monthly fee, which gives you the ability to use a high-end database server for little or no cost.

Website
http://www.microsoft.com/sql