We use this solution as our database.
Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
The stability needs improvement but it is easy to scale
Pros and Cons
- "Similar to Microsoft SQL, it is easy to scale."
- "It could be more stable."
What is our primary use case?
What needs improvement?
It could be more stable.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using SQL Server for four or five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
SQL Server is a stable solution, but it could be improved.
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What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Similar to Microsoft SQL, it is easy to scale.
We have a team of 300 people who are using this solution.
How are customer service and support?
I have not contacted technical support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, I used MySQL.
How was the initial setup?
I was not involved in the installation.
We have an IT team to complete the installation.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There is no licensing cost for SQL Server.
What other advice do I have?
I am a user of this solution but I don't know that I understand it well enough to recommend it to others because I did not install it.
I would rate SQL Server a five out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
CEO at SkyNet
Easy to manage and configure, reliable, easy to expand, and good documentation
Pros and Cons
- "What I like most is the management, as it is very easy compared with other products."
- "Security is an issue."
What is our primary use case?
I am an IT professional, I write services for my clients. I provide support services for SQL, firewalls, and operating systems. IT infrastructure support in general is what I provide.
What is most valuable?
What I like most is the management, as it is very easy compared with other products.
What needs improvement?
Security is an issue. This is an area that needs to be improved.
There is security built-in, but most of the developers don't emphasize the security enough. When they are building the products or databases, they don't focus on the security of the database.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been providing services for this solution to my clients for five or six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We have had no issues with stability. It's one of the most stable products.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This solution is scalable. It is easy to expand.
How are customer service and technical support?
In the five or six years that I have been handling SQL Servers, I have not had to contact technical support.
Their documentation is sufficient for troubleshooting and maintenance activity.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I am also using Sophos.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
We have our in-house team of more than 10 engineers for maintenance.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Pricing is a bit on the higher side. It could be reduced.
What other advice do I have?
To others who are interested in using this solution, I would say go for it. It's a stable database that is easy to configure and maintain. I would suggest this solution when compared with other databases.
I would rate SQL Server an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Buyer's Guide
SQL Server
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about SQL Server. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
824,067 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Business Analytics Manager at a transportation company with 201-500 employees
Good pricing and works well however is a bit unstable
Pros and Cons
- "The pricing of the solution is okay. It's less expensive than Oracle, for example."
- "Their datatypes need improvement."
What is our primary use case?
The solution is our main database and stores our data at the organization. We're a Microsoft shop. That's why it's the main database. We have licenses for the servers. The only reason I'm using that is that that's what we have. However, I don't actually like working with it.
How has it helped my organization?
The solution works. It does what you need it to do.
What is most valuable?
Their integration, SSRS and SSIS tools are really good. The flow is great.
The pricing of the solution is okay. It's less expensive than Oracle, for example.
What needs improvement?
It's night and day if you compare it to Oracle, and I am an Oracle fan.
Their datatypes need improvement. The SQL Server language in itself, its datatypes, seem like they are stuck in the eighties. Even companies that work with an SQL Server, experts on J.D. Edwards that sits on SQL Server that handles all the data transformation, they've actually converted the SQL Server datatypes so that they are more useful and easy to handle on their solutions. That tells you right then and there that their datatypes must improve.
When you run your SQL optimizer there, on the datatypes, it's very costly because it's just this level of conversion that needs to happen as opposed to just calling it numeric, or as opposed to calling it something else. Their datatypes technically work. If you know what you're doing, it really can give you all that. However, on the optimization side, on the performance side, it does struggle.
The datatype conversion to push my data to an enterprise data warehouse is difficult. I can tell you Oracle data is so much easier to ingest into it and it easier than doing it on a SQL Server.
There are many issues that I face when I'm pulling data straight from a SQL Server agent. There are more collections that I need to do or handle before it hits my target table. I noticed that due to the fact that I've been working on different databases and ingesting everything in a data warehouse. It just doesn't flow properly.
Even on their SQL Studios, that Master Studio tools, even if you try to do your conversions on their own, even though this is their native tool, you're always going to have some problems and it's always going to give you some type of error. It is just difficult to tell you what the error will be. You have to dig in and figure it out. Most of that is due to datatypes. It's just not easy. It's like pulling teeth. Especially if you have had experience using a tool, like Oracle, that is just not that painful.
