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Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database.The power that comes with SQL Server at a glance...Microsoft SQL Server is an RDBMS (Relational Database Management System.) This means it helps an organization to store and manipulate their data. The way our company uses it is no different: it stores the company's large consumer user base. Our company provide services to our clients via our website, and maintaining that website consist of two parts: front end, and back end. So, in my organization, SQL Server is used as the back end. This means all the work related to storing the date (e.g. using tables), retrieving the data (e.g. using procedures and functions provided by SQL Server) and manipulating the data (e.g. necessary update and alter statements) are all tasks performed by SQL Server and some helpful programming language. It is being used not just by any one department, but by the whole organization. Proper functioning of a website highly relies on its back end, so SQL Server is solving this business problem for us, in addition to generating visual reports using services like SSIS and SSRS, which are provided by SQL Server.,It can store large amounts of data. Moreover, it doesn't just store the data, but performs important operations with it. Things like backup, restore, etc., are all handled pretty well by SQL Server. It is equipped with different tools like SQL Profiler (for visualizing what's going on), SQL Tuning Advisor (for better suggestion of indexes, etc.) and also third party tools like SQL Search and SQL Code Guard. This really makes life easier for us. SQL Server integrates to almost all the programming languages that work as front end for SQL Server, such as asp.net, C++, etc. Services provided by SQL Server do solve some high business level problems using SSIS and SSRS. Support and service from a company like Microsoft is another big advantage. The above mentioned points are all strengths of SQL Server, as this one RDBMS does a lot of jobs, and with relative ease and efficiency compared to any other software in this sector.,In terms of resource utilization, there is room for improvement for SQL Server, so that it can cost less CPU usage. There are lot of third party services like SQL Search and SQL Code Guard. Why is there a need for these if SQL itself can implement these necessary functionalities inbuilt?,10,Our organization is using SQL Server for its business, and we are quite happy with its ROI, so I would say SQL has positive impact. Organizations have to invest money somewhere for the operations of a DBMS (database management system,) so why not choose SQL, considering its huge benefits.,Oracle Database and MySQL,Microsoft Visual Studio Team System, Chrome DevToolsWould not be in my career and successful without it!It is being used in a limited capacity which is why many SQL users are demonstrating the power of the tool. Current use cases are order management, vendor performance metric building and maintenance, supply/demand views.,Group and count data Join multiple data sets together across entire organization rather than a single site view Monitor exception cases at scale,Intellisense won’t turn back on Enhance object explorer to help find tables previously unknown Easier note taking,10,Saved millions of dollars in resolving invalid billings Identifying delays in a process for improvement Solutions architecture based on existing models,Alteryx Analytics,Alteryx Analytics, Dell BoomiA Growing Company Dives Into The Big TImeMicrosoft SQL Server is used to ramp up the capabilities of a growing business that began using Excel in place of an actual database.,Support is a major factor. Day-to-day functionality is reliable, but for those times when there are issues support is available. Security is key, and Microsoft SQL Server has clearly put this concern in its design. Perhaps not a strength of SQL Server itself, but the pool of professionals with SQL Server experience ensures the ability for growth.,User setup should be allowed to be copied from other users,8,It's too early in my latest implementation to have metrics to show its benefit.,Microsoft SQL Server ReviewWe use Microsoft SQL server to perform analytics with a large set of data from different kinds of clients. All the data preparations are done with SQL server. It is being used by everyone in our service line. also, most of our client uses SQL server as well. Using SQL Server to process unstructured data is not very effective.,It's fairly quick to manipulate large sets of data Quick and easy to learn Cost efficient,Implement features to process unstructured data easier Increase performance speed Add multiple results table in the same window,7,Cost friendly Fairly easy to use and learn Fairly easy to manage,Simplest tool for basic data analysisSQL server is the only data management tool we have. Its used all the way from Data preparation, transformation, and data aggregation. Its used across all the teams. Its used to analyze credit card transaction level data as well as customer demographic data to help inform product, pricing, and marketing strategies.,SQL Server is really good at working with large structured datasets Great customer support and online resources available One of the most intuitive and easy to learn a programming language for data analysts,Add more built-in functions Having the ability to work with unstructured data would be useful Having an in build data visualization would also be very helpful,8,As a data analytics company, all the revenue my company generates is based on the data that we consume through sql server SQL Server has limed our ability work with only certain kind of datasets,Hadoop, Imonggo and Amazon Redshift,Tableau Desktop, Teradata Database, Alteryx Analytics
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Microsoft SQL Server
918 Ratings
Score 8.6 out of 101
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Microsoft SQL Server Reviews

Microsoft SQL Server
918 Ratings
Score 8.6 out of 101
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Rahul Kumar Singh profile photo
August 21, 2018

Microsoft SQL Server Review: "The power that comes with SQL Server at a glance..."

