Microsoft SQL Server

Overview:

The foundation of Microsoft’s comprehensive data platform, SQL Server delivers breakthrough performance for mission-critical applications, using in-memory technologies, faster insights from any data to any user in familiar tools like Excel, and a resilient platform for building, deploying, and managing solutions that span on-premises and cloud.

Breakthrough performance and faster insights delivered by a hybrid data platform

SQL Server 2014 enables customers to build mission-critical applications and Big Data solutions using high-performance, in-memory technology across OLTP, data warehousing, business intelligence and analytics workloads without having to buy expensive add-ons or high-end appliances. SQL Server 2014 uses a common set of tools to deploy and manage databases both on-premises and in the cloud, which makes it easier for customers to take advantage of the cloud with existing skills.

SQL Server 2014 delivers mission critical performance across all workloads with in-memory built-in, faster insights from any data with familiar tools, and a platform for hybrid cloud enabling organizations to easily build, deploy, and manage solutions that span on-premises and cloud.

In-memory built-in across all workloads

• In-Memory OLTP
  35x faster transactions
• In-Memory DW
  340x query performance gains
• In-Memory Analytics
  Process billions of rows in seconds

Mission Critical Performance

In-Memory Built-In
Up to 30x faster transactions with In-Memory OLTP

Over100x query performance gains with In-Memory ColumnStore

Enhanced Security & Scalability
Least vulnerable 5 years in a row
Trust the database ranked "least vulnerable" 5 years in a row! Scalable across compute, networking, and storage with Windows Server 2012 R2

High Availability
The 9's you need
Get greater high availability with Always On, now with even better availability and simplified management

Mission Critical Support
Highest-level coverage
Benefit from live support designed for mission crtical solutions that includes solution validation, architectural reviews, and more!

Faster Insights From Any Data

Easy Access to Data, Big & Small
Insights from any data
Search, access, and shape internal and external data, and combine with unstructured data to broaden insights

Powerful Insights with Familiar Tools
Enhanced self-service BI
Speed up analysis and time to insight with the familiarity of Excel in Office and Power BI in Office 365 as well as access via mobile devices

Complete BI Solution
From data management to BI & Analytics
Scale your BI models, enrich and help secure your data and ensure quality and accuracy with a complete BI solution

Platform For Hybrid Cloud

Hybrid Cloud Scenarios
The best of onpremises and cloud
Enable new hybrid scenarios like cloud backup and cloud disaster recovery to reduce costs and improve on-premises business continuity

Easy On-Ramp to Cloud
Fast time to benefit
Easily and quickly migrate and run SQL Server on Windows Azure to get to the benefits of cloud computing faster

Complete & Consistent
Comprehensive data platform
Deploy a complete and consistent data platform that spans on-premises and cloud using a common set of tools across the entire application lifecycle

Benefits:

SQL Server 2014 makes it easier and more cost effective to build high-performance, mission-critical applications, enterprise ready Big Data assets, and BI solutions that help employees make better decisions, faster. These solutions have the flexibility of being deployed on premises, in the cloud or in a hybrid environment, and can be managed through a common and familiar tool set.

Mission-critical performance

SQL Server 2014 accelerates reliable, mission critical applications with a new in-memory OLTP engine that can deliver on average 10x, and up to 30x transactional performance gains. For Data Warehousing, the new updatable in-memory columnstore can query 100x faster than legacy solutions. SQL Server also delivers peace of mind as the most secure database five years in a row. (National Institute of Standards and Technology Comprehensive Vulnerability Database 4/17/2013, Market share from IDC 2013)

Faster insights on any data

Get to insights faster with a complete BI platform that speeds up how you access, analyze, clean and shape both internal and external data. With SQL Server 2014 and Power BI for Office 365, it is easy to connect every user in an organization to the right data they need to make better decisions, faster.

Platform for hybrid cloud

SQL Server 2014 was designed to work in a hybrid environment that spans on-premises and the cloud and has new tools that make it even easier to build back-up and disaster recovery solutions with Microsoft Azure. These tools provide an easy on-ramp to the cloud for on-premises SQL Server databases, enabling customers to use their existing skills to take advantage of Microsoft’s global datacenters.

Capabilities:

Breakthrough, in-memory performance

With SQL Server 2014, new in-memory capabilities for transaction processing and enhancements for data warehousing complement our existing technologies for data warehousing and analytics. Scale and transform your business with, on average, a 10x performance gain for transaction processing while still using existing hardware, and a greater-than 100x performance gain for data warehousing.

Proven, predictable performance

SQL Server consistently leads in TPC-E, TPC-H and real-world application performance benchmarks. SQL Server is SAP-certified to run some of the most demanding workloads. Get more predictable performance of virtualized SQL Server instances with IO governance in Resource Governor.

High availability and disaster recovery

Gain greater uptime, faster failover, improved manageability, and better use of hardware resources through AlwaysOn, a unified solution for high availability. In SQL Server 2014, there are additional active secondaries, new online operations and the ability to quickly setup a secondary in Microsoft Azure.

Enterprise scalability across compute, networking, and storage

With Windows Server, physical processing now scales up to 640 logical processors, and virtual machines scale up to 64 logical processors. SQL Server 2014 uses this scale, storage spaces and network virtualization to maximize overall infrastructure utilization. It can also run on Windows Server Core to lower the surface area of attack.

Security and compliance

Help secure data with transparent data encryption, robust auditing, extensible key management and encrypted backups. It is even easier to manage permissions for data access to support separation of duties across various users.

Consistent data platform on-premises to cloud

Leverage existing skills and familiar tools across Microsoft’s data platform with SQL Server in a Microsoft Azure virtual machine when migrating existing on-premises apps into the cloud, and Microsoft Azure SQL Database for new modern applications that fully utilize the scale of the cloud.

Corporate business intelligence

Scale your BI models, enrich and help secure your data, and ensure quality and accuracy with a complete BI solution. Build comprehensive, enterprise-scale analytic solutions with Analysis Services and simplify BI model deployment with the BI Semantic Model.

Faster insights for all users in familiar tools like Excel and data access via mobile devices

Accelerate time-to-insight, on-premises and in the cloud with SQL 2014 and Power BI for Office 365. Get richer visualizations using Power Map and Power View. Search, access, and shape internal, external, structured, and unstructured data with Power Query. Access insights from anywhere using Power BI for Office 365.

Scalable data warehousing

Scale to petabytes for relational data warehousing and integrate with non-relational sources like Hadoop. Support your smallest to your largest data storage needs while handling queries up to 100x faster than your legacy data platform through massive parallel processing and in-memory technologies with SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse.

Data quality and integration services

Integration services includes rich support for extract, transact and load (ETL) tasks, and the ability to run and manage as a separate SQL Server instance. Improve data quality by using organizational knowledge and third-party data providers to cleanse data through Data Quality Services.

Easy-to-use management tools

SQL Server Management Studio helps you centrally manage your database infrastructure both on-premises and in the cloud. Added support for Windows PowerShell 2.0 automates management tasks and enhancements to Sys Prep let you more efficiently create virtual machines. Simplify application testing on a single database using Distributed Replay.

Robust development tools

SQL Server Data Tools integrate into Visual Studio and are available for download to build next-generation web, enterprise, business intelligence and mobile applications across on-premises and cloud. Customers can use industry standard APIs (ADO.NET, ODBC, JDBC, PDO, and ADO) across varied platforms including .NET, C/C++, Java, Linux, and PHP.

Microsoft SQL Server+ Enterprise

SQL Server Enterprise, the premium offering, delivers comprehensive high-end datacenter capabilities for demanding database and business intelligence requirements.

Capabilities

Enhanced high availability

Gain greater uptime, faster failover, improved manageability, and better use of hardware resources through AlwaysOn for high availability. AlwaysOn provides up to four active, readable secondaries, greater online operations, and an integrated dashboard for managing high availability.

In-memory performance

Enable breakthrough performance across data warehousing, analytics, and business intelligence. In-memory capabilities are built right into the SQL Server database and analytics engines for flexibility and ease of use.

Enterprise scalability

Achieve high scale in traditional on-premises as well as highly virtualized deployments with Windows Server 2012 R2. Physical processing can scale up to 640 logical processors and virtual machines scale up to 64 logical processors with 1 TB of RAM.

Self-service business intelligence

Unlock new insights via Power View, a highly interactive data exploration and visualization tool for business analysts and end users. Power View supports visualization for both the tabular and multi-dimensional analytical models.

