SQL Server vs Oracle
Oracle database (simply referred to as Oracle) is an Object Relational Database Management System (ORDBMS) that supports a large range of platforms. Oracle DBMS is available in different versions ranging from versions for personal use and enterprise class versions. Microsoft SQL server is a Relational Database Server produced by Microsoft. It uses SQL as its primary query language.
SQL Server
As mentioned earlier, Microsoft SQL server is a database server that uses SQL, more specifically, T-SQL and ANSI SQL as its primary query languages. T-SQL extends SQL by adding several features such as procedural programming, local variables and supporting functions for string/ data processing. These features makes T-SQL Turing complete. Any application, which needs to communicate with MS SQL server, needs to send a T-SQL statement to the server. Microsoft SQL server can be used to create desktop, enterprise and web based database applications. It provides an environment that allows creating databases, which can be accessed from workstations, the Internet or other media such as a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). The first version of MS SQL server was released in 1989 and it was called the SQL server 1.0. This was developed for Operating System/2 (OS2). Since then there have been several releases of MS SQL server and the latest release is the SQL Server 2008 R2, which was released to manufacturing on April 21, 2010. MS SQL server is also available in multiple editions that include feature sets customized for different users.
Oracle
Oracle is an ORDBMS produced by the Oracle Corporation. It can be used in large enterprise environments as well as for personal use. Oracle DBMS is made up of the storage and at least one instance of the application. An instance is made up of processes of operating system and memory structure that work with the storage. In Oracle DBMS, data is accessed using SQL (Structured Query Language). These SQL commands can be embedded in other languages or could be executed directly as scripts. Furthermore, it can execute stored procedures and functions by invoking them using PL/SQL (procedural extension to SQL developed by Oracle Corporation) or other object oriented languages such as Java. Oracle uses a two level mechanism for its storage. First level is a logical storage organized as tablespaces. Tablespaces are made up of memory segments which in turn are made up more extents. Second level is the physical storage made up of data files.
What is the difference between SQL Server and Oracle?
Even though both Oracle and SQL Server are RDBMS they have some key differences. Oracle runs in range of platforms, while SQL Server runs only on Windows. Furthermore, Oracle claims that it has more robust administration utilities than SQL Server. For large tables and indexes, SQL Server does not provide range partitioning, while Oracle allows to partition large tables at the database level in to range partitions. SQL server does not provide star query optimization, reverse key indexes and indexes based on functions. But, Oracle will cost about three times as SQL Server.