There seems to be a lot of patching, which leads me to believe there may often be stability issues.
For how long have I used the solution?
I haven't used the solution for too long. I've used it here at the company for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is more on the IT side. I have not paid attention to that as I'm outside the SQL Server. My enterprise data warehouse is not on a SQL Server. Once I get the data, I don't know what's happening in that space. It's not my realm anymore. I know they patch a lot. That gives me a hint that the solution has its issues with bugs. I can't really say if it's stable or not, however, I'm leaning towards no.
How are customer service and technical support?
I have no personal experience dealing with technical support directly. I can't speak to their responsiveness or level of knowledge.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I'm a big fan of Oracle, which I have worked with for 18 years. Comparing the two is like comparing the iOS of Apple versus Windows. They're two very different systems and typically you either like one or the other.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution doesn't cost as much as Oracle. Oracle is more expensive. That's always been the complaint with Oracle. They're very good, however, they're the most expensive out there and that's how they're losing business right now. Their big jump in the cloud happened way too late in the game, and everybody just jumped on the cloud due to high costs. If you were to compare pricing, SQL Server is much cheaper.
What other advice do I have?
I'm currently moving away from the solution.
I'm an Oracle guy, so SQL Server is new to me. I don't like it. I'm moving away from it.
If you're a Microsoft shop, definitely SQL Server is the right solution for you. If you're used to it, it definitely makes sense as an option. It's nice. It works. If you have not seen the other side of things, then you might like it. As long as you're staying in the Microsoft world, it works. However, it's very clunky. From an analytics perspective, a data handling perspective, it is clunky. That is why I decided to go to Tableau instead of Power BI. There are just too many dependencies on the ecosystem. Once you get ingested into that SQL Farm, it's hard to leverage other tools that are disrupting the industry as you're just stuck in that ecosystem.
That's an issue with Oracle as well. That's just Microsoft and Oracle. They're pretty much the same. They're an enterprise solution. And there's an advantage when you're inside an enterprise using all these different services, and the tools that they have. There's definitely a huge advantage in that, however, it's limiting. If you look at Tableau Oracle would say, "We have our OBIE" and Microsoft would say that "we have a SSRS."
Overall, I would rate the solution at a seven out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Enterprise Programmes Architect at a logistics company with 10,001+ employees
Traditional DB toolkit is closely integrated into Microsoft Office, but it does not scale up to a truly global environment
What is our primary use case?
This is a departmental database engine which supports primarily localized solutions, data capture, and retrieval. However, with the exception of our aviation group, it is used for localized data lake or reporting solutions support.
How has it helped my organization?
It is cost effective with easy integration into the core MS Office tools. Hence user adoption is easy. Also, being a commodity product there is an abundance of cheap resources having experience with the toolkit, but very few senior or truly expert support personnel are available. Again because it is viewed as a commodity product even by developers, no serious time is spent on skills development with this toolkit.
What is most valuable?
Traditional DB toolkit closely integrated into Microsoft Office. This makes it truly easy to deploy in a light non-business critical environment.
What needs improvement?
- It does not scale up to a truly global environment. We operate in 220+ countries and territories with data services centralized in three data centers. The ability for MS SQL to operate in this environment is a challenge for anything spanning regions or having a global footprint.
- It is best suited to supporting a single functional instance by business domain or a single country.
- MS needs to work better at the WAN implementations transoceanic.
- It also needs to have a less closed or less MS centric tool dependency as integration with other databases and non-MS development environments is always problematic.
For how long have I used the solution?
More than five years.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Managing Director at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Capable, efficient, OLAP server for Analysis Services; has Big-Data performance issues
Pros and Cons
- "It's a very capable, efficient, price-performant OLAP server."
- "The web interface and the command line interface could be better so we could manage and build some things around an API. If we could build our own solution, our own interface, and then manage the solution through that open API, that would be better."
- "For a big amount of data, when we are speaking about IoT Segments, and Big Data projects, there are performance issues."
What is our primary use case?
Initially as a post-transactional database, but now it's mainly a transactional database and for Analysis Services.
How has it helped my organization?
It's a very capable, efficient, price-performant OLAP server on which we can build our solutions.
What is most valuable?
Analysis Services, because we are an independent software vendor in the business-intelligence area.
