Updated: July 9, 2020 (November 5, 2012)

  Analyst Report Archived

Application Platform

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4,545 wordsTime to read: 23 min
Rob Helm by
Rob Helm

As managing vice president, Rob Helm covers Microsoft collaboration and content management. His 25-plus years of experience analyzing Microsoft’s technology... more

Several server products, tools, and Windows components help developers build applications on the Microsoft platform. They include the SQL Server database product, the Visual Studio integrated development environment, the .NET Framework and Silverlight runtime platforms, the BizTalk Server application integration platform, and the Commerce Server platform for e-commerce sites (which Microsoft has divested). SQL Server received a major update in the first half of 2012, and new versions of Visual Studio and the .NET Framework became available coinciding with the release of Windows 8.

SQL Server

The SQL Server software consists of a database management system and a business intelligence (BI) platform. Key components included in the product are as follows:

  • Integration Services, which extracts data from operational systems for analysis
  • BI features, which enable the discovery of patterns in business data
  • Reporting Services, which enable the design and distribution of reports
  • Enterprise

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