What is SQL Server?

MS SQL Server is an Relational Database Management System (RDBMS). To explain what RDBMS is, we need to understand SQL, Server and then RDBMS.

  • SQL: It stands for Structured Query Language. It’s a language that enable us to interact with Databases like Microsoft SQL Server.
  • Server: A server is a computer that accept requests and provide some kind of service. Like Web servers accept HTTP requests and serve these requests. SQL server is provides services related to data store.
  • RDBMS: It’s a system that contains tools and services which enable us to support data storage and retrieval using some sort of file store.

Services Provided by SQL Server

  • Database Engine: It’s the core service provided by SQL Server. It helps us to create databases, tables, storing data and all other data management tasks.
  • SQL Server Agent: It’s a scheduling tool available in SQL Server to schedule jobs to run on various combinations of date and time. It’s a great utility to perform various backup and restore tasks.
  • SQL Server Browser: This service is used to connect to the instance of SQL Server if that instance is on network. This service is disabled by default. Enable it before use it.
  • SQL Server Full Text Search: The fastest way to find text or even the words that sounds similar, is the SQL Server’s Full Text Search service.
  • Business Intelligent Services: SQL Server provides the complete platform for Business Intelligence(BI). It provide services to collect data from various data sources, analyse it and report development using this data.
    • SQL Server Integration Services(SSIS): This service helps to
      export and import data to and from different kind of data sources like database. In BI terms, this is know as ETL – Extract, Transform and Load.
    • SQL Server Reporting Services(SSRS): This service helps to generate reports from data. We can display data using tables and also can add interactive elements like maps to make reports more interactive.
    • SQL Server Analysis Services(SSAS): This service helps to structured our data and makes the process of report generation very easy. We can use SQL Server Management Studio(SSMS), Excel and .NET programs to interact with this service. This service also enables us to implement data mining.