Rahul Kumar Singh
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
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Microsoft SQL Server is an RDBMS (Relational Database Management System.) This means it helps an organization to store and manipulate their data. The way our company uses it is no different: it stores the company's large consumer user base. Our company provide services to our clients via our website, and maintaining that website consist of two parts: front end, and back end.

So, in my organization, SQL Server is used as the back end. This means all the work related to storing the date (e.g. using tables), retrieving the data (e.g. using procedures and functions provided by SQL Server) and manipulating the data (e.g. necessary update and alter statements) are all tasks performed by SQL Server and some helpful programming language.

It is being used not just by any one department, but by the whole organization. Proper functioning of a website highly relies on its back end, so SQL Server is solving this business problem for us, in addition to generating visual reports using services like SSIS and SSRS, which are provided by SQL Server.



  • It can store large amounts of data. Moreover, it doesn't just store the data, but performs important operations with it. Things like backup, restore, etc., are all handled pretty well by SQL Server.
  • It is equipped with different tools like SQL Profiler (for visualizing what's going on), SQL Tuning Advisor (for better suggestion of indexes, etc.) and also third party tools like SQL Search and SQL Code Guard. This really makes life easier for us.
  • SQL Server integrates to almost all the programming languages that work as front end for SQL Server, such as asp.net, C++, etc.
  • Services provided by SQL Server do solve some high business level problems using SSIS and SSRS.
  • Support and service from a company like Microsoft is another big advantage.
  • The above mentioned points are all strengths of SQL Server, as this one RDBMS does a lot of jobs, and with relative ease and efficiency compared to any other software in this sector.
  • In terms of resource utilization, there is room for improvement for SQL Server, so that it can cost less CPU usage.
  • There are lot of third party services like SQL Search and SQL Code Guard. Why is there a need for these if SQL itself can implement these necessary functionalities inbuilt?
It is best for students, as it is free for them; students can learn a lot about databases using this. It is also well suited for organizations, if they are willing to pay-- and they should be, because it is easy and robust and takes less time to master than other RDBMS. It is definitely a useful tool for companies that work in the business intelligence sector.
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Spencer Lewis profile photo
November 18, 2018

Microsoft SQL Server Review: "Would not be in my career and successful without it!"

Spencer Lewis
Score 10 out of 10
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Verified User
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It is being used in a limited capacity which is why many SQL users are demonstrating the power of the tool.
Current use cases are order management, vendor performance metric building and maintenance, supply/demand views.
  • Group and count data
  • Join multiple data sets together across entire organization rather than a single site view
  • Monitor exception cases at scale
  • Intellisense won’t turn back on
  • Enhance object explorer to help find tables previously unknown
  • Easier note taking
Good for operations, finance, vendor excellence, supervisory intelligence, i.e. activities of teams throughout the day or over time.
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Greg Urbaitis profile photo
June 05, 2018

Microsoft SQL Server Review: "A Growing Company Dives Into The Big TIme"

Greg Urbaitis
Score 8 out of 10
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Microsoft SQL Server is used to ramp up the capabilities of a growing business that began using Excel in place of an actual database.
  • Support is a major factor. Day-to-day functionality is reliable, but for those times when there are issues support is available.
  • Security is key, and Microsoft SQL Server has clearly put this concern in its design.
  • Perhaps not a strength of SQL Server itself, but the pool of professionals with SQL Server experience ensures the ability for growth.
  • User setup should be allowed to be copied from other users
SQL Server is useful for large databases where there is a lot of querying. The issue in introducing it to a smaller company is getting the employees used to having to request even the simplest reports. Those I've dealt with who are used to using Excel in place of an actual database needed to be shown the speed and accuracy of the results to sway them.
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Darren Deng profile photo
May 29, 2018

"Microsoft SQL Server Review"

Darren Deng
Score 7 out of 10
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We use Microsoft SQL server to perform analytics with a large set of data from different kinds of clients. All the data preparations are done with SQL server. It is being used by everyone in our service line. also, most of our client uses SQL server as well. Using SQL Server to process unstructured data is not very effective.
  • It's fairly quick to manipulate large sets of data
  • Quick and easy to learn
  • Cost efficient
  • Implement features to process unstructured data easier
  • Increase performance speed
  • Add multiple results table in the same window
It is well suited to manipulate mid-sized datasets (rows less than 2M). It can quickly change existing data or add new data to the existing data. SQL server cannot manipulate or clean unstructured data quickly when the unstructured large data sets do not have any pattern or rules.
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Ashish Gupta profile photo
May 25, 2018

