Microsoft is the most familiar Business Intelligence vendor which almost all computer users - at least - have ever heard about. That - besides the general flexibility and comprehensiveness - is another argument for choosing Microsoft SQL Server instead of any other Business Intelligence solution.

The fact that Microsoft is the most popular vendor of office and simultaneously home usage software makes all their further solution start from a better position than others. Even though most of today's Business Intelligence software ensures more or less usable integration with Microsoft Office Suite's elements (especially Excel spreadsheets being one of the most common methods for report findings presentation), solutions originally by Microsoft have it worked out to the very top. That's one of the reasons for Microsoft SQL Server solution's popularity. Another one is the fact that - besides the fully functional paid editions - it also is released for free from time to time. However, these free releases always are somehow limited, therefore they don't threaten the "professional" ones' popularity.

Microsoft SQL Server, then, is popular not only because of the vendor's name and additional free releases. It's a powerful, well organized Business Intelligence suite providing a wide set of capabilities, sufficient efficiency and scalability, and letting business users become self-sufficient. It also allows IT departments focus on their own goals instead of helping business users with the simplest querying, for instance.

The easiness of usage is guaranteed with Microsoft Excel add-ins and integration with Microsoft SharePoint Server which - supplied with SQL Server components - are enough for all reporting and analytics purposes. The management and deployment both are centralized within a single point, which Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio is responsible for. Massively parallel processing ensures trouble free scalability from tens to hundreds of terabytes of data warehouses, and the compression is based on Unicode UCS-2 standard. At the same time, there is a special master data hub provided for master data management purposes. Whole system, though, supports also Windows Server 2008 R2.

Microsoft SQL Server features and benefits

To ensure that all SQL Server users may fully benefit from the solution, Microsoft:

• provides a platform which users may depend on. Nowadays, business conditions are changing faster than ever before, data warehouses are growing faster than earlier. Thank to MPP (massively parallel processing), SQL Server ensures the highest performance even in case of the highest data volumes.
• allows to enhance IT and development efficiency. Thereupon, it's easier than ever before to meet growing business needs without a necessity for budget increasing. Multiple tools followed with powerful capabilities ensure that every application may be used to the maximum, without superfluous time and money wastes.
• enables business users to benefit from Business Intelligence technology without time-consuming and - in a wider perspective - destructive to the organization IT involvement. By providing the tools which users know very well to control the SQL Serve BI applications, Microsoft allows the organization to influence on their performance.
• provides numerous automation procedures so that users don't need to waste time on repeating the same type activities which - equally well - may be done for them.

Microsoft SQL Server resources:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/5/F/55FA7305-E2A5-485D-81A1-FE7BA2B572F3/SQLServer2008_R2_Datasheet.pdf - here is quite a comprehensive, not too long data sheet introducing the bases of Microsoft SQL Server. There are a few features included, and - in the second part - example capabilities and benefits shortly explained. There aren't too many details, nonetheless the data sheet really focuses on the most important part.

http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/white-papers.aspx - call it a library, here is where Microsoft puts the links to all its white papers. The links to them are sorted by the category, so that what one could find there are general white papers, the ones devoted to online transaction processing and data management, Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing, application development, switching to the newest version of the SQL server, and another category for the additional resources which don't fit to the previous ones.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_SQL_Server - even though a lot of articles in Wikipedia lack for trusted information, the note devoted to Microsoft SQL Server doesn't lack for anything. Here is all the information - general and detailed at once - which anyone could consider useful. Additionally - what's not included in the Microsoft official website - there also are sections devoted to the previous releases of the solution, making the Wikipedia note truly a comprehensive source of knowledge.

http://www.fianga.com/ - here is a website devoted completely to Microsoft SQL Server. In fact, it's almost a manual - a comprehensive collection of practical tips about how to use the Server to benefit from it to the maximum. Included information differ with the level of advancement - there are tips for the very beginners as well as for the most advances users.