Book Image

SQL Server 2017 Machine Learning Services with R

By : Julie Koesmarno, Tomaž Kaštrun
Book Image

SQL Server 2017 Machine Learning Services with R

By: Julie Koesmarno, Tomaž Kaštrun

Overview of this book

R Services was one of the most anticipated features in SQL Server 2016, improved significantly and rebranded as SQL Server 2017 Machine Learning Services. Prior to SQL Server 2016, many developers and data scientists were already using R to connect to SQL Server in siloed environments that left a lot to be desired, in order to do additional data analysis, superseding SSAS Data Mining or additional CLR programming functions. With R integrated within SQL Server 2017, these developers and data scientists can now benefit from its integrated, effective, efficient, and more streamlined analytics environment. This book gives you foundational knowledge and insights to help you understand SQL Server 2017 Machine Learning Services with R. First and foremost, the book provides practical examples on how to implement, use, and understand SQL Server and R integration in corporate environments, and also provides explanations and underlying motivations. It covers installing Machine Learning Services;maintaining, deploying, and managing code;and monitoring your services. Delving more deeply into predictive modeling and the RevoScaleR package, this book also provides insights into operationalizing code and exploring and visualizing data. To complete the journey, this book covers the new features in SQL Server 2017 and how they are compatible with R, amplifying their combined power.
Table of Contents (12 chapters)

Introduction to R and SQL Server

SQL Server 2016 came with great new features, and among them was R integration into SQL Server, partly with advanced analytics and partly with new programmability capabilities. Microsoft R Services for SQL Server is part of the family of new extensibilities for highly scalable and parallel advanced analytics. R Services allows you to perform advanced analytics (statistical, multivariate statistics, predictive analytics, machine learning, and deep learning) on large quantities of data stored in the database. Microsoft published R Services as part of Microsoft R Server (MRS), which was specially designed for reading data directly from the SQL Server database within the same SQL Server computational context.

We will cover the following aspects in this chapter:

  • Using R prior to SQL Server 2016
  • Microsoft's commitment on open source R language
  • Boosting analytics with SQL Server R integration
  • Outline of the book