Microsoft SQL Server Review: "Simplest tool for basic data analysis"

Ashish Gupta
Score 8 out of 10
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SQL server is the only data management tool we have. Its used all the way from Data preparation, transformation, and data aggregation. Its used across all the teams. Its used to analyze credit card transaction level data as well as customer demographic data to help inform product, pricing, and marketing strategies.
  • SQL Server is really good at working with large structured datasets
  • Great customer support and online resources available
  • One of the most intuitive and easy to learn a programming language for data analysts
  • Add more built-in functions
  • Having the ability to work with unstructured data would be useful
  • Having an in build data visualization would also be very helpful
It's useful only if you are working with relatively clean and structured data.
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June 08, 2018

"Microsoft SQL Server Review"

Verified User
Score 8 out of 10
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In our Organisation Microsoft SQL Server is widely used because SQL server is a very powerful tool for managing the database. Yes, it is used widely worldwide because it is a Microsoft product and is trustworthy. It has a lot of security features. We solve our many businesses related issues like database management, save time and reduce the paperwork and also the burden of an employee. We increase our customers and our profitability.
  • it has a lot of security feature, no one can access if they have no credentials.
  • easy to use and maintain the database
  • very flexible and easy to install and for new users it very easy to learn and implement.
  • it has little bit performance issue
  • output window panel is single if we run multiple select commands it shows all results in one after that so that is more clumsy
  • it goes hang in low System RAM configurations.
it is useful where we use the same type of data and we can change databases very quickly and change the table name in no time. It is less appropriate where a huge amount of records are used and we cannot use and manipulate the unstructured database easily so that is not the good thing for big industries.
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July 16, 2018

Microsoft SQL Server Review: "SQL works very well for larger datasets"

Verified User
Score 9 out of 10
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SQL server is used by most of the teams in the organizations where I worked. It is used to store the data for the large projects especially.
  • Faster in performance.
  • The concept of CTE(Common table expressions) is really great.
  • Temp tables works well and easy to use.
  • We need to always use BEGIN TRAN to start a transaction which adds an additional step each time.
Intelli-sense is very good.
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Rony Vargas M. profile photo
January 08, 2018

User Review: "Microsoft SQL Server will be the Best!"

Rony Vargas M.
Score 10 out of 10
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Microsoft SQL Server is our database back-end option to use in our Software Factory. Also, our Client is using this database from 2000 version after 2016 version. From 18 year ago I'm using SQL Server it has grown from this time today is compared with ORACLE and another RDMS in the market but the most important is SQL Server can run on LINUX. Great! From the most simple project after the must complex project our first option is MS SQL Server.
  • Runs on LINUX
  • Job and Task schedule and Email Notification
  • Distribution Transaction
  • Support
  • RDMS Database backend for Web Site Application
  • RDMS Database backend for Reporting Services
  • RMS Database backend for ERP, CRM etc Software Tool Project
MS SQL Server in all version is suitable to work together with a Digital Organization and MS SQL Server will be your BACKEND RDMS it is compared to ORACLE and another RDMS. I think that exist more support for MS SQL Server over the internet and Microsoft SQL Server TEAM etc than another RDMS that's sound good for developers and organizations.
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January 08, 2018

Microsoft SQL Server Review: "A Powerfull and Indispensable Database Server"

Verified User
Score 10 out of 10
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SQL Server is our main database platform, across the whole organization, we've taken slow applications and moved querying logic into stored procedures and views to maximize performance.
  • If configured correctly with the proper hardware, SQL Server can be incredibly powerful, delivering millions of data points in the blink of an eye
  • If you're just starting with relational databases, you would probably be fine with opting for an open source solution. However, if you need a solution that can handle an enormous number of requests and return results with considerable speed, SQL is worth researching to see if it fits your needs.
  • Managing database using SQL Server Management studio provides very good flexibility
  • There isn't as much that I dislike with SQL Server. It will be good to have features where we have fine grain control over internal things. For example, it would have been a good feature to have historical tracking of the metrics as opposed to setting up custom metrics. Overall SQL Server made my life easy to manage a lot of databases and ease of use while migration projects.
  • The database is the target of many attacks from it's SA account, this must come disabled by default and just after the instalation, some of 30 seconds, the attacks start, with many requests per second, it needs to improve the firewall to prevent these attacks, or put the SQL Server inside of a VPN and local network to avoid these attacks.
  • It requires knowledge and in-depth technical skills to make complex processes truly performing, especially if we are in very complex infrastructures
We use SQL Server to deliver large amounts of data to our clients. As some have moved away from stored procedures and views in favor of technologies that are faster to develop, such as LINQ with Entity Framework, we've noticed that data load time performance has degraded. To fix this, we've taken slow applications and moved querying logic into stored procedures and views to maximize performance.
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April 02, 2018

