SQL Server 2017 as a Data Science Platform

SQL Server is a relational database management system, but through the time it has evolved into much more. Right now, it's a very complex set of tools that work together to bring you superior experience while working with your data. Originally, SQL Server was not even written for the Windows operating system. The genesis of the SQL Server started with the OS/2 operating system in 1989 (it's a product that is nearly 30 years old). The first version of SQL Server available for Windows came in 1993. It was a version 4.21a.

Through various releases, SQL Server has introduced numerous features that can be utilized not only for regular database operations and production deployment of SQL Server, but also for the data science domain.

We will be covering the following topics in this chapter:

• SQL Server server evolution
• SQL Server Services and their use with data science