Robust data quality

Improve data quality by using organizational knowledge and 3rd party reference data providers to profile, cleanse, and match data through Data Quality Services.

Enhanced security

Increase manageability related to auditing with audit resilience, filtering, user-defined audit, and the ability to audit actions across all editions.

Things you can do

Run Tier 1 workloads

Today’s world of continuous services and connected devices demands that applications and data will be up and available, scalable, and secure. SQL Server Enterprise is designed to support today’s most demanding enterprise applications with built-in mission-critical capabilities.

Unlock new insights

SQL Server supports scalable data warehousing, data cleansing and management, and rapid data exploration and visualization for end users. Enterprise includes all the business intelligence functionality included in SQL Server Business Intelligence edition.

Enable flexibility in deployment

Quickly create and scale innovative Hybrid IT solutions across on-premises, private or public cloud. Connection points in SQL Server make it easy to take advantage of Microsoft Azure's benefits glued together with common tools to build, extend, and manage.

Microsoft SQL Server+ Standard

Get core data management and business intelligence capabilities for non-critical workloads with minimal IT resources.

Capabilities

Basic availability and disaster recovery

Standard edition includes two-node failover clustering, log shipping, and peer to peer replication. Move a logical copy of SQL Server databases directly to Microsoft Azure SQL Database for more cost-effective and fully redundant data protection options.

Support for compliance

Easily manage permissions around data access including user-defined server roles to support separation of duties and contained database authentication. Help increase manageability and decrease complexity of database schema through new default schema for groups that allows a default database schema for Windows group user accounts.

Reporting and analytics

Support for multi-dimensional models allows IT to build business logic with Reporting Services. Report Builder 3.0 provides an intuitive report authoring environment. Take advantage of SQL Server predictive analytics in Excel and Visio with the SQL Server Data Mining add-in.

Rich data integration

Integrate data from disparate sources with SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), which includes support for the deployment and administration of ETL tasks such as better tracking of SSIS packet status and the ability to run administration as a separate SQL Server instance.

Improved manageability

SQL Server Management Studio and updated management packs for System Center help you centrally manage your infrastructure. Added support for Windows PowerShell 2.0 automates management tasks, and enhancements to Sys Prep help you more efficiently create virtual machines.

Robust development tools

With SQL Server Data Tools, database development is integrated into Visual Studio and/or available for download to support building next-generation web, enterprise, business intelligence and data-aware mobile applications across on-premises and public cloud.

Rich support for content management

FileTable in SQL Server makes it easier to manage content into FILESTREAM blob storage. Improvements to full-text indexing yield better performance and search functionality. Statistical semantic search technology supports automatic concept extraction and innovative key phrase search options.

Extend any data, anywhere

SQL Server supports relational and non-relational data, including Big Data sources like Hadoop. Customers can extend heterogeneous environments using industry standard APIs (ADO.NET, ODBC, JDBC, PDO, and ADO) across varied platforms including .NET, C/C++, Java, Linux, and PHP.

Things you can do

Run non-mission critical applications

Provide core data management capabilities including high availability, security, scalability and performance for small and medium businesses and departmental applications. With Software Assurance, use unlimited virtualization to support consolidation of mid-size applications.

Deliver standard reporting and analytics

SQL Server Integration Services brings together various types of data while Analytics Services enables you to build models for core analysis and reporting. Reporting Services with Report Builder enable you to build operational reports for small and medium business and departmental needs.

Build rich content management applications

SQL Server makes it easy to manage content as an integrated part of an application with key capabilities such as FILESTREAM, File Table, full text search and semantic search. SQL Server also supports rich spatial capabilities.

Microsoft SQL Server+ Business Intelligence

SQL Server Business Intelligence delivers a comprehensive platform empowering organizations to build and deploy secure, scalable and manageable BI solutions.

Capabilities

Rapid data exploration and visualization

Discover new insights at the speed of thought with Power View, an interactive, browser-based data exploration, visualization, and presentation experience. Power Pivot helps users access and mash-up data from virtually any source, including Big Data using familiar tools.

High performance analytics

Our in-memory analytics engine provides a generational leap in performance while allowing an interaction with an unprecedented amount of data. In-memory capabilities are built right into the SQL Server analytics engines for flexibility and ease of use.

Credible, consistent data

IT can better control and manage data through a BI Semantic Model, which provides consistent view across heterogeneous data sources, and enhancements to SQL Server Integration Services.