Microsoft SQL Server Review: "My experience with SQLServer and its R Integration"

Verified User
Score 8 out of 10
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We used to SQL Server to build a decision support system for mid-size companies (e.g. bakeries) offering perishable goods. The core of the system is a machine learning algorithm that provides demand forecast based on transactional data (POS data) that are required for daily production and order decisions. Hence, the provided demand forecasts are used by operational staff at the headquarters that control the complete supply chain.
  • Integration of the R programming language and its eco-system.
  • Transact-SQL is quite expressive and allows implementing complex application logic.
  • MS Excel can be used as front-end.
  • OLAP queries on non-aggregated POS data can be very slow. Hence, it is required to persist aggregated views on the data.
  • Debugging R-Code is not convenient.
  • Versioning of SQL procedures.

MS SQL Server is an appropriate choice if the data foundation is not very large. The integrated R support allows you to deploy analytical applications (e.g. machine learning models) directly in the database.

However, if the data foundation is very large or real-time queries SQL Server reaches its limits and might not be the right choice.


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May 18, 2018

Microsoft SQL Server Review: "SQL server pivot function and automatic data table name pop up are awesome"

Verified User
Score 9 out of 10
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Microsoft SQL server is currently used only in the IT department and Data Analytics department. We mainly use it for database management. For our data analytics team, I use SQL server to write queries to produce desired tables of data
  • Tables in database automatically pop up in writing SQL, makes it easier to navigate
  • Has pivot functionality, so I can query pivot tables instead of making them in Excel
  • Great connection to Excel in terms of exporting queries
  • Windows set up time takes longer than other DB software
  • Does not allow numbers in "group by" clause, users need to write the column names explicitly
SQL server is well suited for all analysts because of the automatic data table pop up when you write SQL in their editor. I cannot think of any negatives that hinder users to write queries.
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Don Johnson profile photo
July 21, 2017

Review: "Microsoft SQL Server - Stores your Gold"

Don Johnson
Score 10 out of 10
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We use SQL Server to data mine and report on data for all departments including finance, production, shipping/receiving and purchasing. We are constantly studying our data trends to help us run our business proactively. Many other departments request data trends, etc., that may not be available in the ERP application. We are able to retrieve this data using SQL Server.
  • Excellent Speed
  • Backup/Restore fast
  • Automated processes work well
  • Data encryption
  • Security
  • Fuzzy SQL logic
Well suited for an environment where data integrity and reporting are significant parts of your business. The ability to data mine for specific scenarios is excellent. Also being able to design reports after finding the data is another excellent tool.
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Rich Mephan profile photo
June 27, 2017

Microsoft SQL Server Review: "Using Windows? - Go SQL"

Rich Mephan
Score 8 out of 10
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SQL Server underpins all our line of business applications and is the database of choice for our case management application. It is used firm-wide from our helpdesk, through to the finance and HR teams. It is used to log support calls, time record and bill our customers.
  • SSMS provides useful tools such as the database tuning advisor - providing recommendations for missing indexes.
  • SSMS provides useful tools such as the SQL Profiler - Providing in-depth trace files of queries currently executing in your database.
  • SSMS provides useful tools such as the Activity Monitor allowing you to find expensive queries, resource waits, processes, and I/O.
  • Would prefer more built in queries for DB optimization rather than having to find scripts on the internet.
If you are looking for a relational database management system that scales and provides multi-transactional support then look no further. It gives you ETL through integrations services, reporting through reporting services and cubes through analysis services. The administrative tools beat any other RDBMS available (Oracle for example); it is also much cheaper.
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Keri Schneider profile photo
September 06, 2017

Review: "Microsoft SQL Server great for refining"

Keri Schneider
Score 9 out of 10
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I use Microsoft SQL Server to write SQL queries for my healthcare organization to do reporting for national quality metrics.
It allows me to write efficient, fast queries that export nicely to Excel.
  • Error logging and indicators
  • Colors keywords
  • Allows for easy formatting
  • Allows for multiple tabs
  • Allows for multiple subqueries
  • Needs more specific error messages
  • Sometimes it seems "buggy" with the predictive text
  • Needs an in application help resource that is easier to understand
Microsoft SQL Server is well suited for Excel exports of data for on the fly reporting.
It smoothly incorporates subqueries that allow large pieces of data to be joined together without bogging down resources. It can also easily be used in other applications.
For fancy visual effects or pictures it is not well suited. It is a very "bare bones" application.
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August 04, 2017

Microsoft SQL Server Review: "Any guy can work on MS SQL server. Its an easy thing to go on."

