Solid and Reliable.
We use MSSQL Server along with SSIS and SSRS as it's a very competent software suite and very stable. It integrates well with other …
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What is Microsoft SQL Server?
Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database.
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| Deployment Types | Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems | Unspecified |
| Mobile Application | No |
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Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database.
Reviewers rate Usability highest, with a score of 9.9.
The most common users of Microsoft SQL Server are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
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(76-96 of 96)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
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.
SQL Server is the backbone for all of our mission critical applications, from CPQ to ERP to CRM. All of our business decisions are based on data contained within SQL Server. This product is extremely stable and efficient and it just runs. For an SMB, there this is the only real option for mission critical data.
- Scalability... Period.
- Robustness, From Backup/Recovery to integration, to reporting to data warehousing, this product does it all.
- Very little maintenance is required to keep SQL Server running efficiently in our environment.
- I would like to see more flexibility with Virtual Environment licensing. You must purchase a 4 core license to virtualize.
- Cost for enterprise is a bit on the high side.
- Would like to see an easy to use interface for establishing a cluster.
April 11, 2016
MSSS Review
Microsoft SQL Server was used to develop asset management models for the UK DNO sector.
- Access Data
- Perform lage scale calculations
- Control data flows
- Visualisations
- Improve dashboard capabilities
- Sampling
We are currently using Microsoft SQL Server across many different departments within our organization to integrate with a number of applications. Our development team uses it to integrate with various .NET applications and our data team uses it in all aspects of our department. We are able to address pretty much all of our data storage, reporting, ETL (extract, transform, and load) processing, data analysis, and other business intelligence needs.
- It's stable and reliable - a mature product and known industry leader.
- Easy integration across a number of applications.
- Includes a number of powerful and easy to use tools as part of the entire product offering.
- Requires a large "footprint" when installed in order to be best utilized. It would be nice if the overall size of it brought down.
- High price tag. This could turn some organizations away in favor of free open source back end tools.
- Performance tuning can be difficult, especially if you are non-dba type.
February 27, 2016
Happy SQL Server user since version 1.11 on OS/2 1.21
SQL Server is being used across the entire organization in my previous company, along with Oracle. It's being used for our POS system, our website, and dozens of internal applications. It's very easy to install and configure so we can rapidly deploy it for new applications. It can also be considerably cheaper than Oracle.
- It's very easy to automate the install so we have a website set up where an application team can go and within a few mouse clicks, they've requested a new VM with SQL Server installed on it. The VM itself can take a day or two to deployment because it's not fully automated yet, but SQL Server is automatically installed within an hour or two.
- All the different wizards within SQL Server Management Studio make it relatively easy for non DBAs to perform many tasks, thus making self-service possible in many instances.
- The Always On Availability Group feature makes both High Availability and Disaster Recovery much easier to plan and implement, especially with SQL Server 2014's multiple secondaries.
- The Database Tuning Advisor can also help relative novices tune their queries for better performance, though it can still recommend way too many indexes be created.
- SQL Server needs something to compare/compete with Oracle's RAC. When is that coming, Microsoft?
- I don't care for the evolution of its pricing model. SQL Server used to be a no-brainer when compared to other products on price but that's not the case anymore.
February 25, 2016
Very good DB that can be utilized for many different roles
MS SQL is used as a database(s) for the Symantec Management Platform. This basically means that it's used across the whole company as it holds data for all the supported machines. Moreover, the data for the DBs is used for reporting using MS SQL BI tools.
- Great performance
- Very easy to manage even for non-experienced users
- MS SQL LocalDB is great if you're developer as it's very easy to use and it's free
- Intellisense in management studio would be great improvement
- Better GUI for LocalDB and SQL Express management
February 24, 2016
MS SQL review
MS SQL Server is being used for internal business applications for high end database needs. It is also being used for internal IT tools and reporting. When a database is required and multiple options are available (i.e. Oracle, MySQL, etc.), Microsoft SQL Server is the preferred database especially for applications that run on MS Windows servers.
- High end databases.
- Performance databases.
- Reporting services.
- Ease of permissions administration.
- Cost is too high.
- Licensing is difficult to understand and is always changing.
February 24, 2016
Microsoft SQL Server Review
We use microsoft sql server Management Studio and it's being used across the whole organization. It comes with the Microsoft security which makes it very reliable. We have a large QA team and microsoft sql server Management Studio allows us to copy and recreate servers as local servers very easily. This creates a "playground" in which QA and developers can test and create new features without affecting the production environment.
