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SQL Server 2008 Humor: Man on the Street

  • Artigo

We've had a number of internal trainings, as well as, external launch events around Visual Server 2008, Windows Server 2008, and SQL Server 2008.  For SQL Server, they created Man on the Street Videos to ask people if they know about SQL Server 2008.

        

Man on the Street What is SQL Server 2008      Video: Man on the Street Why Upgrade to SQL Server2008

I just couldn't pass these up.  If you're new to these concepts here are some basics.

So, what exactly is SQL Server?

SQL Server is a relational database management system (RDBMS) from Microsoft that's designed for the enterprise environment. It is a family of tools for data management and analysis for e-commerce, line-of-business, and data warehousing solutions.

The next version of SQL is SQL Server 2008 which will release in Q3 of calendar year 2008.

What does it mean to be 'scalable'?

You may have heard that SQL Server is a highly scalable RDBMS, but what does this mean? It means that the system is capable of quickly adjusting to and accommodating for increased workloads. There are dynamic features in the system so that when the amount of activity increases, the system can meet the demand without failing. Think of credit card systems during the holiday shopping rush, or a database that deals with concert ticket sales - it has to suddenly handle large amounts of traffic the moment the tickets go on sale.

What runs SQL on the 'back end' (and what is a back end, anyway)?

Database applications have two components - a 'front end' and a 'back end'. The front end is essentially what you see when you enter data, run reports, etc. - it is the user interface of the database. The back end is the mechanism or device that actually stores and manipulates the data. The server that is storing the data is sometimes referred to as the back end.

SQL Server provides both front end and back end capabilities, but it is possible to use other applications (Access, an ATM machine, a Point-of-Sale application, etc.) as the front end and have SQL Server run the back end.

 

Did You Know?

Here are some facts about SQL Server that you may not know...

Systems that run SQL Server on the back end include:

  • Anything that requires you to store data (which is pretty much every application).
  • Anything that requires you to present relevant information (via Reporting).
  • Anything that enables users to analyze sales or marketing information.
  • Anything that requires you to store data on a mobile device (Windows Mobile® has SQL Server compact on every machine).
  • SharePoint, MS Project Server, Microsoft Dynamics, SAP, MS Sales, etc. - all use SQL Server on the back end.

Some companies that use SQL Server:

  • Progressive
  • NASDAQ
  • Starbucks
  • And many more...

Some applications need SQL Server just to operate, such as:

  • SharePoint
  • BizTalk®
  • System Management
  • Microsoft Dynamics suite

Comments

  • Anonymous
    May 05, 2008
    What about the wonderfull things like sparse columns and indexes without nulls :)

  • Anonymous
    May 09, 2008
    SQL Server 2008 is acking like Exchange 2007 now, it has roles, very interesting.