SQL Server

What is SQL Server?

SQL Server is Microsoft’s answer to enterprise grade database solutions.

First released in 1989, SQL Server has grown into a full blown data powerhouse that forms the foundation of everything from small, single function software systems to large, globally available applications. It’s built to store, organise and retrieve data efficiently and will fit in extremely well if you already have a Microsoft heavy ecosystem.

What does SQL Server offer you?

• Database management - SQL Server lets you organise your data using structured, relational tables and query it using SQL - the industry standard database language. It’s designed to manage complex relationships without the usual worries of performance degradation that comes with large data volumes.

• High availability & disaster recovery - SQL Server offers mechanisms for ensuring high availability and disaster recovery, such as Always On Availability Groups, Failover Clustering, Database Mirroring and Log Shipping. These features help minimise the risk of costly downtime and ensure data availability in case of hardware failures or disasters for your business.

• Cloud integration - Being part of the Microsoft portfolio, SQL Server naturally integrates with Microsoft Azure, giving you the flexibility to run your databases on premise, in the cloud or even in a hybrid setup. You can also utilise Azure SQL for fully managed cloud deployments.

• Data storage & integrity - With SQL Server, your data can remain accurate and consistent thanks to features including ACID compliant transactions, indexing, partitioning, compression and integrity constraints. In short: fewer nasty surprises.

• Scalability & performance - Whether you have a relatively modest workloads, a high performance system or something in between, SQL Server is built to scale with ease. Features such as in-memory OLTP, columnstore indexes, query optimisation and automatic tuning help to maintain fast performance  as your data grows.

• Business Intelligence (BI) & Analytics - SQL Server includes features you can use for business intelligence and analytics including SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) for OLAP (Online Analytical Processing), SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) for reporting and visualisation and SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) for data integration and ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) processes. Perfect if you want insights without having to sign up and pay for additional BI & Analytics systems.

• Security taken seriously - In terms of security, SQL Server takes it seriously! It offers encryption, auditing, authentication, authorisation, row level security and dynamic data masking. It also supports compliance with common standards including GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS.

• Machine learning & advanced analytics - You can run Python and R directly inside SQL Server using Machine Learning Services giving you access to advanced analytics and models without exporting your data elsewhere.

• Developer Tools & APIs - SQL Server comes with a strong developer toolkit including SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), Visual Studio integration, command-line tools and client libraries for .NET, Java, Python, Node.js and more.

• Support and Community - You’re never on your own with this trusty technology. SQL Server has a huge global community, extensive documentation and commercial support options via SQL Server Enterprise Edition.

Who is SQL Server for?

Short answer - probably you.

• Enterprises - If you're a large enterprise, you might use SQL Server in order to manage your vast amounts of data across different departments and business units. It's scalability, performance and high availability features make it more than suitable for your data needs if you fall into this category.

• Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) - You might also use SQL Server of you're an SME to manage your business data including client information, inventory, financial records and sales related transactions. Whilst enterprise ready, SQL Server is also affordable and relatively straight forward to use and thus, appealing to smaller companies as well. 

• Development & product teams - If like us, you’re a sucker for punishment and building database driven applications, SQL Server makes a solid backend, especially if you’re already using .NET or Visual Studio.

How can we help?

Here at Cool Code Company, we have long standing experience working with SQL Server and can help you design and build SQL Server databases, optimise performance and scalability, secure and maintain existing systems, troubleshoot issues, modernise legacy setups and evaluate whether SQL Server is the right solution for your business. If it's not, we can advise on more suitable alternatives where appropriate. We're ready when you are.