- Easy to clone servers and set up local dummy servers
- Easy to back up all information and write tables with all the data as a script
- Very flexible in exporting data from a wide range of files
- Add more files that can be exported into SQL
- Allow for more than one local server to be able to be set up
February 23, 2016
The giant RDBMS by Microsoft
I use SQL Server for 7 years.
I currently work in the Database Administrators department, we mainly use SQL every day. We use SQL for various needs, some examples: the management of corporate databases, for ETL processes (extract, transform, load) for data warehousing, data historicizing, reporting, OLAP cubes, dashboards, maintenance plans, monitoring and alert, the management of integration services packages and more.
- Management of very large volumes of data such as bulk loading
- Is one of the best (if not the best) relational database
- It brings you great ETL tools and data warehousing such as SSIS and SSAS
- Data indexing
- The management of VLDB (Very Large Databases) requires a lot of maintenance and preventive work to avoid falling into uncomfortable issues.
- The introduction of In-Memory (sql 2014) has opened up new prospects but still has many limitations (data types, functions and various restrictions)
- Table partitioning is as useful as awkward to handle.
February 23, 2016
Small to mid-sized business review of Microsoft SQL Server
We use Microsoft SQL Server almost exclusively as our database solution.
- SQL Server Management Studio provides an excellent UI for developing in SQL
- SQL Server integrates well into the other business intelligence components of the Microsoft suite (e.g. SSRS, Integration Services, PowerPivot, etc.)
- My main issues with SQL were related to limitations in programability. For instance, it was once cumbersome to build things like running totals. However, recent releases (e.g. SQL 2012) have addressed some of these limitations
February 23, 2016
Microsoft SQL Server Hands Down Over Oracle
The organization has implemented an ERP system that has a Microsoft SQL Server backend. We also use Microsoft SQL Server for business reporting, analytics and intelligence.
- The relational database management system is easy to use in designing database objects, including primary and foreign keys, constraints, default values, triggers, etc.
- Microsoft SQL Server is great at processing sets of data.
- Microsoft SQL Server's transactional structured query language (T-SQL) is very easy to use for ad-hoc queries as well as for designed database programs for database and application maintenance, operations and reporting.
- The cost of Microsoft SQL Server is often not feasible for smaller businesses.
- I'd like to see source control integrated into SQL Server, so that all changes to the database objects are automatically versioned and stored for reference or retrieval.
February 23, 2016
SQL Server from a mid-level DBA perspective
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.
February 23, 2016
MS SQL Server is my favorite DBMS for more than 13 years
We use MS SQL Server 2008R2-2012 as a data storage in our EDMS for our major client from the government.
- Best out-of-the-box tools among enterprise scale DBMSs. SQL Management Studio is one of the best tools for almost all day-to-day tasks including deployment and support. In conjunction with other standard MS SQL Server tools it outperforms most other DBMSs I ever saw, including but not limiting Oracle and DB2.
- Very powerful T-SQL.
- Lots of data migration tools for easy integration with other data sources.
- Great stability.
- Native support by Visual Studio including database projects. You can deploy database updates even to production environment with literally 2-3 clicks. You may also generate diff script for manual analysis and deployment.
- Price may seem tough.
- Security model is a bit strange to get started but once you know a few particularities then nothing stops you from day-to-day tasks.
February 16, 2016
MS SQL server
It is used across the whole organization to build analytical tools for the business users to best analyze the sales data.
- Sql Server Integration services is a a great tool for ETL needs
- SQL Server Analysis Services is a great tool to build data marts and data cubes.
- SQL Server Reporting Services is a great reporting tool.
- SQL server installation always takes long time, that can be definitely improved.
- The Management Studio front end still needs work as does Indexing.
- Few in SSIS Realtime data refresh in SSRS More datasources in Power BI
January 08, 2016
Good database engine
Microsoft SQL Server is being used on different projects for different customers. I had a chance to use this software several times and it left a very good impression. Microsoft SQL Server has a good set of tools for developers, its T-SQL language is convenient. Microsoft SQL Server can be used both by medium and large size enterprise applications and is pretty easy to scale out using techniques like replication, clustering etc.
- Good query optimizer. For complex a query it provides helpful tools like Query Tuning Advisor.
- Reliable database engine.
- Many options for replications.
- Good additional out-of-box features like Integration services, Analysis services and Reporting services.
