Microsoft SQL Server is a comprehensive enterprise-wide relational database management system that enables organizations to store, manage and secure data of all kinds. It is designed to deliver reliability, performance, security and scalability for the demands of large databases. Its primary query languages are MS-SQL and T-SQL.

Key Benefits of MS SQL
MS SQL is an affordable, easy-to-manage database server. Organizations of all sizes rely on it to keep their data persistent, reliable, secure, and always available. It does well in the following areas:

• Integration with Other Microsoft Products - MS SQL runs well on Microsoft Windows Server, integrates with Microsoft’s Dot Net development platform and Active Directory authentication, etc.
• High Availability - Microsoft’s database solution ensures business continuity and fast recovery from problems. Some organizations choose to use all four of the following options…
  • Database Mirroring - Automatically creates a constant real-time backup on the database level by replicating (“mirroring”) all of the tables in your database to a different physical or virtual server.
  • Database Replication - Similar to database mirroring, database replication is used to replicate an entire database (including files, permissions and all database objects) to another physical server. Database mirroring was introduced with SQL 2008; in earlier versions of SQL database replication was the only method available for transferring data to a second box.
  • Failover Clustering - Automatically creates a constant real-time backup on the physical server level. If one physical box fails, the connection will automatically be transferred to the failover system.
  • Database Snapshots - A “snapshot” of your data that can be used to preserve a copy of your data from a particular point in time. In addition to its obvious use for disaster recovery, database snapshots are also used for reporting, data search, and queries.
• Performance - MS SQL runs fast on either a 64-bit platform or a 32-bit platform. It provides excellent memory management, and caches data for even faster access.
• Scalability - MS SQL provides an infrastructure that can grow with your business. With SQL you can scale up from a 32-bit machine to a 64-bit machine, add physical servers to scale the application horizontally, and add more memory or multi-core CPUs to the server box to scale vertically. SQL also offers table and index partitioning.
• Manageability and Security - Using the tools that Microsoft provides, SQL databases are managed using an intuitive interface. Complete access permission security is included.
• Business Intelligence - MS SQL helps you gain deeper insight into your business through integrated, comprehensive analysis and reporting. The system provides a variety of options or solutions for business intelligence issues, including:
  • Integration Services - Used to integrate data from any source.
  • Analysis Services - Analyze your results through a database that can be optimized based on your input. A consolidated view across all dimensions of your business will serve as the foundation for your analysis.
  • Reporting - With MS SQL you can create server-based reports for enterprise-wide data.
  • Data Mining - Gain valuable insight into your business so you can understand past events and make intelligent predictions about your business’ future.

How the Latest Version of SQL Compares to Previous Editions
The most recent version of MS SQL is SQL Server 2008. This version includes significant improvements over SQL 2005 in the areas of security, dependability, ease of administration, functionality, business information, scalability, and performance. Some of the most notable changes include better support for 64-bit processors, application-independent encryption of entire databases, data files, or logs, and recognition of many types of structured and unstructured data (including pictures, sound, moving video, date/time, and geographic data).

Making the Most of MS SQL in Your Organization
Coyote Creek Consulting has a great deal of experience working with MS SQL, and can help you with all your MS SQL needs. We can help you:

• Plan, deploy, and manage database servers
• Plan, deploy, and manage clusters and failover systems
• Consolidate multiple database servers onto a single machine
• Plan and complete a database migration from one server to another
• Upgrade your database from an earlier version of MS SQL to the most recent version
• Design your Data Warehouse or other large reporting database

Our clients like MS SQL because it is less expensive than other options, it is relatively easy to deploy, and it reliably does the job.

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