Microsoft SQL Server started out, in the early years, as a relational database management system and grew throughout the years to a complete Business Intelligence platform.
Microsoft originally bought the code base from Sybase SQL Server and released Microsoft SQL Server 1.0 in 1989. Throughout the years there were new releases and SQL Server 7.0 and SQL Server 2000 were the last versions which were based on the legacy Sybase code.
With SQL Server 2005, Microsoft had completely rewritten the code base and it was the first version which contained the main services as we know them today :
- a complete ETL tool - SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS),
- a reporting environment - Reporting Services (SSRS)
- an OLAP and data mining server - Analysis Services (SSAS)
The next 7 years, several new releases (2008, 2008 R2 and 2012) enhanced the existing features and added exciting new ones.