- No integration with source control like Microsoft TFS.
- Intellisense can be improved further.
January 06, 2016
SQL Server Just Works
SQL Server is our relational and structured storage tool of choice. We use it to manage multiple resources within the organization from sales data to telemetry data on the software that we create to reporting and managing data for multiple departments. We also develop software in support of SQL Server that helps manage, maintain, develop and deploy SQL Server. SQL Server is a fundamental part of our business.
- SQL Server is first a relational management engine. It stores and manages relational data extremely well.
- SQL Server is highly scalable. With correctly designed databases and well-tuned queries, we're able to store and retrieve data at almost any scale.
- SQL Server is highly ubiquitous. Almost every development tool and language can be used to build software with it. Almost any reporting tool can be used to retrieve information from it.
- Deployments of changes to existing databases can be challenging. Better support within the tool for language constructs in assistance of deployments would be helpful.
- Development processes such as using source control to build your databases is not a native part of the tool set.
- Query tuning is difficult for those who don't have specialized knowledge.
January 06, 2016
SQL Server is great DBMS for corporate use
SQL Server is widely used to support business needs across all organization. We use most of SQL Server features such as SSIS, SSAS, SSRS, Full-text search, and Always On.
- Advanced data transformation and ETL techniques with SSIS.
- Great platform for enterprise reporting with SSRS. You don't have to license each user like some other reporting software.
- Reliable DBMS engine with advanced options for replication, data recovery, change tracking, maintenance.
- Future support of Big Data and Predictive Analytics which matters for companies who want to get most value of its data.
- Easy to support and maintain with built-in maintenance plans and wizards.
- Extremely well documented.
- Sometimes needs CU to make things work right.
- Not all the features have meaningful error messages which forces the database administrator (DBA) to search the web on how to resolve such issue.
January 06, 2016
SQL Server: a solid, reliable, cost effective database platform.
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.
December 14, 2015
MS SQL as seen by UI developer
We are using MS SQL Server to manage the database of our product. We have some inquiries - that we need in our software implemented as stored procedures on the server, but the core of our business logic is done through LINQ to SQL in the "engine" part of our solution. It is used only by the programming team.
- Quick backing up and restoring of databases. Particularly useful when testing.
- I find triggers useful to keep the integrity of business logic.
- Tools that come with it.
- Easy installation process and setting up new databases.
- Managing user roles and security could be clearer.
- Cost of the Enterprise version.
July 20, 2015
De Facto Standard for .NET Development
We use Microsoft SQL Server as the backend for our client's websites. These websites are a mix of custom implementations and sites built on various content management systems such as Kentico, Ektron, and Sitecore.
- Integrates well with very nearly all the platforms we use
- Natively supported by .NET, our typical environment of choice
- Large community to ask questions of
- Less advanced users can get into trouble easily
- Big learning curve for people starting off
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use SQL Server for numerous purposes - Line of Business applications, ERP, Sharepoint, Reporting, and Analytics. It is tightly integrated with other systems used throughout the worldwide organization utilizing various tools to provide that integration (Integration Services, linked servers, etc.)
- Installing and administering a SQL Server instance is one key area that I've found very compelling when using this solution. If you are a power user, you can do many administration tasks via the command line. The visual tools are very good as well.
- Development on the SQL Server platform is another area that I have found to be extremely flexible, powerful, and easy to manage code. It also integrates nicely with source control so you can keep track of changes.
- Performance - While this is a debatable topic, it has performed really well with the type of business applications that we've developed in-house as well as packaged solutions (ERP, etc.). I especially like how you can partition data across multiple drives to increase performance even more. The key idea (as with any solution) is how it is architected within your environment to best suit your requirements.
- One area that I'd like to see improve is it's monitoring toolset. While the built-in tools are good, I've found better 3rd party solutions that do a better job in this area (Embarcadero in particular).
- Another area is backups. The out-of-box solution is good for small-to-medium sized databases. When your data gets large (gigabtyte/terabyte), then being able to have a robust backup solution with compression becomes critical.
- Needs better out-of-box analytics and reporting tools. Again, the tools included in the SQL server package are good, but I find that we have to do a lot of workarounds to get these to work the way we need them to. However, for the most part, Reporting Services and Analysis Services are good toolset to quickly produce reports that would otherwise be too cumbersome with other tools on the market.
- Integration Services is ok for the most part, but it lacks that Enterprise class level of robustness of an effective ETL tool.