Robust data quality

Improve data quality by using organizational knowledge and 3rd party reference data providers to profile, cleanse, and match data.

Master data management

Maintain master data across the organization structures used for object mapping, reference data, and metadata management.

Basic availability, security and data management

Business Intelligence edition also includes the core database capabilities of SQL Server Standard for departmental applications including Windows Server core support and user-defined roles for setting up separation of duties.

Things you can do

Managed self-service BI

Manage and govern the data and analytics users create with IT dashboards across SQL Server and SharePoint that monitor end user activity and data source usage, and gather performance metrics from servers. IT can also transform user-created BI applications in Power Pivot into corporate-grade solutions.

Corporate and scalable reporting and analytics

Build and deploy scalable, secure and manageable BI corporate solutions with advanced analytics and reporting. Business users gain advanced predictive analytics with the simplicity and familiarity of Microsoft Excel with SQL Server Data Mining Add-ins for Microsoft Office.

Greater uptime, manageability and security

Reduce OS patching by as much as 50-60% with support for Windows Server Core. Create VMs efficiently with PowerShell 2.0 support, and enhancements to Sys Prep. Easily manage permissions for data access with user-defined server roles to support separation of duties.

Microsoft SQL Server+ Express

Easy to get started. Free to use.

Take advantage of the same powerful database engine in a version tailored for redistribution and embedding. SQL Server Express includes 10GB of storage per database, easy backup and restore functionality, and compatibility with all editions of SQL Server and Microsoft Azure SQL Database.

Available Versions

SQL Server Express with Tools

This package contains the core SQL Server database along with the tools to manage SQL Server instances including SQL Server Express, LocalDB, and SQL Azure. If you need Reporting Services or Full text search, use SQL Server Express with Advanced Services.

SQL Server Management Studio

This package does not contain the SQL Server database, only the tools to manage SQL Server instances, including LocalDB, SQL Express, SQL Azure, etc. Use this if you already have the SQL Server database and only need the management tools.

SQL Server Express LocalDB (MSI installer)

Do you need to embed SQL Server Express into an application? LocalDB is a lightweight version of Express that has all its programmability features yet runs in user mode and has a fast, zero-configuration installation. No management tools are included.

SQL Server Express with Advanced Services

Experience the full feature set of SQL Server Express. This package contains the database engine, Express Tools, Reporting Services, Full Text Search, management tools, and all the components of SQL Server Express. This package is a larger size and will take longer to download.

SQL Server Express

Do you already have the tools and just need the database server? This is the core Express database server. Use this if you need to accept remote connections or administer remotely and do not need the tools or advanced services.

Things you can do

Build web and mobile applications for multiple data types

Support structured and unstructured data while storing business data with native support for relational data, XML, and spatial data. Add geographical information to business applications and build location-aware applications. Increase granularity of temporal data with date and time data types.

Easily manage SQL Server instances

Manage SQL Server Express databases with SQL Server Management Studio Express. Connect to local SQL Server Express databases and manage objects with full Object Explorer integration. Write, execute, and test queries by using visual query plans, and access management and maintenance options.

Basic reporting services

Visualize data through basic Reporting Services (available with SQL Server Express with Advanced Services) and create readable reports that answer complex user questions. Enable users to share reports by using Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel.

Simplify and speed development with rich developer tools

Take advantage of existing Transact-SQL skills, and incorporate technologies like Microsoft ADO.NET Entity Framework and LINQ. Develop applications faster through deep integration with Visual Studio, Visual Web Developer, and SQL Server Management Studio. Take advantage of rich table and query designers and drag-and-drop IDE support.

Embed lightweight database into basic desktop applications

SQL Server Express LocalDB is a lightweight deployment option for SQL Server Express with fewer prerequisites. This makes it ideal for developers who need an embedded SQL Server database for desktop applications or tools. LocalDB runs in-process with applications and not as a service.

