Overview
This is a repackaged software product wherein additional charges apply for hardening, bundling and support.
SQL Server 2014 Express is a powerful and feature rich database management system designed for small scale applications and development projects. It offers a reliable and efficient solution for managing data and building applications.
With SQL Server 2014 Express, developers can take advantage of advanced features such as in memory OLTP, columnstore indexes, and enhanced security options. It provides a familiar and easy to use interface, making it accessible to both experienced professionals and beginners.
Whether you're building a small business application, a personal project, or a web based solution, SQL Server 2014 Express offers the tools and capabilities you need to efficiently manage your data and deliver high performance applications.
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Highlights
- Free and lightweight
- Advanced features and enhanced security
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Dimension | Cost/hour |
|---|---|
m4.xlarge Recommended | $0.40 |
t2.micro | $0.15 |
c4.4xlarge | $2.40 |
cc1.4xlarge | $1.00 |
d2.8xlarge | $4.80 |
c4.2xlarge | $1.20 |
g2.8xlarge | $4.80 |
c3.4xlarge | $2.40 |
hi1.4xlarge | $1.00 |
c4.8xlarge | $4.80 |
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Delivery details
64-bit (x86) Amazon Machine Image (AMI)
Amazon Machine Image (AMI)
An AMI is a virtual image that provides the information required to launch an instance. Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) instances are virtual servers on which you can run your applications and workloads, offering varying combinations of CPU, memory, storage, and networking resources. You can launch as many instances from as many different AMIs as you need.
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To begin using this image, connect via RDP. Until you RDP into the instance and validate your credentials, you will not be able to access the application via public DNS. To connect to the operating system, use RDP and the username Administrator. For instructions on using RDP to connect to your Windows instance, see the AWS EC2 documentation: http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/WindowsGuide/connecting_to_windows_instance.html . Please note, due to hardening and SysPrep, this image may take upwards of 20 minutes to instantiate. Once you are logged into the instance via RDP, you will be met with a launch wizard that asks you for your instance ID. This information can be found in the instance page of the EC2 Console. Once you have completed the wizard and are provided with the username and password, you should promptly change the password to something unique to you. At this point, the application will be accessible via public DNS. Default Installation Path for SQL Server 2014 is C:\Program Files\SQLServer. For application specific usage instructions or details, see "How it Works."
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Cognosys provides technical support for Solution issues in multiple ways.Support can be availed by: 1. Email to Support@SecureAnyCloud.com 2. Live Support on
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Customer reviews
Targeted campaign analysis has become faster and improves data-driven mailing decisions
What is our primary use case?
As a campaign analyst, my role involves getting targeted list members to send offers to them via mail, so I obtain data of people from the database where I use SQL Server 2014 Express .
A specific example of how I use SQL Server 2014 Express for campaign work is straightforward. When a campaign manager asks for a list of people or customers who have not purchased from a particular retailer for the past couple of years with a minimum spend greater than fifty dollars, I go to SQL Server 2014 Express and type a query such as select * from customer table where retailer equals this something and the last purchase date transaction date is between the current date and two years back and the minimum spend is greater than or equal to fifty dollars. I use this query to extract the data, copy it into Excel, and then share it with my campaign managers.
In terms of other tasks or scenarios where I use SQL Server 2014 Express in my daily work, since the database refreshes on a daily basis, whenever the campaign manager comes and asks any questions, I create my own database and own tables using create table, and then I use the table for my future reference.
What is most valuable?
The best features that SQL Server 2014 Express offers me are that it is free to use and easy to install. I can easily install it through Windows laptops. The next thing is the good performance, which is suitable for small to medium workloads, and I am able to optimize the query engine as well, which is helpful for backup and restore.
SQL Server 2014 Express has positively impacted my organization. As I mentioned earlier, it offers good performance, is very easy to use, and has easy installation. Whenever the campaign manager comes and asks any question, I directly open SQL Server 2014 Express, type a query such as select short form tables, then perform multiple joins and filter options, allowing me to read the data and provide it to the campaign manager, which is useful for them for analysis.
What needs improvement?
Regarding improvements for SQL Server 2014 Express, I believe it is quite helpful, but I suggest enhancing security since it involves customer data and we do not want to lose data or have it misused. Moreover, improving the backup and restore process to retrieve data faster would be beneficial, and a key concern would be better scalability and reliability than what I currently have.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using SQL Server 2014 Express for the past four years. I used to write code on it for getting all the outputs and then just data manipulation, data cleaning, and all those steps for my work.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
SQL Server 2014 Express is stable and has been reliable for me.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
SQL Server 2014 Express has good scalability. Based on my long-term usage, it meets my needs for scaling up or handling larger workloads.
