Microsoft SQL Server is the database application from software manufacturer Microsoft.

Microsoft SQL Server has four synonyms, which almost always mean the same thing. The abbreviation SQL is pronounced “siekwul”. The application is also known colloquially as “SQL Server”, also abbreviated as “MSSQL”, sometimes even shorter “SQL”. However, the last abbreviation can cause confusion, because SQL is also the language with which a database is accessed.

SQL Server is a relational database management system, which is a structured method for the storage and retrieval of data. The language in which data is stored or retrieved is called SQL, or “Structured Query Language”. Every supplier of an RDBMS has developed its own variant of SQL, for Microsoft SQL the language is called Transact-SQL. (“T SQL”).

In fact, MSSQL is a split of a product that was first co-developed with Sybase. In 1998 the first independent version was delivered: 7.0. The versions that were released afterwards follow a system in which the year is the version number. Technically, for example, the version has SQL Server 2017, version number 14.