Features:

Mission Critical Performance
In-Memory Built-In
In-Memory OLTP: Average 10x and up to 30x performance gains Enhanced In-Memory ColumnStore for DW: Updatable, faster, better compression In-Memory BI with Power Pivot: Fast insights Buffer Pool Extension to SSDs: Faster paging Enhanced Query Processing: Faster performance without any app changes
Enhanced Security & Scalability
Redefined engineering security processes: Least vulnerable DB CC certification at High Assurance Level: Improved compliance Enhanced separation of duty: Improved compliance & security Transparent Data Encryption: Better data protecion Encryption Key Management: Store keys on a separate server Support for Windows Server Core: Reduced surface area for attack Resource Governer adds IO governance: Predictable performance SysPrep at cluster level: Faster deployment Windows Server 2012 R2: Predictable performance with tiering of compute network & storage
High Availability
SQL Server 2012: Enhanced AlwaysOn, 8 secondaries, Replica Wizard: Greater HA, easier to manage & deploy Windows Server 2012 R2: Clustered Shared Volume support: Enterprise HA with tiered storage VHDX support: Resize VM with no downtime System Center 2012 R2: Manage on-premises and cloud apps
Mission Critical Support
Premier: 24 x 7 support, access to tech training PMC: Solution validation, On-site expertise, fastest response times
Faster Insights From Any Data
Easy Access to Data, Big & Small
Power Query: Easy access to internal and external data Windows Azure Marketplace: Enhance with 3rd party data Windows Azure HDInsight Service & Microsoft HDInsight Server (preview): Access big data with simplicity of Windows Parallel Data Warehouse with Polybase: Query big data with T-SQL
Powerful Insights with Familiar Tools
Excel in Office and Power BI in Office 365 - Power Pivot and Power View: Faster insights, on-premises and in the cloud Power Map Preview for Excel: Richer insights with 3D visualization Data Mining Add-ins for Excel: Predictive analytics Mobile BI Apps: Access insights on iPad & Windows 8 devices
Complete BI Solution
StreamInsight: Access streaming data in near real-time Data Quality Services: Cleanse data Master Data Services: One source for the truth Analysis Services: Comprehensive, enterprise-scale analytic solutions BI Semantic Model: Simplify BI model deployment
Least vulnerable database 5 years in a row (vulnerabilities 2009-2013)
Platform For Hybrid Cloud
Hybrid Cloud Solutions
Simplified Cloud Back-Up: Reduce CAPEX & OPEX Cloud Disaster Recovery: Reduce CAPEX & OPEX and improve business continuity Extend on-premises apps to the cloud: Gain cloud scale on demand
Easy ON-Ramp to Cloud
New Cloud Migration Wizard: Easily move on-premises SQL Server to Windows Azure SQL Server in a Windows Azure Virtual Machine: Reduce CAPEX & OPEX with full SQL Server functionality in the cloud Windows Azure SQL Database service: Develop new variable demand cloud apps quickly with HA built-in
Complete and Consistent from on-perm to cloud
Deploy with a comprehensive data platform across all database workloads with a consistent experience from on-premises to cloud
Reduce CAPEX & OPEX with Cloud DR

Compare Editions:

Features	Enterprise	Business Intelligence	Standard	Express
Maximum number of cores	OS Max	16 cores-DBOS Max-AS&RS 1	16 cores	4 cores
Maximum size	524 PB	524 PB	524 PB	10 GB
Programmability (T-SQL, data types, FileTable)				2
SQL Server Management Studio				3
Policy-based management
Basic OLTP
Basic security (Separation of duties, basic auditing)
Basic high availability 4
Built-in data connectors
Basic data integration (SSIS, designer transforms)
Basic reporting				5
Basic corporate BI (Reporting, analytics, multidimensional semantic model, data mining)
Self-service business intelligence (Alerting, Power View, Power Pivot for SharePoint Server)
Advanced corporate BI (Tabular BI semantic model, advanced analytics and reporting, in-memory analytics engine, advanced data mining)
Enterprise data management (Data Quality Services, Master Data Services)
Advanced data integration (Fuzzy grouping and lookup, change data capture)
Data warehousing (In-memory columnstore, compression, partitioning)
Advanced security (SQL Server audit, transparent data encryption)
Advanced high availability (AlwaysOn, multiple, active secondaries; multi-site, geo-clustering)
Advanced transaction processing (In-memory OLTP)

1. Analysis Services & Reporting Services.
2. Available in Express with Tools or as standalone download.
3. Full text search available in Express with Advanced Services.
4. Basic includes log shipping, database mirroring, Windows Server Core support and two-node Failover Clustering.
5. Available in Express with Advanced Services.

Documentation:

Download the Microsoft SQL Server Datasheet (PDF).