How are customer service and support?
I have not reached out for customer support because SQL Server 2014 Express is performing well for me.
What was our ROI?
I have seen a return on investment from using SQL Server 2014 Express. It has reduced licensing costs since it is free, allowed faster deployment, improved reporting workflow, and saved operational time. SQL Server 2014 Express also has a ten gigabyte database size limit with limited CPU and RAM usage, and there is no SQL Server Agent service needed for further use.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I have not been involved in pricing, setup costs, and licensing for SQL Server 2014 Express, so I am not aware of those details.
What other advice do I have?
My advice for others looking into using SQL Server 2014 Express is that it has excellent performance, it is free, offers better reliability, and scalability, so I recommend using it to save time for better accuracy and less manual effort. I have shared everything about my experience and I have had a very positive interaction overall. I would rate this product an eight out of ten.
Managing client databases has become efficient and saves costs for small business workloads
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for SQL Server 2014 Express is to host some databases of clients, such as for e-commerce or CRM systems.
A specific example of how I use SQL Server 2014 Express for one of my clients involves troubleshooting their SQL servers. If they are unable to get customer details or they want to delete a large number of customers who have been inactive for around one year, I can run queries to delete those customers without any difficulty, making tasks easy for them.
SQL Server 2014 Express is a good choice for small workloads since it does not have licensing costs, which is beneficial. As the troubleshooter, I also use SQL Management Studio to perform tasks.
What is most valuable?
SQL Server 2014 Express offers several best features that include functioning without licensing costs, the ability to check if there is anything wrong with the SQL server service or any related applications, checking Event Viewer for issues, running native backups, and providing different permissions to different users.
SQL Server 2014 Express has positively impacted my organization because it is good for small clients, allowing us to save on licensing costs. Clients could later migrate to Standard or Enterprise solutions if needed as they scale.
What needs improvement?
SQL Server 2014 Express can improve by utilizing more memory, as it currently makes very limited memory available to the database engine. It could also use more resources and become faster.
The biggest operational limitations of SQL Server 2014 Express are the 10 GB database limit, memory restrictions, and the absence of SQL Server Agent. These are areas for improvement, and for scaling environments, SQL Server often becomes constrained by database sizes and resource limits, necessitating migration.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using SQL Server 2014 Express for around two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The output from SQL Server 2014 Express is pretty reliable as every query is performed very efficiently and delivers results from the table without any bloat. I have not seen much bloat in the tables, and they maintain a pretty good size.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
SQL Server 2014 Express is very compatible with Windows environments and can work on low resources.
I cannot think of specific numbers, but SQL Server 2014 Express enables clients to save on expenses since they did not need to pay for database engines. If the client scales, they can scale out.
How are customer service and support?
I find that the documentation and support for SQL Server 2014 Express are good, and I could find every support or community document I needed.
What other advice do I have?
Regarding SQL Server 2014 Express's AI capabilities, the security is good. We can configure users, such as a system or NT authority user, and eliminate any other users to prevent unauthorized access, making it customizable for system users and other live users. The governance is also very good because we can use Management SQL Studio to view databases, run queries, and set up native backups.
My advice for those looking into using SQL Server 2014 Express is that it is suitable for medium enterprises or medium clients, but bigger projects should consider moving to the Standard or Enterprise edition. I rate this product a 9.
Reliable data engine has improved real-time monitoring and accelerates complex query workflows
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for SQL Server 2014 Express is firing queries and using stored procedures, as our product is a client-server architecture. I have a couple of server database operations carried out from the client, where the client calls the server APIs that internally call SQL Server 2014 Express to execute the queries or stored procedures for us. The main task for us is to validate and insert it properly into SQL Server 2014 Express. Additionally, we have cron jobs, cleaning scripts that run regularly, and a couple of stored procedures that we run and sometimes optimize.
One specific example of how I use SQL Server 2014 Express in one of my projects is through a .NET application designer, where we have functionality called Server DB Connection mapping. From there, we use JDBC connection strings, validate them, and the request goes to the server, which in turn goes to SQL Server 2014 Express, allowing our designer to get connected to SQL Server 2014 Express. Once connected, we can fire queries to our customers directly from the designer. This is one use case where SQL Server 2014 Express is involved.
