January 9, 2017 at 11:42 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Server is Getting More Popular
January 10, 2017 at 2:43 am
One reason for the spread of the popularity is the growing awareness of SQL and the availability of the Express edition of SQL Server.
There those who would have used FileMaker Pro, Access or even possibly MySQL in the past, who are now comfortable using SQL, especially if it is a once-off job, probably as part of a project.
2 examples offhand:
1. My wife had to consolidate over a million books from 7 regional libraries that were being fused into one library. She had planned to do it in Excel but comparisons taxed her Windows 7 laptop. What took a weekend in Excel took an afternoon in SQL Server to solve (plus a morning downloading everything, installing it and figuring out how to import data from Excel into her new DB).
2. I delivered data to a doctoral student doing statistical analysis on our DB. The DB of choice in her university was Postgres. The technician helping her was unable to do anything with the .bak file that I had delivered to her. CSVs were an option, but, in the end, she was happy with the Express edition solution. She didn't find TSQL too different from what she was used to and intended to import it all into R anyway (it was SQL Server 2014).
The DB for my wife was very small (1-2GB) while the DB for the doctoral student had to be paired down a bit to make it fit into 10GB.
Neither of these are regular nor frequent users of SQL Server and they found it comfortable to use and it did the job quickly.
January 10, 2017 at 4:50 am
I am a little surprised by this. About half a dozen years ago I wondered whether SQL Server was a on a slide away from mainstream. It was not a desire of mine but I did wonder given what I was hearing about the LAMP stack, Amazon's then domination of the cloud database provision and rising popularity open source databases.
I am the worst predictor. Ever.
Gaz
-- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!
January 10, 2017 at 6:03 am
As a data jack-of-all-trades (and cross platform maven of dubious reputation), there are a few reasons folks are excited about SQL Server despite it's license costs.
1) It's very well documented and has a plethora of books available. (Ye gads!)
2) It has a insanely knowledgeable and sharing community. (This should be number 1)
3) The developer edition is free and fairly easy to install. (For at least 35% of the population... 😛 )
4) Microsoft's cross platform development push is getting broad recognition from the community. (It's freaking me out!)
5) Automation and such is making it easier to manage. (Everybody wants to manage 50,000 servers!)
6) Features keep coming and are finally getting to the standard version, not just the enterprise version. (About frickin' time!)
And despite the costs and the few warts, it's not a bad platform for databases.
January 10, 2017 at 7:08 am
I certainly think one of the main reasons is just due to the fact it's Microsoft. Most companies are Microsoft only. It only makes sense they also include Microsoft SQL Server in the mix.
That being said, the engine itself is pretty good. Having the brand advantage gets you the looks. Once the business looks at Microsoft, what it can and can't do, and the price, I think they know the obvious choice.
I know from my perspective, I'm moving more and more away from Microsoft SQL Server each year. This is mainly because the use case in my example is not easily supported by a single server engine that does not scale well. But, that's where Microsoft Azure comes into play, which is why I think it's also becoming popular too. Azure is no joke.
January 10, 2017 at 7:24 am
chrisn-585491 (1/10/2017)
As a data jack-of-all-trades (and cross platform maven of dubious reputation), there are a few reasons folks are excited about SQL Server despite it's license costs.1) It's very well documented and has a plethora of books available. (Ye gads!)
2) It has a insanely knowledgeable and sharing community. (This should be number 1)
3) The developer edition is free and fairly easy to install. (For at least 35% of the population... 😛 )
4) Microsoft's cross platform development push is getting broad recognition from the community. (It's freaking me out!)
5) Automation and such is making it easier to manage. (Everybody wants to manage 50,000 servers!)
6) Features keep coming and are finally getting to the standard version, not just the enterprise version. (About frickin' time!)
And despite the costs and the few warts, it's not a bad platform for databases.
Great list.
January 10, 2017 at 8:49 am
If you can download and install software for free, access a wealth of quality knowledge for free and it turns out to be pretty good then you are on to a winner.
If it is difficult to download and/or obscure then the people who will take the time to find out whether or not it is any good will be greatly reduced.
I think Microsoft's support for open-source hasn't hurt and it will be interesting to see whether they get a further upswing from SQL Server on Linux.
I'm always dubious about the people who say SQL Server doesn't scale well. Having seen what a modest server with SQL Server installed is capable of I find it hard to believe that most people will run into scalability issues.
January 10, 2017 at 9:25 am
David.Poole (1/10/2017)
...I find it hard to believe that most people will run into scalability issues.
Totally agree. One place of extreme usage suffered scalability issues down to their own system design (not just SQL Server). Anywhere where I have seen issues it would, most likely, be the same for any database.
Gaz
-- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!
January 10, 2017 at 9:39 am
I believe there are two trends going on here that work in favor of SQL Server. One is simply that SQL Server 2014 and 2016 introduced or matured a number architectural features (In-Memory tables, Clustered ColumnStore, Always Encrypted, AlwaysOn Availability Groups, etc.) that are too sweet to be ignored by customers with high architectural demands. The recent move to make Standard and Express editions feature complete is the icing on the cake.