Verified User
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
Microsoft SQL Server is being used by our enterprise proprietary products as a backend database. Our entire organisation across departments widely uses Microsoft SQL Server. Microsoft SQL Server caters the needs of the following aspects. 1. Easy accessibility of data 2. Easy connectivity of data 3. Securing layers of information. 4. Hosting/Supporting/ acting as a backend database to all major applications (internal/ external).
  • Strengths of Microsoft SQL Server creating an ease even for a newcomer who just knows basics of the database. Creates an easy adoption for any other database programmer who is working on another platform (Oracle, MySQL etc.) to get migrated over to Microsoft SQL server version with minimal efforts.
  • Primarily when the application data to be hosted is very less there is less complexity involved in the creation of databases, securing access to a database table, schema and role wise. Much of the functionality of DML, DDL operations can be achieved through user interface called SQL management studio - best tool for any programmer to senior DBA.
  • SQL Server integration services, analysis services, and reporting services which are included in BI pack will definitely help enterprise customers save a lot of revenue spent on the additional BI stack Reporting products like Cognos, Crystal Reports, Informatica etc.
  • SQL Server has certain limitations in terms of functionality of SQL management studio. But there are a lot of third party programming tools which are available in the market which is powerful enough to overcome these limitations.
  • Database comparison tool - Lack of a tool where you can compare entities of database like tables, views, indexes between 2 databases of the same application (like comparing production to stage sites).
  • Version control management system (to maintain different versions of code checked in / checked out). Had to be driven using 3rd party tools.
  • SQL replication - coverage for all 3rd party databases has been withdrawn in recent editions which are a limitation especially while migrating from previous SQL server editions. This is a gray area of SQL Server often challenged to due to limitations of integration to 3rd party software's like Oracle, MySQL etc.
  • Performance management tools - even though there are built-in reports like "Activity Monitor", they are existing to monitor the performance of SQL Server. It's better to have an individual console to connect to SQL server instead of depending on Windows or other 3rd party tools like APEX SQL console, IDERA tool to monitor SQL server performance.
Microsoft SQL server is well suited in the following scenarios:
for SAAS based solutions.
for any application hosting/ storing data < 1 TB.
for any application where the native code is written in Microsoft based technologies like C#, C#.net, VB.net etc.
for applications where it requires utilisation of BI stack (Reporting - SSRS, analysis - SSAS, and developing ETL based solutions - SSIS).

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September 27, 2017

Microsoft SQL Server Review: "SQL Server in view of a Start Up Organisation after 3 Years"

Verified User
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
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SQL Server is used to store the organizational data, which is entered by the users using the forms in front end. We have been using SQL Server to store data and sort it out for the Managers to view it. We also create email alerts for the leads and managers, consisting of employee performance, using database Email Services.
  • Automated jobs on schedule
  • Easy integration with the Com Components (Assemblies Integration)
  • History of the jobs executed, gives the failure and the success email alerts after executing
  • Database file partition for the large databases
  • Log Shipping is a very easy to implement and very useful feature
  • Better GUI for inbuilt functionalities. For example, I would like to have the Database email services have a good interactive GUI instead of the current one.
  • It would be nice to have a Start Ups Guide for SQL Server which explains all the basic and necessary services needed for a start up company to use SQL Server.
My feedback is based on SQL Server GUI (Management Studio). The GUI is well built for functions like creating databases objects (Tables Design, Triggers, Stored Procedures...etc). But while creating the Database SQL Profile in Database Mail Management, it's not properly creating the Profile as per the given input. But through Query, it is updating the data correctly.
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September 13, 2017

Microsoft SQL Server Review: "SQL SERVER PREFERENCE"

Verified User
Score 10 out of 10
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It is used as a data storage engine and also for providing information to users based on the business user's requirement. It also supports multiple users' requirements. It is also used for reporting services for providing run time reports or summarized reports from OLAP cubes. We also use the various security features and different editions available based on the requirement and budget. I have been working with this product for over 15 years and I am a great admirer of how the product has evolved since 2000.
  • In a single package, you get a data base/OLAP/reporting.
  • Ease in using the best documentation and books are available for anyone to start working on it and use tons of features.
  • Columnstore indexes need to be improved further even after many limitations were removed in SQL 2016.
  • Pricing of the SQL Server license should be made more simple to be understand easily.
Moving the databases from a lower to a higher version is very simple and it works 99% of the time. But in some situations, it behaves quite differently which left scratching my head [about] what went wrong.
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March 28, 2017

Microsoft SQL Server Review: "Business level data storage and reporting"

