Microsoft Corporation

Microsoft SQL Server

Composite Score

8.7 /10

CX Score

9.0 /10

225 Reviews Write a Review

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What is Microsoft SQL Server?

Apply intelligence across all your data with SQL Server 2022. Whether your data is structured or unstructured, query and analyze it using the data platform with industry-leading performance and security. Regardless of where your data is stored, query and analyze it with the data platform known for performance, security, and availability.

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Awards & Recognition

Microsoft SQL Server won the following awards in the Data Integration category

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Microsoft SQL Server Ratings

Real user data aggregated to summarize the product performance and customer experience.
Download the entire Product Scorecard to access more information on Microsoft SQL Server.

Product scores listed below represent current data. This may be different from data contained in reports and awards, which express data as of their publication date.

88 Likeliness to Recommend

97 Plan to Renew

3
Since last award

83 Satisfaction of Cost Relative to Value

1
Since last award

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Emotional Footprint Overview

Product scores listed below represent current data. This may be different from data contained in reports and awards, which express data as of their publication date.

+89 Net Emotional Footprint

The emotional sentiment held by end users of the software based on their experience with the vendor. Responses are captured on an eight-point scale.

How much do users love Microsoft SQL Server?

2% Negative

5% Neutral

93% Positive

Pros

Reliable
Enables Productivity
Respectful
Helps Innovate

Feature Ratings

Average 80

Data Security

Administrative Features

Synchronization and Replication

Exception Handling and Notifications

Batch Integration

Real Time Integration

Data Quality Profiling and Cleansing

Metadata Management

Data Virtualization

API Management and Orchestration

iPaaS

Vendor Capability Ratings

Average 81

Business Value Created

Ease of Implementation

Quality of Features

Ease of Data Integration

Breadth of Features

Usability and Intuitiveness

Availability and Quality of Training

Product Strategy and Rate of Improvement

Vendor Support

Ease of IT Administration

Ease of Customization

Also Featured in...

Transaction Data Store

Score 8.9

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Desktop Publishing

Score 8.1

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Microsoft SQL Server Reviews

Dave v.

Role: Information Technology
Industry: Healthcare
Involvement: IT Development, Integration, and Administration

Validated Review

Verified Reviewer

Submitted Dec 2023

Generally works adequately for ETL tasks

Likeliness to Recommend

9 /10

What differentiates Microsoft SQL Server from other similar products?

SSIS does a nice, simple integration of data for a wide variety of integration services. In general, Microsoft SQL Server provides a product family to allow many sorts of integration, reporting and data warehouse functions. SSIS (SQL Server Integration Services) does a decent integration job and meshes with the data warehouse systems within Microsoft. Power BI is OK for reports, but it is not the same functionality. I like that SSIS has a community around it for enhanced functions you can purchase. If Microsoft doesn't offer it, google it and see who does. Note: I am not reviewing SSRS. That is substandard.

What is your favorite aspect of this product?

It does what I need it to do, and if you go to third party packages it does it for a really huge variety of stuff.

What do you dislike most about this product?

Licensing costs. You need a decent administrator who knows the product or at least knows how to follow directions on updates. We have been burned several times. I used to hate integrating Visual Studio and SSIS but lo and behold they fixed the issues in the latest release. FINALLY! You have to beware some of the third party vendors. They don't keep up to date and their stuff can be buggy. Look before you leap. That's very annoying but true. I won't name names but could.

What recommendations would you give to someone considering this product?

Read the manual first. Get a CURRENT book on it or two. Then go through some tutorials on YouTube. Decide what you need to do. Make sure you have done any tutorial exercises for that function in the book(s) and actually know the basic building blocks. Find a good support group and join it and ask questions. Google your questions and problems. Usually someone else has had the same issues.

Pros

Enables Productivity
Helps Innovate
Reliable
Performance Enhancing

Cons

Vendor's Interest First
Vendor Friendly Policies
Less Generous

Karthik S.

Role: Information Technology
Industry: Technology
Involvement: IT Development, Integration, and Administration

Validated Review

Verified Reviewer

Submitted Dec 2023

Integration with Microsoft Ecosystem,

Likeliness to Recommend

10 /10

What differentiates Microsoft SQL Server from other similar products?

Microsoft SQL Server stands out in several ways from other similar database products: Integration with Microsoft Ecosystem: SQL Server seamlessly integrates with other Microsoft products, facilitating a unified ecosystem for organizations heavily invested in Microsoft technologies. Enterprise-Level Features: It offers a wide array of enterprise-level features such as high availability, disaster recovery options, robust security measures, advanced analytics, and reporting tools. Scalability: SQL Server provides scalability options, allowing databases to handle increased workloads by scaling up hardware resources .

What is your favorite aspect of this product?

Robustness in Features: SQL Server provides a wide range of features, from advanced security measures to high availability and disaster recovery options. This robust feature set makes it suitable for handling complex and critical enterprise applications. Seamless Integration: Its integration with other Microsoft products creates a unified ecosystem for businesses already using Microsoft technologies. This integration often simplifies workflows and data management across different applications. Performance Optimization: SQL Server offers excellent performance tuning tools, indexing strategies, and caching mechanisms.

What do you dislike most about this product?

There can AI integrated with it to help the coding.

