Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Developer’s Guide- P1:This book is the successor to the SQL Server 2000 Developer’s Guide, which was extremely successful thanks to all of the supportive SQL Server developers who bought that edition of the book. Our first thanks go to all of the people who encouraged us to write another book about Microsoft’s incredible new relational database server: SQL Server 2005. | Introduction xix Overall the new features in SQL Server 2005 give it a very high return on investment. Features like web services provide better connectivity to customers paving the way to improved profitability. Likewise XML integration enables better integration with business partners for improved profitability. Additionally the inclusion of the .NET Framework improved management tools and Report Services empower employees enabling them to be more productive. A Brief History of Microsoft SQL Server SQL Server 2005 is the latest version of a database server product that has been evolving since the late 1980s. Microsoft SQL Server originated as Sybase SQL Server in 1987. In 1988 Microsoft Sybase and Aston-Tate ported the product to OS 2. Later Aston-Tate dropped out of the SQL Server development picture and Microsoft and Sybase signed a co-development agreement to port SQL Server to Windows NT. The co-development effort cumulated in the release of SQL Server for Windows NT. After the release Microsoft and Sybase split on the development of SQL Server Microsoft continued forward with future releases targeted for the Windows NT platform while Sybase moved ahead with releases targeted for the UNIX platform which they still market today. SQL Server was the first release of SQL Server that was developed entirely by Microsoft. In 1996 Microsoft updated SQL Server with the release. After a two-year development cycle Microsoft released the vastly updated SQL Server release in 1998. SQL Server embodied many radical changes in the underlying storage and database engine technology used in SQL Server. SQL Server 2000 the accumulation of another two-year development effort was released in September of 2000. The move from SQL Server to SQL Server 2000 was more of an evolutionary move that didn t entail the same kinds of massive changes that were made in the move from to . Instead SQL Server 2000 built incrementally on the new code base that was
