[greggyb]

Forewarning: This likely sounds like a shill post. I'm okay with that. I work for a Microsoft partner and we're tightly integrated with the MS sellers for a number of products. I am trying to provide an answer to the use cases.

A fully integrated data platform suite with several tools that are best in class. SQL Server is not just a relational database engine, though that is at the core of most tools and services.

SQL Server is a SKU that includes many things:

    * Relational engine
        * In-memory OLTP (SQL compiles to native code)
        * Columnstore indices for OLAP workloads
        * The two above can be combined for real time analytics
    * Embedded R engine in DB
    * SSIS - data processing orchestration tool AND ETL tool
    * SSRS - traditional reporting platform (with native mobile reports)
    * SSAS - best in class OLAP engine/semantic layer
    * MDS - Master Data Services (basically a rules engine)
    * DQS - Data Quality Services (pluggable back end for data quality needs - batch or real time)

I do think SSAS is truly best in class. The others are all solid products, some better than most competitors, some middle of the road. You can certainly find equivalent open source products or vendor products and roll your own. But SQL Server as a SKU is not competing with your Postgres server. It's competing with damn near everything that touches data at your company.

[vasilia]

> It's competing with damn near everything that touches data at your company. MSSQL for data processing? Really? I think only huge legacy projects still using it. We're using Hadoop with some C++/Hardware acceleration.

[greggyb]

Really? Because I see Microsoft revenue continuing to increase and the partner ecosystem continuing to thrive. I also get to see licensing agreements and I get to see what sales quotas are in the MS data platform.

None of the numbers indicate a shrinking market to me. SQL Server does compete for analytics workloads. Is it a direct competitor to Hadoop? No.

I have clearly stated my bubble up front and I'm trying to keep my claims within that bubble. The question was "what are the use cases?" I answered that. I am now saying that I see a thriving SQL Server business. I'm not saying no one uses Hadoop because more of my projects leverage SQL Server components than Hadoop. You are claiming that SQL Server is only for legacy projects because you are not using it.