What recommendations would you give to someone considering this product?

BAsed on their requirements and features provided by Microsoft tools please make a choice for long terms usage.

Pros

Helps Innovate
Continually Improving Product
Reliable
Enables Productivity

Takunda A. M.

Role: Information Technology
Industry: Technology
Involvement: IT Leader or Manager

Validated Review

Verified Reviewer

Submitted Nov 2023

Great product with great features!

Likeliness to Recommend

10 /10

What differentiates Microsoft SQL Server from other similar products?

Established product with a large community and knowledge base

What is your favorite aspect of this product?

The ability to manage and fine-tune the product to granular levels

What do you dislike most about this product?

The product can be overwhelming due to the large amount of features available

What recommendations would you give to someone considering this product?

SQL Server is one of the best RDBMS - highly recommend

Pros

Helps Innovate
Continually Improving Product
Reliable
Performance Enhancing

Microsoft SQL Server

What is Microsoft SQL Server?

Company Details

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Awards & Recognition

2024 Emotional Footprint Champion

2024 Data Quadrant Gold Medalist

2023 Emotional Footprint Champion

Microsoft SQL Server Ratings

88 Likeliness to Recommend

97 Plan to Renew

3 Since last award

83 Satisfaction of Cost Relative to Value

1 Since last award

Emotional Footprint Overview

+89 Net Emotional Footprint

How much do users love Microsoft SQL Server?

Pros

Feature Ratings Average rating of all product features, some of which may not be shown below

Data Security Includes ability to hide sensitive data by masking with special characters or anonymous information.

Administrative Features Includes basic aspects of data extraction, transformation, and loading. Administrative console and process viewing, interruption, restart, cancel, and rollback.

Synchronization and Replication Includes the ability to accurately catch, reflect, and correct changes in data across multiple data stores.

Exception Handling and Notifications Ability to catch, report, and handle exceptions; includes transaction logging and event viewing.

Batch Integration Includes ability to schedule integration processes to run on a periodic basis to control the movement of data from a source to target.

Real Time Integration Able to integrate data in near-real time and handle movement of data from a source to target. Monitoring for changes in a data source in a non-invasive manner.

Data Quality Profiling and Cleansing Includes data cleansing, reconciliation, and profiling across multiple sources in batch mode.

Metadata Management A metadata layer makes reporting easy and eliminates the need for coding and SQL, allowing users to see and access information in simple business language.

Data Virtualization Includes ability to create views joining disparate data sources without the need for persistence.

API Management and Orchestration Includes publishing, promoting and overseeing APIs and Orchestration Services.

iPaaS Includes iPaaS (Cloud hosting) features and other advanced integration capabilities

Vendor Capability Ratings Average rating of all vendor capabilities, some of which may not be shown below

Business Value Created Software needs to create value for employees, customers, partners, and, ultimately, shareholders. This data expresses user satisfaction - or lack thereof - with the product's business value.

Ease of Implementation Successfully implementing new software is necessary to realize its full value and promote end user adoption. This data indicates whether or not the product is easy to implement.

Quality of Features Feature quality is just as important as quantity. Use this data to determine if this product will do what you're purchasing it to do, easily, intuitively, reliably, and effectively.

Ease of Data Integration Use this data to determine whether the product will cause headaches or make data integration easy.

Breadth of Features Users prefer feature rich software that enables them to perform diverse series of tasks. This data expresses user satisfaction with the product's breadth of features.

Usability and Intuitiveness End user learning curves cost the organization money. Pay attention to your end users' technical ability to determine how important UX is in your purchase.

Availability and Quality of Training Effective and readily available training enables users to get the most out of the software you've chosen. Use this section to make sure your vendor's training programs and materials measure up.

Product Strategy and Rate of Improvement Vendors who don't stay on top of emerging needs and trends won't enable you to meet your business goals. Use this data to separate innovators from imposters.

Vendor Support The importance of vendor support will vary for each organization depending on internal capabilities, but there will always be issues that only the vendor can resolve.

Ease of IT Administration This data indicates whether IT personnel will be able to resolve issues and perform configurations efficiently and effectively.

Ease of Customization Don't get bogged down in a difficult customization; use this data to make sure you can easily achieve the functionality you need for your particular situation.

Also Featured in...

Transaction Data Store

Desktop Publishing

Microsoft SQL Server Reviews

Dave v.

Generally works adequately for ETL tasks

Likeliness to Recommend

Pros

Cons

Karthik S.

Integration with Microsoft Ecosystem,

Likeliness to Recommend

Pros

Takunda A. M.

Great product with great features!

Likeliness to Recommend

Pros

Most Popular Microsoft SQL Server Comparisons

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Feature Ratings

Data Security

Administrative Features

Synchronization and Replication

Exception Handling and Notifications

Batch Integration

Real Time Integration

Data Quality Profiling and Cleansing

Metadata Management

Data Virtualization

API Management and Orchestration

iPaaS

Vendor Capability Ratings

Business Value Created

Ease of Implementation

Quality of Features

Ease of Data Integration

Breadth of Features

Usability and Intuitiveness

Availability and Quality of Training

Product Strategy and Rate of Improvement

Vendor Support

Ease of IT Administration

Ease of Customization