History of SQL Server

SQL Server 1.0 was released as a 16-bit application for the OS/2 operating system, where Microsoft partnered with Sybase and entered the enterprise database world to compete with Oracle, IBM, and others. When the Windows NT 3.51 was released, there was a version 4.21 of SQL Server available. About that time, in 1993, Microsoft and Sybase parted ways and Microsoft pursued its own way with SQL Server for Windows NT. Sybase then renamed its product Adaptive Server Enterprise. In the following table you can see the version overview with release date for SQL Server.

Alongside of the major releases, there were other versions of SQL Server available. Some of the notables were:

• SQL Server 7.0 OLAP, released in 1999
• Azure SQL Database, released in 2010, initially built as version 10.25