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Microsoft SQL Server began in 1989 when Microsoft, Sybase and Ashton-Tate (the creator of dBase) decided that they wanted to enter the enterprise database market.
Sybase already had a product, Sybase SQL Server, for the mini-computer and mainframe markets.
Microsoft and Ashton-Tate had databases that dominated the desktop PC market and wanted to move into the enterprise market.
At that time Microsoft was working on OS/2 as its future network operating system platform. The result was SQL Server 4.2 for OS/2. The core code was the Sybase product with some contribution from Ashton-Tate and Microsoft.
When Microsoft abandoned OS/2, it simply ported SQL Server 4.2 for OS/2 onto the Windows NT platform.
As Windows NT stabilised, Microsoft pushed SQL Server into the enterprise via the PC-oriented networks. This caused Microsoft to split from its partners and buy out the rights to SQL Server on Microsoft platforms. The first result of this was SQL Server 6.5 for Windows NT.
Since then there have been just three major releases of SQL Server.
SQL Server 7.0 introduced Gui tools and business intelligence (BI) functions with support for online analytical processing (OLAP).
By the time Microsoft released SQL Server 2000, it had already changed Business Intelligence from a market dominated by small firms with expensive software to a market in which commodity software could compete.
Microsoft has also released versions for other enterprise niches: Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine (MSDE) is commonly used by developers to create workgroup solutions; and versions designed for specific applications are also available, including SQL Server for Pocket PC, for embedded applications.
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