Releases
The current 16.0 version of Microsoft SQL Server was released in November 2022.
Version
You can check which version of Microsoft SQL Server you are using by running the following query in SQL Server Management Studio:
SELECT @@VERSION;
About Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database management system developed by Microsoft.
The Microsoft SQL Server software is programmed majorly in the two popular languages C, and C++.
As the name makes evident, this database technology is developed and sold by Microsoft,
with different tiers and versions for different needs. It has a free version that allows a very limited amount
of data to be uploaded to the server, and it goes all the way to the enterprise package, with the biggest
amount of privileges. It was launched in April of 1989, and it is considered a relational database
management system (RDBMS). It allows the users to work on “server-mode” when data is readily available
in a server and the users simply call/access it to examine, alter, and use it for the purposes required.
The Microsoft SQL Server technology is mostly used in business settings, where enormous amounts of data in
operations,
sales, and different areas of functioning of a business can be registered and analyzed to then seek to optimize.
The Microsoft SQL Server makes this process easy, with the ability to develop “apps” and processes that run
automatically within the server. An analyst can simply access the data without downloading it necessarily,
which is an enormous plus that other types of databases do not have. The Microsoft SQL Server environment
also has data analysis platforms, reporting platforms, automatic visualization tools, and many other solutions
that prove invaluable in a large corporation where information is to be transmitted efficiently.
Thankfully for smaller businesses or simply lone entrepreneurs starting off, Microsoft SQL Server offers some
capacity
for free, where they can take advantage of the capabilities of SQL, whether it is gathering data from their
website,
operations, and many other fields, although in this case it is more likely that the data is being gathered and
applied
to an online setting or web development, where SQL shines.
There are some interesting features of Microsoft SQL Server, but it is worth discussing the additional platform
Azure,
which offers similar services to the SQL Server, but does so without the need to have a physical server in the
company.
It essentially allows the data to be stored in the cloud and transmitted to the business via transmission
towers.
This service has been offered since 2009.