Home > Servers > Rack and Tower Servers > Intel > White Papers > Can newer Dell EMC servers offer significantly better performance for Microsoft SQL Server? > Meeting the challenge of data deluge
SQL Server is one of the most popular database management systems (DBMSs) in the world, with more than 29,000 companies worldwide relying on the software for critical business operations.1 For many SMBs, SQL Server is deployed on a single, on-premises server because it is the most cost-effective and least complex option to deploy and maintain. But that means the underlying system and storage are critical for meeting performance needs.
Unfortunately, many companies are discovering that their aging systems aren’t keeping up with the deluge of data inundating operations as their businesses grow. IT admins struggle to meet the needs of line-of-business (LOB) managers and database administrators (DBAs) who want to quickly process more data, in order to provide timely results for customers and achieve faster time to insights for their businesses.
To respond to this growing influx of data, IT administrators need to consider both the server platform and the storage system supporting their SQL Server database deployments. For example, medium-sized businesses often rely on RAID storage arrays for handling SQL Server data because this simple but reliable solution offers data protection without the complexity or higher costs of a storage area network (SAN) or a hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) deployment. As a result, the drives and RAID controllers play a critical role in overall performance of the SQL Server database. Legacy Serial ATA (SATA) hard-disk drives (HDDs) and even older SATA or Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) solid-state drives (SSDs) might not be fast enough to keep up with growing demands, and RAID rebuild times can be frustratingly slow with SATA HDDs. In addition, older generation networking interfaces and processors might not ingest and process data fast enough to meet the current and expanding needs of businesses looking to outperform the competition.
Dell Technologies touts its Dell EMC PowerEdge R750 servers as a cure for the data deluge, because these platforms offer significant upgrades over previous-generation platforms, including:
Together, these modern components promise businesses a significant SQL Server performance increase over previous- generation hardware, in addition to providing higher-capacity storage and faster database rebuild times.
1 Datanyze. "Market Share, Databases: Microsoft SQL Server." 2021. www.datanyze.com/market-share/databases--272/microsoft-sql-server-market-share.