So, What Is SQL Server 2005?

SQL Server 2005 is not a database application development environment in the sense that Microsoft Access or Visual FoxPro is. It is a vast collection of components and products that holistically combine, as a client/server system, to meet the data storage, retrieval, and analysis requirements of any entity or organization. It is equally at home in environments ranging from the largest companies and commercial Web sites posting millions of transactions per day to small companies and even individuals and specialized applications that require robust data storage and persistent service.

SQL Server 2005 comes in several new editions to accommodate the needs and budgets of a wide range of applications. A full discussion of the various editions of SQL Server 2005 is included in Microsoft SQL Server 2005: A Beginner’s Guide (McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2005) by Dusan Petkovic.

The following overview of the key SQL Server 2005 design themes and base architectures provides a little history, and a quick introduction to the product f or newcomers graduating from desktop systems and users of the other SQL Server platforms eager to make the jump to hyperspace. The architectures are then fully discussed over the next few chapters in Part I.