Customers today need their SQL data to be highly available. With technologies built into the current versions of SQL Server, highly available databases are easier than ever to achieve.
Making data highly available has progressed through a series of technologies in SQL Server. So, let’s rewind for a minute while I explain how. Prior to SQL 7.0, Microsoft and Sybase worked together in a joint effort to produce a relational database which allowed database mirroring. This proved to be extremely cost-consuming on resources, and therefore when Microsoft broke away with their own version of SQL Server in 1998 they removed the ability to mirror databases. While industries still needed to have data highly available, Microsoft released several technologies to make data redundant.