While it’s never been trivial, in the past choosing your first db engine was a little more straightforward.

If you just needed the basics, you’d choose either PostgreSQL, mySQL or SQL Server Express.

If you needed the highest performance, you’d choose between IBM DB2 and Oracle.

If you used windows and wanted a middle ground solution, you’d choose SQL Server. For years, SQL Server’s main selling points were that it was good enough for most business day to day needs, that it was easy to use, and much cheaper than Oracle.

Then news about Hadoop, and the superior performance possibilities of NoSQL solutions spread. For businesses requiring high performance, the question became not which RDBMS, but RDBMS or NoSQL or a hybrid of both?
NoSQL has become a hot topic with many different products launched. RDBMS’s have started incorporating some of these ideas into their own products.

Performance of SQL Server has gradually improved with each major release. However, last year Microsoft released SQL Server 2014 CTP. This includes several new technologies for much higher database performance.
These are in memory OLTP, batch execution mode, and clustered columnstore indexes. Of course with these new technologies come new query tuning skills to master. Beginners are advised to study the basics before getting into high performance optimization techniques.

Now, more than ever, Microsoft is now positioning itself as a direct competitor to Oracle and DB2, as well as competing with some NoSQL competitors. Let’s hope that the licensing model remains affordable for most businesses.

Further Reading
Articles on SQL Server 2014:
Microsoft’s SQL Server 2014 site
Optimizing with SQL Server 2014
SQL Big Data convergence
NoSQL
Migrating to Oracle Database video
RDBMS comparison
SQL Performance site

Which DBMS do you think think will rule in 2014?