Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Technical Overview

by Ross Mistry, Stacia Misner

In this book, the authors explain how SQL Server 2014 incorporates in-memory technology to boost performance in online transactional processing (OLTP) and data-warehouse solutions. They also describe how it eases the transition from on-premises solutions to the cloud with added support for hybrid environments.

Genres: Technology

144 pages, ebook

First published March 22, 2014

Reviews

[David Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book I read to research this post was Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Technical Overview by Ross Mistry et al which is an excellent book which I bought from kindle. This book is quite long and is a free download on kindle so represents good value. It isn't a how to guide and hasn't enough space to cover all the features of SQL Server but is aimed at Database Administrators who want the general picture prior to upgrading. The new version integrates with the cloud product Windows Azure so it is like a hybrid cloud product. In addition you can save data to a URL if you use a 3rd party cloud site or company website. There are several major versions which are Enterprise, Business Intelligence & Standard. In addition there are some cheaper niche products Web, Developer & Express version with Express being a free entry level product. With the Enterprise version you can have up to 2048 processors on the server and up to 8,000 virtual account users. It is very much for large companies. The Express version lets you have tables up to 10 GB so is very much aimed at small businesses. It integrates with Excel which if you get one of the current Professional Plus or standalone versions has features like powerpivot tables for doing statistical analysis on data. They did start to move in this direction with the 2010 version and the 2013 & 365 versions contain a lot of additional features. This will normally have Windows 2012 R2 as the operating system but will also work to a lesser extent with Windows 8. Windows 2012 has many cloud computing features many specific to certain providers. In fact is the main upgrade in that program. I'm not hugely knowledgeable about SQL Server but found this book very interesting and with it being free you can't go wrong. Microsoft Press are doing free entry level books on the various current Microsoft products for free to help sell them with more specialized publications obviously for sale that you have to buy.

[Pete Olds · Rating 5 out of 5]

For the price $0.00 on Kindle when I "bought it", if your are interested in Microsoft SQL, you can't go past this book. Of course, the biggest cost with any book is actually the time spent reading it...and in this case, it definitely gave me a good intro to the things in SQL 2014 that I should be paying attention to. I should say that I am an infrequent "DBA" across multiple platforms, so am familiar with the technology, but consider myself as an amateur.

If you are involved in Big Data, it includes some useful introductory info about the Microsoft approach.

So often these kinds of books feel like they are written by marketers, or people who have only just played with a beta - but this book isn't that type. I'd pay good money for this. Recommended.

[Johnny · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book gives you a quick overview on what is new in SQL Server 2014. It’s not about a detailed list of things you now can do, but more a quick introduction. If this is what you need you should read this book.

[Lace Lofranco · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good condensed technical overview of SQL Server 2014 (and more such as HDInsight, PowerBI - though this is a bit dated already :P - and Polybase) offerings