Beginning, Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 Administration

Chapter 1. Introducing SQL Server 2008

Before getting into the meat (or tofu, if you prefer) and potatoes of SQL Server 2008, it's important that you understand what exactly it is that you have on your plate. In this chapter, you will learn about the history of SQL Server, the key components of SQL Server, and the different editions, or flavors, of SQL Server. This chapter also covers architecture, database objects, database storage, and server security from a very high level, with more detail to follow in subsequent chapters.

A Condensed History of SQL Server

Now that the world revolves around SQL Server (at least, it feels that way, doesn't it?), it's interesting to trace Microsoft SQL Server 2008 back to its humble origins. While this is by no means a comprehensive history of SQL, it does provide some insight into the evolution of the product, as well as an idea of where it might be headed. And who knows? This bit of trivia may still show up in Trivial Pursuit: Geek Edition for a yellow pie slice.

In the Beginning

Microsoft's foray into the enterprise database space came in 1987 when it formed a partnership with Sybase to market Sybase's DataServer product on the Microsoft/IBM OS/2 platform. From that partnership, SQL Server 1.0 emerged, which was essentially the UNIX version of Sybase's DataServer ported to OS/2.

The Evolution of a Database

After several years, the developers at Microsoft were allowed more and more access to the Sybase source code for test and debugging purposes, ...