The Evolution of SQL Server Versions and Editions

Introduction

People like us who have been into the software development industry for quite some time are familiar with the SQL Server database. We have seen it grow and evolve. Each time a new SQL Server Version is released, which is very frequent, we have been surprised with new and more user-friendly features which have made our coding life easier. Over the last 13-14 years, SQL Server has released many SQL versions and features that you can be proud of as a developer. 

Read: What is Primary Key in SQL? How to Add, Remove, Or Set Primary Key

This blog is a simple effort to run through the evolution process of our favorite database management system. Here, we will discuss all SQL Server versions, SQL Server Editions, and SQL Server Version Comparison moving ahead through the blog.

What is SQL Server?

SQL Server is a relational database management system (RDBMS) developed by Microsoft. Let us see how it all started?

Read More - SQL Server Tutorial for Beginners 

• Microsoft joined Ashton-Tate and Sybase on 12th Jun 1988.
• They wanted to create a variant of Sybase SQL Server.
• The first SQL Server version was released the following year.
• This was the first SQL server version of Microsoft that was launched successfully.
• This marked Microsoft’s entry to the enterprise-level database market.

Later, Microsoft SQL versions for Windows NT and other operating systems were also launched.

SQL Server Editions

Multiple SQL server editions are available in the database market that you must know as a database developer.

SQL Server Versions Released over the years

SQL Version	Year	Release	Code name	Internal database version
1.0 (OS/2)	1989	SQL Server 1.0 (16-bit)	Filipi	-
1.1 (OS/2)	1990	SQL Server 1.1 (16-bit)	Pietro	-
4.2A (OS/2)	1992	SQL Server 4.2A	-	-
4.2B (OS/2)	1993	SQL Server 4.2B (16-bit)	-	-
4.21a (WinNT)	1993	SQL Server 4.21a	SQLNT	-
6.0	1995	SQL Server 6.0	SQL95	406
6.5	1996	SQL Server 6.5	Hydra	408
7.0	1998	SQL Server 7.0	Sphinx	515
-	1999	SQL Server 7.0 OLAP Tools	Plato	-
8.0	2000	SQL Server 2000	Shiloh	539
8.0	2003	SQL Server 2000 64-bit Edition	Liberty	539
9.0	2005	SQL Server 2005	Yukon	611/612
10.0	2008	SQL Server 2008	Katmai	655
10.25	2010	Azure SQL database (initial release)	Cloud database or CloudDB
10.50	2010	SQL Server 2008 R2	Kilimanjaro (aka KJ)	661
11.0	2012	SQL Server 2012	Denali	706
12.0	2014	Azure SQL database
12.0	2014	SQL Server 2014	SQL14	782
13.0	2016	SQL Server 2016	SQL16	852
14.0	2017	SQL Server 2017	Helsinki	869
15.0	2019	SQL Server 2019 RC	Seattle	895

SQL Server version comparison

Here is a quick SQL server version comparison that you must know before you enter the database industry.

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Older SQL Server Version	Older SQL Version still Supported	Latest Version	Latest Preview Version
1.0 (OS/2)	11.0	12.0	15.0
1.1 (OS/2)	12.0	14.0
4.2A (OS/2)	13.0
4.2A (OS/2)
4.2B (OS/2)
4.21a (WinNT)
6.0
6.5
7.0
-
8.0
9.0
10.0
10.25
10.50

SQL Server Releases - Feature Comparison

Here is again the SQL server version comparison based on features.

SQL Server 1.0	Had networking support Used SQL Server Administrator to create database,set parameters and run queries No Documentation was available
SQL Server 1.1	The version was available for Windows 3.0 and OS2
	No Version 2 or 3
SQL Server 4.2	a)Supported Windows NT
SQL Server 6.0	Supported Windows 95
SQL Server 6.5	ANSI Standard Complaint Based on Sybase Codebase
SQL Server 7.0	Had tools like query analyzer. OLAP Service Wizard to create tables, Indexes ,Stored Procedure, etc.
SQL Server 2000	Analysis Service Supported XML, User Defined Functions etc.
SQL Server 2005	a)Introduction of SSMS         b) Introduction to BIDS         c) Introduction to Installer         d) Adventureworks test database
SQL Server 2008	Change data capture feature
SQL Server 2012	SQL Server Data Tools Always on Failover Cluster Instance
SQL Server 2014	Integration to Azure Memory Optimized Table
SQL Server 2016	Introduction of Polybase support JSON Support
SQL Server 2017	a) Can be installed in Linux and Docker    b) Includes python Support    c) Adaptive Query processing

SQL Server Editions Mainstream

There are five mainstream editions of SQL Server that are frequently used by industries worldwide.

Express

• Basic of all SQL Server editions.
• Free to use in production.

Web

• It is between the Standard and Express editions. 
• Can be used for web development

Standard

• Enables database management with minimal effort.

Enterprise

• Unlimited virtualization and high service levels for the mission-critical workload.

Developer 

• Has all the features of the Enterprise edition, but cannot be used in production environments.

To learn all these popular SQL server editions, join our free demo online training classes now!

How to check the SQL Server version for your system?

There are three methods how we can check which version of SQL Server is running in the system.

Method 1

Using Command Prompt with T-SQL Query

• Open a command prompt

Start>Run>Type CMD and hit Ok

• Type SQLCMD -S server_name\instance_name and click enter

             

• Type  

select @@version
go

and click enter

Method 2

Generate Web report using SQL Server Installation Center

• Open SQL Server Installation Center

 

• SQL Server Installation Center Opens

• Select Tools and select Installed SQL Server Features Discovery Report 

• It opens a report in the web browser like below giving full details of the SQL Server version running in the system.

Method 3

Using SQL Server Management Studio to check version

• Open SQL Server Management Studio   

• SQL Server management Studio opens

    

• Select the server name and right click and select properties

       

• The current SQL Server Version running in the system is displayed.

Summary

This was all about how one of the most popular Relational database management systems evolved over time. We have tried to give a comparative analysis on SQL server version comparison, how the software matured, loaded itself with more and more features and became one of the most popular database applications in the world.

This is not an elaborate write-up on the different SQL Server versions and SQL Server editions but gives the readers enough material to explore the history of SQL Server evolution in more detail if they want to.

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