Microsoft is renowned for making surprising ventures, this time, they are gearing up to make SQL Server available on Linux platform. In March 2016, Microsoft announced their plans for a Linux port of SQL Server – an exciting step to make their top-notch data management and business analytics platform SQL Server available for any data, to run any application, anywhere.
With SQL Server compatibility on Linux, Microsoft plans to bring in the core relational database capabilities to provide customers more flexibility in their data solution. This upcoming significant release of SQL Server will be built with best-in-class security and hybrid cloud innovations. Microsoft with this product is proving its focus to being a cross-platform solution provider. For communication between client applications and SQL Server, Tabular Data Stream (TDS) protocol is used. ODBC provides a standard for applications to access databases and Microsoft has supported ODBC in all versions of SQL Server. Microsoft SQL Server Native Client contains ODBC driver which will provide access to SQL Server for Linux applications.
With proven experience and capabilities of SQL Server, it is expected that the Linux community shall welcome this move as it brings enterprise customers an increased database choice. SQL Server on Linux should pave the way to reach a broader set of users and innovations. Making SQL Server available on Linux increases Microsoft’s potential market. This initiative should be seen alongside .NET Core, Linux on Azure and other moves like the Linux R Server acquisition from Revolution Analytics.
A private preview release of SQL Server on Linux is available on an invitation-only basis. Microsoft targets the full release by mid-2017. For more information on this announcement, read Microsoft blog.
As a Gold Certified partner of Microsoft, Macrosoft Inc., A NJ-based technology consulting company is waiting anxiously to offer this extended platform support of SQL to their clients. Macrosoft has been serving customers across the globe on a variety of technologies including Mainframe assessment and migrations, Legacy systems like VFP, VB, Classic ASP to .NET conversion, document composition services etc.
ByJohn Kullmann | Published on April 5th, 2016 | Last updated on February 11th, 2021 | Enterprise Services, New Technology and Trends