Secondly, the "No SQL!" mantra has collapsed under it's own weight and become untenable. You can dump petabytes of data into a lake, but once you've identified golden records and start making attempts at capitalizing on your investment, you'll find that no database platform is better for enterprise line of business applications and agile business intelligence than SQL Server.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
January 10, 2017 at 12:10 pm
In recent years, justifying the cost vs the benefit of Oracle is becoming increasingly harder, which is why I believe MS SQL is taking off. If I was Oracle, I'd be concerned!
January 10, 2017 at 12:40 pm
dranostaj (1/10/2017)
In recent years, justifying the cost vs the benefit of Oracle is becoming increasingly harder, which is why I believe MS SQL is taking off. If I was Oracle, I'd be concerned!
Oracle is charging quite a lot more and not really offering many benefits over SQL Server and that's just at the DB engine level. Once you factor in that SQL Server is going to play much better in a windows stack environment and you're getting SSRS, SSIS and SSAS on top of that I'm sure it's pretty hard to justify Oracle unless you're locked into a product that only supports oracle.
January 10, 2017 at 1:37 pm
An enterprise level software that people can try for free (Express/Developer) is a win but it just took a long time for it to be common knowledge. About a decade ago when I wanted to incorporate a DB at my house for my own personal needs (medical records and such), the natural free go-to was MySQL. At the time I think SQL Server Express was there but I didn't even think of it, despite working in a SQL Server environment. Now, I wouldn't even consider MySQL given past experience and the fact that Express and Developer are free.
I know there are lot who would come to the defense of MySQL but my experience was after messing around with it for a week, I discovered a bug that DROPPED objects without the user knowing it. I was able to reproduce the problem, document it and submit it to be fixed. It was after doing all of that when I realized, this is not a good product. If a new user discovers a bad bug while doing basic interaction, loses a lot of work and then has to submit a bug report to get it fixed, you will not survive in the market place. They've lasted a long time but there's also a lot of bad software out there and I've always envisioned that software running on a MySQL db, thus the suck-factor. SQL Server for life!
January 11, 2017 at 9:17 am
Gary Varga (1/10/2017)
I am a little surprised by this. About half a dozen years ago I wondered whether SQL Server was a on a slide away from mainstream. It was not a desire of mine but I did wonder given what I was hearing about the LAMP stack, Amazon's then domination of the cloud database provision and rising popularity open source databases.I am the worst predictor. Ever.
I too was concerned that from the late 2000's to 2013/14, SQL Server was just on a cash cow path, destined to die a slow death. But for that last few years, for reasons unknown, the SQL Server team has been reborn. And it is great!
SSRS 2016 is a near total re-write. Until now, it languished with almost not updates.
Master Data services had a total face-lift. It is now usable - mostly.
The core database engine has columnar support. Important for BI & reporting
And with the rise of columnar support, and MPP databases, ROLAP is now viable. No more data push from a DW to MOLAP. Which is great, since multi-dimensional is far superior to the tabular SSAS.
The more you are prepared, the less you need it.
January 11, 2017 at 9:24 am
Iwas Bornready (1/10/2017)
chrisn-585491 (1/10/2017)
As a data jack-of-all-trades (and cross platform maven of dubious reputation), there are a few reasons folks are excited about SQL Server despite it's license costs.1) It's very well documented and has a plethora of books available. (Ye gads!)
2) It has a insanely knowledgeable and sharing community. (This should be number 1)
3) The developer edition is free and fairly easy to install. (For at least 35% of the population... 😛 )
4) Microsoft's cross platform development push is getting broad recognition from the community. (It's freaking me out!)
5) Automation and such is making it easier to manage. (Everybody wants to manage 50,000 servers!)
6) Features keep coming and are finally getting to the standard version, not just the enterprise version. (About frickin' time!)
And despite the costs and the few warts, it's not a bad platform for databases.
Great list.
Agree as well. If you know Linux, the SQL Server on Linux has proven to be both solid and smooth. If the trade off is free MySQL vs. free PostgeSQL vs. free express MSSQL, I suspect many will go with MSSQL.
The more you are prepared, the less you need it.
January 12, 2017 at 8:16 am
ZZartin - Tuesday, January 10, 2017 12:40 PMdranostaj (1/10/2017)
In recent years, justifying the cost vs the benefit of Oracle is becoming increasingly harder, which is why I believe MS SQL is taking off. If I was Oracle, I'd be concerned!Oracle is charging quite a lot more and not really offering many benefits over SQL Server and that's just at the DB engine level. Once you factor in that SQL Server is going to play much better in a windows stack environment and you're getting SSRS, SSIS and SSAS on top of that I'm sure it's pretty hard to justify Oracle unless you're locked into a product that only supports oracle.
I'd have said this was the case almost a decade ago. SQL Server has been less expensive, and added many features that made it easier to use. Certainly there were gpas, but I was surprised how many people stuck with Oracle.
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