The main use case, as I just mentioned, is also complemented by Real-Time Activity Monitoring. When our client runs on any agent's machine, it monitors the agent's activities, creates XML files for them, and sends these files to the server. The server then manipulates them and stores them into the databases, and the data is fetched from the databases for reporting and other tasks. This is the main use case for our product to monitor the agents' activities.
What is most valuable?
The best features that SQL Server 2014 Express offers include in-memory OLTP and the buffer pool extension. Since I used the older version previously, after upgrading to 2014, it is quite fast now. Other useful features include SQL Server data files, incremental statistics, fast read and writes, reduced locking, latching, and better concurrency, all of which are very useful.
Regarding the buffer pool extension, there was a scenario where a lot of data was present, and in that scenario, the buffer pool extension was particularly useful. It helps improve performance when RAM is limited and the database size is large, especially for many customers who have limited size, making this feature very beneficial for us in optimizing.
SQL Server 2014 Express has positively impacted my organization through fast read and write capabilities. Earlier, when I had connections with SQL Server 2008, the JDBC connection that we created from the designer was slow. However, after upgrading to 2014, I have observed a significant improvement in pace. The queries we fire now receive quite fast responses, which has positively impacted us.
What needs improvement?
In terms of improvements for SQL Server 2014 Express, we did not face any challenges with the functionality we used. However, we have started using the latest version of SQL Server, the 2022 version, which includes features such as connecting to Azure and many cloud-related functionalities. If these could be added to 2014, it would greatly help users as everything is moving to the cloud these days, providing an added benefit for SQL Server 2014 Express.
Some needed improvements would include cloud-related functions, as I mentioned earlier. Additionally, SQL Server Management Studio takes a lot of time to start compared to the latest version. If this aspect could be improved, it would provide a better experience for users since it is quite time-consuming.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using SQL Server 2014 Express, which means it has been almost seven to eight years. This year we migrated to the latest version, but before that, I worked on SQL Server 2014 Express.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
In my experience, SQL Server 2014 Express is very stable, and we have not encountered any downtime or reliability issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
In terms of scalability, SQL Server 2014 Express is always scalable. We have not observed any scalability-related issues, and it handles increased loads reliably without any downtime.
How are customer service and support?
For customer support related to SQL Server 2014 Express, we have a separate DBA team that addresses issues for the database. Although there are DBA issues reported by customers, they are mainly related to stored procedures and optimization, not specifically to SQL Server 2014 Express itself.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Throughout our history, we have always used SQL Server and never switched to a different solution.
What was our ROI?
I have definitely seen a return on investment with SQL Server 2014 Express, particularly in terms of time savings. We have remained committed to SQL Server, and it has consistently provided a good return on investment.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
As I mentioned earlier, we have always opted for SQL Server from the beginning and did not evaluate other options.
What other advice do I have?
My advice for anyone looking to use SQL Server 2014 Express is that if someone is using or planning to build an enterprise application, especially for .NET or Java, they should definitely consider SQL Server 2014 Express as it is the most reliable SQL server available, plus the support from Microsoft is consistently good.
SQL Server 2014 Express is one of the best databases available. It has strong support from Microsoft, which adds to its value. For anyone planning to build any application, SQL Server 2014 Express should be a must-have option on their list. I would rate this product an eight out of ten.
Fast queries have streamlined testing and reporting but still need modern UI and AI integration
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for SQL Server 2014 Express is application testing, back-end data validation, report validation, basic development support, and learning SQL queries and procedures. The tool is user-friendly, lightweight, and suitable for small-scale projects where a free database solution is needed.
A specific example of how I have used SQL Server 2014 Express for application testing or back-end data validation is that it works reliably for the local environment, CRUD operations, stored procedures, and integration testing. Installation and configuration are simple, making it convenient for developers and testers. My company is by default using SQL Server , so it is an open-source, free, and user-friendly solution. For getting back-end data through simple queries, we use SQL Server 2014 Express.
What is most valuable?
The best features SQL Server 2014 Express offers are that it is fast and reliable.
What makes SQL Server 2014 Express feel fast and reliable for me is that we get queries really fast without any buffering. For example, I have used a large query for a large data set using different sets of queries such as joins, left join, and inner join from two or three more data sets. We get a much faster result compared to others, such as Oracle DB.
SQL Server 2014 Express has positively impacted my organization by providing a very simple user interface to users. Using SQL Server 2014 Express is very simple, and the queries run very fast. We can perform CRUD operations very quickly, which ultimately gives users a great experience. It does not have minimalistic designs, and we get a faster data set for our day-to-day work. I believe that this helps the company save employees' time in finding the data, and that saved time can be utilized on other more researchable work.
