Connect and query SQL Server using SSMS

SQL Server is a relational database management system, or RDBMS, developed and marketed by Microsoft.

Similar to other RDBMS software, SQL Server is built on top of SQL, a standard programming language for interacting with relational databases. SQL Server is tied to Transact–SQL, or T–SQL, the Microsoft’s implementation of SQL that adds a set of proprietary programming constructs.

SQL Server has four primary editions that have different bundled services and tools. Two editions are available free of charge:

SQL Server Developer edition for use in database development and testing.

SQL Server Expression for small databases with the size of up to 10 GB of disk storage capacity.

For larger and more critical applications, SQL Server offers the Enterprise edition that includes all SQL Server’s features.

SQL Server Standard Edition has partial feature sets of the Enterprise Edition and limits on the Server regarding the numbers of processor core and memory that can be configured.

Microsoft provides both data management and business intelligence (BI) tools and services together with SQL Server.

For data management, SQL Server includes SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), SQL Server Data Quality Services, and SQL Server Master Data Services. To develop databases, SQL Server provides SQL Server Data tools; and to manage, deploy, and monitor databases SQL Server has SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS).