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Microsoft SQL Server

Score8.7 out of 10

1,630 Reviews and Ratings

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What is Microsoft SQL Server?

Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database.

Categories & Use Cases

Most Frequent Users

Top 3 industries using Microsoft SQL Server
Based on HG Insights installation data
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#1 most frequent

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

23.3%

25,946 installations of 111,407

#2 most frequent

Manufacturing

11.0%

12,303 installations of 111,407

#3 most frequent

Information

10.2%

11,340 installations of 111,407

Reviews

What users are saying about Microsoft SQL Server.
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Microsoft SQL Server: Perfect Data Manager for an Organization

Incentivized
varun kohliView profile
Senior Executive in Information Technology at Vardhman textiles ltd. (10,001+ employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Microsoft SQL Server is used in our organization by IT personnel to Store data, fetch data specific to requirements. For instance, in Sales Module SQL server is used to fetch data specific to a sales transaction and it helps to troubleshoot the errors reported by users. Similarly, it is used by IT technical team and other IT functional team to query the data stored in data server.

Pros

  • Data Storage,Data retrieval in conjunction with front-end software
  • Scalability to handle small-large database
  • SQL server available with different architectures under one umbrella

Cons

  • Nested queries are complex and need expertise - BI should be used to provide ease
  • Time and Space complexities - Can be improved
  • OLTP can be further enhanced
  • Cloud version can be improved

Return on Investment

  • Its definately value for money product and 2 generations are using it with easy in our office environment.
  • The reliability and trust associated with this query tool is unparallel and since the old techies are also well versed with Microsoft SQL Server, the guidance required at times is easily available.
  • ROI is uncountable - There is no comparison and positive return trajectory is going up by each year.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Oracle Database, MySQL, Db2 and Snowflake

Other Software Used

.NET, SapphireIMS, Microsoft Visual Studio, Microsoft SharePoint

Most reliable database product

Incentivized
Verified User
Professional in Information Technology (1001-5000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Microsoft SQL Server is being used for the various applications in our organization, which are OLTP, Data warehouse, and Java-based applications. The various tools that come up with Microsoft SQL Server like SQL Server Management Studio, SQL Server Profiler etc make the maintenance and performance analysis very easy. We also have integrated it with Power BI for the analysis purposes.

Pros

  • Highly reliable and scalable
  • Ease in operation and maintenance with the help of various tools
  • Good technical support

Cons

  • Being open-source databases available in the market, the licensing cost seems to be on the higher side.
  • Server resource utilization is more. It can be tuned further.
  • Can have better compatibility with third-party applications.

Return on Investment

  • With ease of scalability, we are able to save upto 30% in the resource utilization.
  • Because of the best technical support, we are able to maintain it with lesser human resources.
  • However, higher licensing cost has impacted the IT budget.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Oracle Database and PostgreSQL

Other Software Used

Oracle Database, PostgreSQL, MySQL

Microsoft SQL pricey but worth it

Incentivized
Verified User
Technician (51-200 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use it to hold the databases that with use for our Apps. It gives us a efficient way to store all the data we have in order to make our apps works. Any business needs a database to store it's data and with Microsoft SQL things are easier to manage.

Pros

  • Data structure
  • Good documentation
  • Huge posibilities
  • Efficient querying

Cons

  • Easy issues management , like deadlocks and slow performance
  • Resource use , it's very memory hungry
  • Pricing

Return on Investment

  • It's needed for daily operations
  • Thanks to it apps works
  • Provide us good options for reports

Usability

Alternatives Considered

MySQL

Other Software Used

Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows, Sage X3, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Windows, ESET PROTECT

Microsoft SQL is a valuable tool to manage and present information across platforms.

Incentivized
Verified User
Technician in Customer Service (11-50 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I work for a company that creates a software suite that allows our customers to manage and track their work, their companies and contacts, user logins, etc. We use an extensive database built over the years and several stored procedures that can be called from our software to perform calculations and format data in needed layouts.

Pros

  • It stores information.
  • It is very reliable, with a few notable exceptions.
  • It connects with other software quickly, and tools are provided to facilitate that.

Cons

  • SQL does not run on Snapdragon or any ARM processors in general. Vendors like Dell are starting to sell laptops with ARM-based processors, and while Windows will work, SQL refuses to run.
  • When Windows 11 came out, SQL would fail after the upgrade from 10 to 11 because Windows 11 formatted the disk with larger sector sizes than SQL allows. This left a lot of our customers unable to use our software until they reverted to Windows 10. Since then, a registry hack has been made available to let SQL run, but we lost quite a bit of customer goodwill. Microsoft needs to test its software, Windows, and SQL on various platforms before pushing upgrades to avoid this.
  • Since 2008, the maximum database size available to SQL Express has been 10 gigabytes. However, 10 gigs does not go nearly as far now as it did then, and this needs to be doubled.

Return on Investment

  • Microsoft was a massive upgrade from the Access database our company used previously. It's more reliable and easier to manage.
  • It seems more fragile than access was. I have had several customers call in with database corruption. Sometimes, we can fix it with a DBCC CHECKDB, but we never trust the results and always have them move their data to a fresh database afterward.
  • If you're including SQL Express with your product, you need to be mindful of its limitations. One processor core, one GB RAM, and ten gigabytes of disk space are consumed far faster than you'd think.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

MySQL and Microsoft Access

Other Software Used

Apache OpenOffice, Microsoft 365, Linux Mint

Microsoft SQL Server review

Incentivized
Verified User
Professional in Information Technology (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I primarily use Microsoft SQL Server 2019 and 2022 data engine to run commercial workloads of various customers. A frequent configuration use case is the usage of Microsoft SQL Server Always On failover cluster instances to provide high availability and redundancy at the Microsoft SQL Server instance level. In some cases, I also make use of Microsoft SQL Server replication to ensure that a primary (publisher) database is replicated, by using transaction of snapshot replication, to a subscriber SQL instance from which the customer can run various SQL queries for analytical reporting purposes without affecting the SQL production workloads. Another common case where I make use of Microsoft SQL Server is when running hybrid cloud SQL workloads, in which case I combine on-premise SQL Server deployments, Azure VM-based SQL Server deployments and Azure SQL or Azure SQL Managed Instance resources.

Pros

  • Always On failover cluster instances for high availability
  • Microsoft SQL Server replication for keeping synchronized copy of a database
  • Microsoft SQL Server maintenance plans for maintaining integrity and performance of the affected databases

Cons

  • Microsoft SQL Server Enterprise edition has a high cost but is the only edition which supports SQL Always On Availability Groups. It would be nice to include this feature in the Standard version.
  • Licensing of Microsoft SQL Server is a quite complex matter, it would be good to simplify licensing in the future. For example, per core vs per user CAL licensing, as well as complex licensing scenarios in the Cloud and on Edge locations.
  • It would be good to include native tools for converting Oracle, DB2, Postgresql and MySQL/MariaDB databases (schema and data) for import into Microsoft SQL Server.

Return on Investment

  • By introducing Microsoft SQL Server failover clustering, we improved DB availability by 70%, thus increasing operational efficiency by almost 90%.
  • By using Microsoft SQL Server replication, we allowed business users to use the replicated databases to run high impact queries without affecting the performance SQL instances.
  • By using Microsoft SQL Server maintenance tasks, we reduced the time DBA administrators require for trivial maintenance tasks and increased efficiency of the business by 50%.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

MySQL

Other Software Used

MySQL, MariaDB MaxScale, PostgreSQL