Book Image

SQL Server 2017 Developer???s Guide

Book Image

SQL Server 2017 Developer???s Guide

Overview of this book

Microsoft SQL Server 2017 is a milestone in Microsoft's data platform timeline, as it brings in the power of R and Python for machine learning and containerization-based deployment on Windows and Linux. This book prepares you for advanced topics by starting with a quick introduction to SQL Server 2017's new features. Then, it introduces you to enhancements in the Transact-SQL language and new database engine capabilities before switching to a different technology: JSON support. You will take a look at the security enhancements and temporal tables. Furthermore, the book focuses on implementing advanced topics, including Query Store, columnstore indexes, and In-Memory OLTP. Toward the end of the book, you'll be introduced to R and how to use the R language with Transact-SQL for data exploration and analysis. You'll also learn to integrate Python code into SQL Server and graph database implementations as well as the deployment options on Linux and SQL Server in containers for development and testing. By the end of this book, you will be armed to design efficient, high-performance database applications without any hassle.
Table of Contents (25 chapters)
Title Page
Copyright and Credits
Dedication
Packt Upsell
Contributors
Preface
Free Chapter
1
Introduction to SQL Server 2017
Index

SQL Server R Machine Learning Services


In SQL Server suite, SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) supports data mining from version 2000. SSAS includes some of the most popular algorithms with very explanatory visualizations. SSAS data mining is very simple to use. However, the number of algorithms is limited, and the whole statistical analysis is missing in the SQL Server suite. By introducing R in SQL Server, Microsoft made a quantum leap forward in statistics, data mining, and machine learning.

Of course, the R language and engine have their own issues. For example, installing packages directly from code might not be in accordance with the security policies of an enterprise. In addition, most calculations are not scalable. Scalability might not be an issue for statistical and data mining analyses, because you typically work with samples. However, machine learning algorithms can consume huge amounts of data.

With SQL Server 2016 and 2017, you get a highly scalable R engine. Not every function...