You may be thinking of upgrading your database soon and have some questions on what SQL Server is.
SQL Server is:
– A relational database management system
– Stores data in tables that can be linked to other tables with keys
– Provides a way for applications to read and write data locally or over a network
– Tools that not only manage data but it also include report writing, data import export, and analysis tools. These are SSRS, SSIS, and SSAS respectively
– Operates using SQL And T-SQL languages
SQL Server also comes in different editions as well:
Features |
Enterprise |
Business Intelligence |
Standard |
Express1 |
Maximum number of cores
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OS Max
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16 cores-DBOS Max-AS&RS2
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16 cores
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4 cores
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Maximum memory utilized per instance
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OS Max
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128 GB
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128 GB
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1 GB
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Maximum size
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524 PB
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524 PB
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524 PB
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10 GB
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Programmability (T-SQL, data types, FileTable)
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SQL Server Management Studio
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Policy-based management
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Basic OLTP
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Basic security (Separation of duties, basic auditing)
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Basic high availability3
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Built-in data connectors
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Basic data integration (SSIS, designer transforms)
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Basic reporting4
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Basic corporate BI (Analytics, multidimensional semantic model, data mining)
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Self-service business intelligence (Alerting, Power View, Power Pivot for SharePoint Server)
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Advanced corporate BI (Tabular BI semantic model, advanced analytics and reporting, in-memory analytics engine, advanced data mining)
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Enterprise data management (Data Quality Services, Master Data Services)
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Advanced data integration (Fuzzy grouping and lookup, change data capture)
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Advanced security (SQL Server audit, transparent data encryption)
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Data warehousing (In-memory columnstore, compression, partitioning)
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Advanced high availability (AlwaysOn, multiple, active secondaries; multi-site, geo-clustering)
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Advanced transaction processing (In-memory OLTP)
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Source: MSDN