10 reasons why you should try Microsoft SQL Server right now

Reason #1 – Microsoft SQL Server now runs on Linux as well

November 16, 2016 Microsoft published the first public cross-platform version of SQL Server VNext, which now also works under Linux: Public preview of the next release of SQL Server – Bringing the performance and security of SQL Server to Linux and Windows

Reason #2 – Microsoft SQL Server Developer Edition is free for development and testing

In April 2016, Microsoft finally made a free version for developers, which has the same functionality as Enterprise. Before that, the cost of one development license was around 2-3 thousand rubles.

In fact, Microsoft allows you to use Developer Edition 2016 for testing as well, for more details see this article Is User Acceptance Testing Covered Under Developer Edition?

In order to download your own version of SQL Server Developer Edition you should just join Visual Studio Dev Essentials.

Reason #3 – Support and development of R

Microsoft invests a lot of effort in popularization and development of R language, trying to make it a leader in the field of statistical calculations. At the same time, Microsoft offers 2 proprietary versions of the R environment distributions.

Reason #4 – For Microsoft SQL Server there is a free and monthly updated SSMS development environment

In due time began work with Microsoft SQL Server and at that time SSMS represented glitchy poor interface which in comparison with TOAD for Oracle and even PLSQL Developer caused only tears and pain. In general, 10 years ago work in SSMS environment was a continuous punishment. But now more than 4 years the best tool for work with a database (unfortunately so far only with SQL Server, but suddenly it will start to work with others), I have not met, though in due time has tried a lot of Tools and utilities of Microsoft SQL Server. At the same time, if you add some free extensions, SSMS becomes simply out of competition among similar commercial and free products.

Since July 2016 SSMS began to be released as a separate distribution monthly, which allowed to significantly speed up the process of implementing new functionality and eliminating current bugs.

Reason #5 The update scheme for Microsoft SQL Server was simplified and updates are now released on a regular basis

If earlier the abundance of different distributions and fixes for SQL Server was bewildering, and the correct order of their installation was the responsibility of the elected administrators, now with the transition to an incremental model of update should know the following:

• Install the required version and edition of SQL Server – Microsoft SQL Server Versions
• Install the latest service pack for the current version of SQL Server – SP Service Pack
• Install the latest cumulative update for the current service pack – CU Cumulative Update
• If there are certain problems, we look for the necessary fix – COD Critical On-Demand.

Reason #6 – Microsoft SQL Server can now be set in 3 clicks

If you are intimidated at first sight by the cumbersome SQL Server installation interface and a lot of Next buttons, a simplified version of the installer (so-called Basic Installer) was developed especially for you, which reduces everything to 3 clicks: The SQL Server Basic Installer: Just Install It!

Reason #7 – Very developed developer community

The amount of resources to study and solve problems associated with SQL Server is simply huge – in my opinion, more than 170 high-quality and really useful projects, some of them are collected here: Resources for Microsoft SQL Server.

Reason #8 Microsoft Azure CloudDB

If you do not want to download, install and configure SQL Server on your machine, you can very quickly try it in the Azure cloud for free. Starting from version CloudDB 2016, all new functionality is implemented exactly in the cloud platform, and then the engine for non-cloud versions is modified. At the same time, all the headache of support, maintenance and update of SQL Server will lie on the shoulders of Microsoft Azure engineers.

Reason #9 – Plenty of functional improvements and additions in version 2016

Short for T-SQL:

• CREATE OR ALTER
• DROP IF EXISTS
• STRING_SPLIT Function
• TRUNCATE TABLE with PARTITION
• FOR SYSTEM_TIME Clause
• FOR JSON Clause
• JSON Functions
• OPENJON Function
• FORMATMESSAGE Function
• Stored procedure sp_execute_external_script to execute R scripts

Reason #10 – With SP1 output for SQL Server 2016 most of the functionality

• Performance features – in-memory OLTP (Hekaton), in-memory columnstore, operational analytics
• Data warehousing features – partitioning, compression, CDC, database snapshots
• Some security features – Always Encrypted, row-level security, dynamic data masking