Microsoft SQL Server's Integrated Database Approach for Modern Applications and Hardware

Recently, there has been much renewed interest in re-architecting database systems to exploit new hardware. While some efforts have suggested that one needs specialized engines ("one size does not fit all"), the approach pursued by Microsoft's SQL Server has been to integrate multiple elements into a common architecture. This brings customers what they want by reducing data impedance mismatches between database systems that they are using for multiple purposes. This integration is, of course, more easily said than done. But this is, in fact, precisely what the SQL Server team has done.