20 years ago SQL Server.

Twenty years ago we announced the first version of Microsoft SQL Server. This year we’re working towards launching SQL Server 2008, as part of the biggest enterprise launch in our company’s history. We ship more units of SQL Server than Oracle and IBM combined and we are the fastest growing database and Business Intelligence vendor. We’ve come a long way.



To take you back to 1988, here is a snippet of the first press release …



January 16, 1988 — Microsoft and Ashton-Tate announce Microsoft SQL Server, a relational database server software product for local area networks (LANs) based on a relational database management system licensed from Sybase.



And one of our first ads for SQL Server and LAN Manager, ca. 1989-1992.