What needs improvement?
The Express edition has limitations in database size and system resource usage, so performance may be reduced with large data volumes or heavy workloads. Since it is an older version, support and compatibility with newer technologies can also be challenging. Overall, SQL Server 2014 Express is dependable for small projects, learning development support, and testing tasks. However, for enterprise-level and modern high-performance applications, newer SQL Server versions are more suitable.
SQL Server 2014 Express can be improved by aligning it with modern machine learning languages such as ChatGPT, cloud, or a copilot so that manual querying is easy.
The UI should be aligned with modern technology. SQL Server 2014 Express feels ancient in terms of technology, so the UI resembles a legacy data type application. I suggest that adding some graphics and more useful UI features will be beneficial for user integration with AI.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using SQL Server 2014 Express for the last three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
SQL Server 2014 Express is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
SQL Server 2014 Express is scalable, but the size should be improved so that more people can use it at a time without lag.
What was our ROI?
I can provide a specific number that we have saved 15% of time since using SQL Server 2014 Express.
What other advice do I have?
I would definitely recommend SQL Server 2014 Express because it is very easy to handle, and we get faster query results. I give this product a review rating of 6.
Data workflows have improved as I design faster procedures and views for development apps
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for SQL Server 2014 Express is for development purposes. It is acting as my data source where I am storing all the details such as dependable lists, SQL tables, and I am writing stored procedures for getting the data. I am also creating views for refining my data to show in the applications, such as Power Apps.
I have more to add about my main use case and how I integrate SQL Server 2014 Express with Power Apps and other tools. If SQL Server 2014 Express is online, I have a connector to use it directly through Azure SQL. Apart from that, we have gateways to connect to the on-premises SQL Servers. From this, I connect to my data sources such as SQL and from there, in the SQL platform, I write stored procedures and other details such as views to help refine it better for the end users and show them my respective details.
What is most valuable?
The best features SQL Server 2014 Express offers have made it easier for the tables to be arranged in the hierarchy, and writing the stored procedures interface is much better, which I personally enjoyed a lot. The other features are views, which are already present.
SQL Server 2014 Express has impacted my organization positively because earlier I was using SharePoint . In Power Apps, whenever we fetched the data, it took quite an ample amount of time to show the details from the back end. When I started using SQL Server 2014 Express, it was much faster. Also, the main advantage is that it is helping me to fetch more records at a time compared to the other data sources because of the indexing and primary keys.
What needs improvement?
There are a few features in SQL Server 2014 Express that could be improved. For example, whenever I write stored procedures, it gives a long, structured query which has to be saved because whenever you create a new query, it will give proper interface to add the query. My suggestion is that we could have a way where multiple windows can be open at a time so that we can switch between and access them and help us create the stored procedures in a much better way while comparing.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using SQL Server 2014 Express for the past eight months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
In my experience, SQL Server 2014 Express is stable as I have not faced any downtime or issues until now.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
SQL Server 2014 Express's scalability has met all my needs as my data and user base grows.
How are customer service and support?
I have not personally reached out for customer support for SQL Server 2014 Express, but I heard it is quite good. Team members who have informed me about their experiences reported that it was very good and fast to help resolve their needs.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I did use a different solution before SQL Server 2014 Express, and I used 2008.
I switched from SQL Server 2008 to SQL Server 2014 Express because earlier, they were having the 2008 server installed in the VMs which I was using. That was the only reason I see because later when I started using 2014, it was much better.
What was our ROI?
I have seen a return on investment from SQL Server 2014 Express, which I consider to be almost fifty percent. This is because it helped improve the performance of the applications, and it also helped the stakeholders to come back to us with more projects.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for SQL Server 2014 Express was that licensing was set up by one of my IT team members, but it was very smooth. There was not much hassle to implement it or to integrate it.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing SQL Server 2014 Express, I did evaluate other options such as Dataverse, SharePoint , and I also considered MongoDB.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate SQL Server 2014 Express an eight on a scale of one to ten. I choose to rate it an eight because, as I mentioned, there was one feature which I was asking for, and that will make it a bit more reliable and more useful to scale for me to ten.
My advice to others looking into using SQL Server 2014 Express is that if they are using other data sources where they are seeing some lags or they do not get to see the data in a proper format, I humbly advise them to start using SQL Server 2014 Express or at least try it once so that it will help scale their applications and improve the performance. My overall rating for this product is eight out of ten.