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DBMS > Google Cloud Spanner vs. InterSystems IRIS vs. Microsoft SQL Server

System Properties Comparison Google Cloud Spanner vs. InterSystems IRIS vs. Microsoft SQL Server

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameGoogle Cloud Spanner  Xexclude from comparisonInterSystems IRIS  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 containerised multi-model DBMS, interoperability and analytics data platform with wide capabilities for vertical and horizontal scalabilityMicrosofts flagship relational DBMS
Primary database modelRelational DBMSDocument store
Key-value store
Object oriented DBMS
Relational DBMS
Relational DBMS
Secondary database modelsDocument 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
Score2.15
Rank#110  Overall
#20  Document stores
#17  Key-value stores
#1  Object oriented DBMS
#54  Relational DBMS
Score774.89
Rank#3  Overall
#3  Relational DBMS
Websitecloud.google.com/­spannerwww.intersystems.com/­products/­intersystems-iriswww.microsoft.com/­en-us/­sql-server
Technical documentationcloud.google.com/­spanner/­docsdocs.intersystems.com/­irislatest/­csp/­docbook/­DocBook.UI.Page.clslearn.microsoft.com/­en-US/­sql/­sql-server
DeveloperGoogleInterSystemsMicrosoft
Initial release201720181989
Current release2023.3, June 2023SQL Server 2022, November 2022
License infoCommercial or Open Sourcecommercialcommercialcommercial 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++
Server operating systemshostedAIX
Linux
macOS
Ubuntu
Windows
Linux
Windows
Data schemeyesdepending on used data modelyes
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesyesyes
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.noyesyes
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
ODBC
RESTful HTTP API
ADO.NET
JDBC
ODBC
OLE DB
Tabular Data Stream (TDS)
Supported programming languagesGo
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Python
.Net
C++
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Python
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.Source-replica replicationyes, 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)yesfine grained access rights according to SQL-standard

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Google Cloud SpannerInterSystems IRISMicrosoft SQL Server
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22 March 2025, infoq.com

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