SQL Server

SQL Server is a relational database management system (RDBMS) from Microsoft that's designed for the enterprise environment. SQL Server runs on T-SQL (Transact -SQL), a set of programming extensions from Sybase and Microsoft that add several features to standard SQL, including transaction control, exception and error handling, row processing, and declared variables.

Code named Yukon in development, SQL Server 2005 was released in November 2005. The 2005 product is said to provide enhanced flexibility, scalability, reliability, and security to database applications, and to make them easier to create and deploy, thus reducing the complexity and tedium involved in database management. SQL Server 2005 also includes more administrative support.

The original SQL Server code was developed by Sybase; in the late 1980s, Microsoft, Sybase and Ashton-Tate collaborated to produce the first version of the product, SQL Server 4.2 for OS/2. Subsequently, both Sybase and Microsoft offered SQL Server products. Sybase has since renamed their product Adaptive Server Enterprise.