Topic 3 - Case A: Microsoft SQL Server

Question 1: Investigate the SQL Server 2008 architecture available from Dreamspark website.

Question 2: Test out the SQL Server Express Edition as a lightweight application development tool and report your findings.

Answer 1:

 Dreamspark website offers various software packages for students from eligible universities or educational institutions. The SQL Server product is available for download in two different versions the Express Edition or the Developer Edition. 

 The Express Edition (32-bit only) is a free and easy to use database that can be redistributed to function as a client database as well as a basic server database. Express Edition is usually suited for only very small datasets. Developers who are developing applications that require a small data store shoul consider using Express Edition. It is also a great replacement for Microsoft Access database. 

 The Developer Edition has the same feature set as Enterprise Edition which in turn is designed to support the largest enterprise online transaction processing (OLTP) environments, highly complex data-analysis requirements, data warehousing systems and active Web sites.

 Answer 2: 

SQL Server Express Edition has been adopted by millions of developers as an alternative, free database to support their projects, mainly in the area of Web development. Many organizations use it for the back end to their ASP or ASP.NET web-based applications. It includes the support for multicore CPU, takes advantage of only 1GB of memory and although there is no database partitioning, mirroring, notification services, log shipping, full-text search or enterprise management tools, it allows the database to grow up to 4GB (more then MS Access database), it includes the Report Server, Report Designer, Best Practises Analyser and  a suite of other features which make it a good back-end solution for a variety of projects. It can be downloaded from Microsoft website and distribute with applications to provide a client-side (local install) database.

 References:

Bieniek D, Hotek M (2009), Microsoft Sql Server 2008 Implementation and Maintenance - Self-Paced Training Kit, Microsoft Press

Carpenter T (2009), MCTS Sql Server Implementation and Maintenance - Study Guide, The McGraw-Hill Companies

http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/ accessed on 12.04.2010
https://www.dreamspark.com/ accessed on 12.04.2010