What needs improvement?
The web interface and the command line interface could be better so we could manage and build some things around an API. If we could build our own solution, our own interface, and then manage the solution through that open API, that would be better.
For how long have I used the solution?
More than five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
With the new, big releases, there's quite a lot of work that we have to do. From 2005 to 2008, and then from 2012 to 2016. But, otherwise, it's quite stable. It's nice.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Even for us, it's quite okay. For the type of customers we have now, it's okay. But, for a big amount of data, when we are speaking about IoT Segments, and Big Data projects, there are performance issues.
How are customer service and technical support?
If there wasn't Stack Overflow, that would be a problem. But luckily there are also other resources on the web which we can use to help ourselves. Just depending on Microsoft support it would not be so great.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used PostgreSQL, and we also used some other OLAP servers.
How was the initial setup?
It's more and more complex. The 2005 version was very nice and neat, but now it's more and more complicated.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price has been going higher and higher. The market is quite price sensitive.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
At that time there was also Sybase, Oracle, MySQL. That's at the time those databases were up.
What other advice do I have?
It's good if you need OLAP services.
I give it a seven out of 10 overall, because of the things mentioned: First is that during the version upgrades, sometimes things are complicated. The second thing is the support is not so... without an open-source community it would not be so good. Third is the pricing, because it's changing, sometimes it's confusing.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Corporate Data and BI Lead - Database Administrator at a logistics company with 10,001+ employees
Provides An Easy Way To Monitor And Troubleshoot Problems
What is most valuable?
Most of SQL Server High Availability and Disaster Recovery solutions. They are easy to configure and maintain.
How has it helped my organization?
It provides the best performance and an easy way to monitor and troubleshoot problems.
What needs improvement?
Indexing, execution plans, and the SQL Server Management Studio performance.
For how long have I used the solution?
Over seven years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
No.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
No.
How are customer service and technical support?
Medium.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
No.
How was the initial setup?
Complex design, easy configuration.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is not very expensive and is suitable for an international company, like what I am working with. Free licenses are suitable for small companies, too.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
No.
What other advice do I have?
Stable and easy to administrate.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Freelance at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Running long and complicated queries could make the software crash, but it allowed to me make all kinds of important reports easily.
What is most valuable?
The ability to browse table structures and re-design it easily.
How has it helped my organization?
It improved the efficiency in giving service to clients, and allowed to me make all kinds of important reports easily.
What needs improvement?
The compiler should be much more precise and give you more information about the error.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used it for two and a half years.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
No issues encountered.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Running long and complicated queries could make the software crash. You should run them part by part instead (i.e. with stored procedures).
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
No issues encountered.
How are customer service and technical support?
Customer Service:
I haven't had to contact them.
Technical Support:They give quick, and helpful, responses. About 9/10.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
This was the solution I've used.
How was the initial setup?
It's pretty straightforward, and usually everything goes smoothly. Everything was user-friendly and took me a minimum amount of time to understand how everything works.
What about the implementation team?
We did it in-house.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price is pretty high, buy it's worth getting the license.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
No other options were evaluated.
What other advice do I have?
Personally, I love Microsoft products and I’m pleased with this one as well. I would advise you to get it.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Sales Engineer at a tech consulting company with 11-50 employees
I have found SQL Server to be fast, secure and low cost
How has it helped my organization?
Security, lower cost, ease of maintenance and administration, performance. When all of these are considered, our business is able to run faster, more securely, with SQL as the back-end.
What needs improvement?
The Management Studio front end still needs work as does Indexing.
For how long have I used the solution?
14 years
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
No, SQL installs well.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
No, SQL was stable for our applications.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
No, scaling was easy with SQL. We never had an issue.
How are customer service and technical support?
Customer Service: Do not expect Microsoft to be in a hurry to get to you, but I have always found their support to be helpful.Technical Support: I would rate the support as average.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We also used Oracle. We supported both with our application.
How was the initial setup?
SQL is very easy to setup.
What about the implementation team?
In-house.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We also used Oracle. We supported both with our application.
What other advice do I have?
Make sure you have your prerequisites installed and the proper amount of resources dedicated. You should not have a problem.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Some may not agree with my findings on the security portion, but according to National Institute of Standards and Technology, SQL had the fewest number of reported vulnerabilities.