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DBMS > Google Cloud Spanner vs. Informix vs. Microsoft SQL Server

System Properties Comparison Google Cloud Spanner vs. Informix vs. Microsoft SQL Server

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameGoogle Cloud Spanner  Xexclude from comparisonInformix  Xexclude from comparisonMicrosoft SQL Server  Xexclude from comparison
DescriptionA horizontally scalable, globally consistent, relational database service. It is the externalization of the core Google database that runs the biggest aspects of Google, like Ads and Google Play.A secure embeddable database from IBM, positioned besides IBM Db2 as a relatively low-cost product optimized for OLTP and Internet of Things dataMicrosofts flagship relational DBMS
Primary database modelRelational DBMSRelational DBMS infoSince Version 12.10 support for JSON/BSON datatypes compatible with MongoDBRelational DBMS
Secondary database modelsDocument store
Spatial DBMS
Time Series DBMS infowith Informix TimeSeries Extension
Document store
Graph DBMS
Spatial DBMS
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score2.56
Rank#97  Overall
#50  Relational DBMS
Score14.75
Rank#35  Overall
#21  Relational DBMS
Score774.89
Rank#3  Overall
#3  Relational DBMS
Websitecloud.google.com/­spannerwww.ibm.com/­products/­informixwww.microsoft.com/­en-us/­sql-server
Technical documentationcloud.google.com/­spanner/­docsinformix.hcldoc.com
www.ibm.com/­support/­knowledgecenter/­SSGU8G/­welcomeIfxServers.html
learn.microsoft.com/­en-US/­sql/­sql-server
DeveloperGoogleIBM, HCL Technologies infoEffective May 1st, 2017, HCL took on development, technical support, and product management teams, and works jointly with IBM on product strategy, marketing, and sales.Microsoft
Initial release201719841989
Current release14.10.FC5, November 2020SQL Server 2022, November 2022
License infoCommercial or Open Sourcecommercialcommercial infofree developer edition availablecommercial inforestricted free version is available
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud serviceyesnono
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

Providers of DBaaS offerings, please contact us to be listed.
SQLServer Flex @ STACKIT offers a managed version of SQL Server with adjustable CPU, RAM, storage amount and speed, in enterprise grade to perfectly match all application requirements. All services are 100% GDPR-compliant.
Implementation languageC, C++ and JavaC++
Server operating systemshostedAIX
HP-UX
Linux
macOS
Solaris
Windows
Linux
Windows
Data schemeyesyesyes
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesyes infoSince Version 12.10 support for JSON/BSON datatypesyes
XML support infoSome form of processing data in XML format, e.g. support for XML data structures, and/or support for XPath, XQuery or XSLT.noyes
Secondary indexesyesyesyes
SQL infoSupport of SQLyes infoQuery statements complying to ANSI 2011yesyes
APIs and other access methodsgRPC (using protocol buffers) API
JDBC infoAt present, JDBC supports read-only queries. No support for DDL or DML statements.
RESTful HTTP API
JDBC
JSON API infoMongoDB compatible
MQTT (Message Queue Telemetry Transport)
ODBC
RESTful HTTP API
ADO.NET
JDBC
ODBC
OLE DB
Tabular Data Stream (TDS)
Supported programming languagesGo
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Python
.Net
C
C++
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
PHP
Python
Ruby
C#
C++
Delphi
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
PHP
Python
R
Ruby
Visual Basic
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresnoyesTransact SQL, .NET languages, R, Python and (with SQL Server 2019) Java
Triggersnoyesyes
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesShardingShardingtables can be distributed across several files (horizontal partitioning); sharding through federation
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesMulti-source replication with 3 replicas for regional instances.Multi-source replication
Source-replica replication
yes, but depending on the SQL-Server Edition
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsyes infousing Google Cloud Dataflownono
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemImmediate ConsistencyImmediate ConsistencyImmediate Consistency
Foreign keys infoReferential integrityyes infoby using interleaved tables, this features focuses more on performance improvements than on referential integrityyesyes
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of dataACID infoStrict serializable isolationACIDACID
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyesyes
Durability infoSupport for making data persistentyesyesyes
In-memory capabilities infoIs there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.noyesyes
User concepts infoAccess controlAccess rights for users, groups and roles based on Google Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM)Users with fine-grained authentication, authorization, and auditing controlsfine grained access rights according to SQL-standard

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More resources
Google Cloud SpannerInformixMicrosoft SQL Server
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