SQL Server Background
Microsoft Corporation's relational database server SQL Server is a relative newcomer to the market in comparison to the more established Oracle and IBM's DB2; however it has quickly achieved a considerable market share. According to an August 2003 International Data Corporation report SQL Server now represents an 11.1% share of the global database market, behind Oracle at 39.4% and DB2 at 33.6%. This data was collected for sales across all platforms; SQL Server became the most popular database for Windows servers in 2001.
The first incarnation of Microsoft SQL Server was released in 1992 with a beta release for Windows NT. This was developed from a version of Sybase SQL Server, which Microsoft developed in conjunction with Sybase for the OS/2 operating system in 1989. The first official release was named SQL Server 4.2, and came out for Windows NT in September 1993. Although SQL Server was initially developed from Sybase's SQL Server code-base, the working relationship ended with the release of SQL Server 6.0. After this point, when SQL Server became a purely Microsoft product, the quantity of original Sybase code in the product decreased in subsequent releases; SQL Server 7.0 contained virtually no original Sybase code. The latest available version is SQL Server 2000; at the time of this writing, SQL Server 2005, codenamed Yukon, is being prepared for imminent release.
SQL Server's security history, in common with all other popular database servers, has been ...
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