Verified User
Score 9 out of 10
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We use Microsoft SQL server as a base platform for our enterprise resource program. Not only is it the data warehouse but it also serves as the SSRS report server so we can use SQL views and stored procedures to create SSRS reports more effectively based on the user needs. The tools in SQL Server allow for all maintenance to be scheduled, simplifying maintenance.
  • Backing up databases both full and differential as well as transaction logs so data recovery is simple.
  • Database cleanup and maintenance tools that can be scheduled to keep the database running at optimal performance.
  • The performance monitor allows you to track query performance so you can maintain the best user experience and tune the server for optimal usage.
  • A better way to remotely connect to the database to maintain and review current transactions is needed.
  • SSRS report designer needs better tools to build the reports you need. Too many workarounds due to limitations in SSRS.
  • Logs need to be less cryptic and more meaningful at times so that diagnosing problems can be done quicker.
Storing data in tables SQL does well for major programs where data integrity is needed. It's less appropriate when using the data storage in a smaller format that you are only accessing thru Excel or Access.
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Andy Erickson profile photo
April 22, 2016

Microsoft SQL Server Review: "SQL Server to the rescue"

Andy Erickson
Score 7 out of 10
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Our company uses Microsoft SQL Server for much of our database storage needs. In the energy section, we use SQL Server to store sample data, generate reports and spreadsheets, as well as internal reporting and data manipulation.
  • SQL Server is a whole package that usually connects well with other Microsoft products.
  • SQL Server has a large community of users for tips and advice on SQL programming.
  • SQL Server works fairly seamlessly with Power BI, Power Query.
  • One glaring example is importing spreadsheets through SSIS, SQL Server only seems to sample the first few rows and generates errors if larger text cells are further down the rows.
  • SQL Server tends to be a bit more touchy with database object names than MySQL.
  • The good - SQL Server has a lot of ways to get at the data, the bad - finding particular settings is often buried in dialogs.
Microsoft SQL Server is great for interaction with other Microsoft products, it tends to be the elephant in the room, you can't miss it. MySQL can be a much more compact installation and requires fewer licensing issues to deploy a solution. Setting up a quick database and querying the data with Power BI is becoming much simpler as these products mature. As long as you already have SQL Server installed somewhere, that is. Importing data into SQL Server from Excel is pretty straight forward and it automatically sets up fields fairly well.
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John Glenn profile photo
April 13, 2016

Microsoft SQL Server Review: "SQL...not as bad as a lot of Microsoft Products out there"

John Glenn
Score 10 out of 10
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We use Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 in our environment for all of our .NET applications. We have also found that most any enterprise level software will provide a means to store their database within SQL Server. With one database server for all of our applications it is very easy to backup and create disaster recovery points for the future.
  • Fast and efficient compression on backups. Typically we see about a 65% reduction in size compared to the data file.
  • It just "works". We say this very little in IT but it really does just work. Almost every enterprise application out there works with it and the downtime is very minimal.
  • You have the opportunity to cluster servers. You can easily create a cluster of SQL servers to share resources instead of buying all new equipment and scattering the database footprint.
  • The patching has sometimes been an issue for us. It either doesn't work or the process isn't explained well for the different SQL instances on one engine.
  • I wish they would design a way to allow SQL backups to go somewhere other than a local drive. A UNC path would be best. This would allow us to rotate off the backups to a longer term storage device.
  • It takes up a huge amount of memory and space on a server.
  • There is no benefit to running it in VMWare. We typically find that servers run better in VMWare for our use cases but SQL seems to run just the same and you don't save on licensing so there really is no benefit.
If you have an organization with over 50 employees then you will benefit from Microsoft SQL. Anything less than that and you are going to need Microsoft SQL Express. The full licensing model gives you all features for that edition. Things like compressed backups, clustering, and anything to do with more than one server will require the heavier duty licensing. We use it for most everything except our websites. Our websites run on Python Django which does not work with Microsoft SQL Server. Other than the lack of support on that front we are 100% satisfied with it at the moment.
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Bill Starling profile photo
February 23, 2016

Microsoft SQL Server Review: "SQL Server from a mid-level DBA perspective"

Bill Starling
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
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SQL Server is used throughout the organization in differing capacities. Research and Development uses it to develop new software and to fix previously coded bugs or issues. Our software communicates with a SQL server database that has almost 1000 tables with varying relationships and data amount. Support uses SQL to log customer/client issues and to see what clients have downloaded what products and who the contacts are that are viewing our released software from the Salesforce website which communicates with a local SQL database we have on site. Our Professional services team will configure databases in SQL server at client sites to help set up a new client or to solve issues that the client is encountering.
  • Handle large amounts of data. SQL can process thousands of rows of data in a pinch when given the correct hardware to utilize. SQL likes memory and it will utilize it very efficiently when given the chance.
  • SQL provides at least 2 methods to do everything. You can write simple SQL query scripts or you can use the built-in GUI (which coincidentally just runs SQL scripts behind the scenes).
  • Allows for jobs to be setup that can do simple tasks such as database backups, database restores, export and import data and even send out notifications when SQL Server encounters a problem.
  • Integrates with a lot of other programs and software. Microsoft allows SQL Server to integrate with Visual Studio and you can utilize SQL tools with SSIS, SSMS, SSAS, and SSRS to get deep into integration tools, Analyzing data, and reporting on various data in each database. You can also integrate with third party tools such as the suite of products from RedGate.
  • Speed up installation times. A manual installation of SQL server can take up a good chunk of time. You can be forced to go through an installation wizard screen by screen and it can take a lot of time waiting for each screen to load.
  • Allow for easier integration with GUI's. SQL has the capability to use a visual query builder where you can drag and drop fields, tables, etc to build a query but it is not as user friendly as you would imagine.
  • Make the permissions more stream lined. Users can have permissions to a SQL Server but not a particular database and trying to find the right spot to add the correct permissions can be painful for someone who is new to SQL Admin work.
The larger the database and project the more efficient it will be if kept running smoothly. Small projects/businesses will find SQL Server useful also but for the cost of licenses it may not be as cost effective as some would like. Also if your business depends on the data in the database or server you will want a full time DBA to watch over the Server (both the hardware and software of the server) to insure you don't have any data integrity or security issues.
Read Bill Starling's full review
Ved Mishra profile photo
June 06, 2016

Microsoft SQL Server Review: "SQL Server for quick and easy wins"

Ved Mishra
Score 8 out of 10
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Verified User
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Microsoft SQL Server is being used extensively in my organization. It is the default database for SharePoint sites and also the default choice for custom database applications. SQL Server Database is very commonly used in the IT department since it is well suited with the Microsoft umbrella of products. Other departments also use SQL Server for self-served Microsoft Business Intelligence reports and SharePoint. Analytics is one of the main business problems that SQL Server handles efficiently and effectively. SQL Server Reporting Services, PowerPivot, Power BI, SharePoint rely heavily on SQL Server engine and database in the back-end.
  • SQL Server handles a relational database very well. The fundamental logic for Extract, Transform and Load (ETL) hasn't changed much for a long time, so there is no learning curve if you upgrade from older versions to new ones.
  • One of the strong advantages of using SQL Server is its better compatibility with Microsoft product suites. Choosing Microsoft SQL server is the first choice if your organization relies on other Microsoft products.
  • It is very stable, fast, affordable, and extremely popular. There is an easy learning curve to acquire SQL Server skills. Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio is very graphical and requires very little programming to achieve basic tasks.
  • SQL Server is only operable on the Windows platform. It should support the Unix platform too.
  • There are a few object types missing in SQL Server, e.g. no packages (collection of procedures and functions), no "before" event triggers.
  • SQL Server doesn't support partitioning.
I prefer SQL Server for SharePoint applications. There are SSIS data sources, destinations that can be used to sync data between SharePoint lists and SQL Server tables. SQL Server is a good choice if you are looking for a solution with quicker time to market. It is simple to use and administer. However, I would prefer something else (like Oracle) for enterprise solutions.
Read Ved Mishra's full review
Ankit Khetan profile photo
June 04, 2016

User Review: "Microsoft SQL server - WHY"

Ankit Khetan
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
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Microsoft SQL server is the backbone of our organization and is used by the whole organization. Our application uses Microsoft SQL server as a backend. We do a lot with SQL server like storing the actual data, replicating the production database, SQL jobs to create a reports database, SQL server reporting services etc. We do have multiple servers for multiple different databases and we user the server objects/linked servers to access data across all the servers. I think it addresses almost all aspects of our business at this point.
  • Data accessing via Excel or Access is very easy.
  • Reporting services are a really good example to present and analyze the data to management.
  • We do have an analytics team which does a lot of data modeling and also uses lots of integration services.
  • Definitely room for improvement in SQL server reporting services.
  • Missing the functionality to purge/archive/delete the reports from the server. We have to do it one at a time.
I think for any application it really works well. It has lots of features which could help with business requirements. It can easily import the data from different data sources and also can export the data in the required format. It is really good in OLTP transactions too. We will have to use it well to make it more efficient. For ex: if you don't have proper indexing, it might take time to retrieve the data you wanted or you might run into time out situations.
Read Ankit Khetan's full review
Seth Werner profile photo
September 06, 2016

Microsoft SQL Server: "SQL Server review"

Seth Werner
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
We use it to manage part of our enterprise ETL process.
  • Great catalog of online support
  • Intuitive interface
  • Very useful functions and methods not available on other platforms
  • SQL Server Integration Services, in my experience, is very buggy and crashes often. Needs improvement
  • I wish it was easier to retrieve current instance settings and configurations without going through much of the installation process again
  • Compatibility with Power BI suite is not intuitive and is less than robust
Great for complex querying and administration. Needs improvement on out-of-the-box ETL functionality.
Read Seth Werner's full review
Steve Jones profile photo
January 06, 2016

Microsoft SQL Server Review: "SQL Server: a solid, reliable, cost effective database platform."

Steve Jones
Score 10 out of 10
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My current company is a software vendor, building tools that work with SQL Server. We use the product extensively as we integrate our software with SQL Server, and are often using the latest versions to provide value to our customers. However we also use SQL Server internally to back various applications, including our public sites such as www.sqlservercentral.com.

Almost every department in our company uses SQL Server in some sense, and we find that it is very easy to develop both our software and internal applications on the SQL Server platform. The tight integration with .NET tools and our staff expertise means that we can quickly and easily work on the platform.

The extent of our use of the comprehensive platform is limited. We primarily use it as a relational database, with some of the SSIS/SSAS features used by various departments. Our sales and marketing groups certainly do like the SSAS cubes as they get quick information on large amounts of aggregated data.
  • Administration is fairly easy. A SQL Server can be setup quickly and run without much management from a DBA. Some work is needed to configure the instances, but the platform tends to run very smoothly for us. Backups, index maintenance, and security are smooth and easy to set up, and with the GUI, we can make adjustments quickly, while still saving the underlying code.
  • Development is very easy for our staff of .NET professionals. The integration between .NET in Visual Studio and SQL Server means that there is little time spent working out how to build an application and we can focus on adding business value. Our work with Oracle and MySQL has required a bit more effort to understand the APIs.
  • Reliable. We use all versions of SQL Server, and we find that they are very stable. The systems backing SQLServerCentral, for example, are rebooted about once a year, usually to apply some security patches from Microsoft. We tend to stick to Service Packs as a means of updating our systems
  • Value. We receive a good amount of value for our use of SQL Server for the price we pay. We might pay less in initial costs for MySQL, but time loss, support costs to understand how the system works, and potential administrative issues may overwhelm that. It's a hard choice to make, but we do find our SQL Server costs to be reasonable.
  • One of the weaknesses of SQL Server is the lack of tooling in places. That sounds strange as Microsoft has been known for easy to use GUI tools, but a number of features in the last 4-5 versions of SQL Server (Service Broken, replication, Extended Events, and more) haven't received much help in the tooling areas.
  • Scalability. While SQL Server scales up nicely, and new hardware platforms have dramatically increased the power of a single instance, there are still issues with larger scale applications built on SQL Server that might require more than one instance. Or that could benefit from additional hardware machines of the same size. SQL Server hasn't scaled out well across machines.
  • Licensing. While SQL Server is reasonably priced (to me), it is still expensive as cores grow and there are limits to the small scales of some applications. The complexity of licensing also means that it becomes complex to manage this across time, as well as more expensive than I would like.
  • Tuning. While there are a wealth of ways to tune systems, it feels more complex inside of SQL Server at times than it needs to be, especially for less experienced users. The platform should do more to help users understand where issues occur and give them guidance. I think the SQL Server 2016 Query Store will help here.
  • Maturity of some features. I think that some of the features have been a bit neglected, apart from tooling, in the last few versions. It seems like Spatial data, the Availability Groups, Service Broker, and more haven't gotten enough work to mature them to be more useful and helpful features.
For almost any application, Microsoft SQL Server provides a strong platform, lots of development tools, and easy administration. However at extremes or scale (IOPS, workload, transactions, data size), Microsoft SQL Server isn't potentially the best choice. A key value store, like DocumentDB from Microsoft might work better in some cases. A graph database, such as Neo4J, might better suit relationship analysis and tracking. Certainly large scales of data might benefit from streaming or Hadoop like systems that can manage great data inputs. Complex ETLs would benefit from tools other than SSIS. Very small systems, like on tablets or cell phones, might do better with SQLite.

However on balance, if you are not approaching edges of a workload scenario, Microsoft SQL Server is the best choice, in my opinion, for a platform.
Read Steve Jones's full review

Microsoft SQL Server Scorecard Summary

Likelihood to Recommend (918)
8.6
Likelihood to Renew (5)
10.0
Usability (8)
9.5
Availability (1)
10.0
Performance (1)
9.0
Support (5)
8.2
In-Person Training (1)
9.0
Online Training (1)
9.0
Implementation (4)
9.7
Product Scalability (1)
9.0

About Microsoft SQL Server

Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database.
Categories:  Relational Databases

Microsoft SQL Server Integrations

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