TMCnet News

Quest Delivers New Solutions to Help Organizations More Easily Manage, Monitor and Optimize Microsoft SQL Server Environments
[May 24, 2017]

Quest Delivers New Solutions to Help Organizations More Easily Manage, Monitor and Optimize Microsoft SQL Server Environments


Quest Software, a global systems management and security software provider, today announced new releases to its portfolio of database management and performance monitoring solutions that allow database administrators the ability to better manage, monitor and optimize Microsoft (News - Alert) SQL Server environments both on premise and in the cloud. Newly released enhancements to Spotlight on SQL Server Enterprise gives database administrators unmatched performance monitoring into the health of Microsoft SQL Server on Linux platforms, while a soon-to-be-released Quest Toad for SQL Server 6.8 features new support for SQL Server 2016 and Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2015 Version Control. Additionally, an upcoming new release of SharePlex, Quest's leading database replication solution, adds support for SQL Server as a replication source, further expanding the solution beyond its traditional Oracle (News - Alert) roots to support the growing SQL Server community.

Businesses are increasingly adopting a variety of database platforms across the organization, both on premise and in the cloud, to manage the high volume of business critical data and applications across the organization. With this uptick in deployment of disparate databases comes the need for software tools that allow administrators to cost-effectively manage, monitor and migrate these workloads from one database platform to another, ensuring no loss of data and no negative impact to the business. Microsoft SQL Server, particularly, is a priority database platform of choice among organizations. According to a recent Quest Tech Validate survey, 72% of database administrator users noted using this platform to perform their job and power critical applications for their business. As database administrators adopt cloud databases into the mix, such as Azure SQL database, the ability to easily manage those workloads and quickly detect and resolve problem areas to ensure peak performance while avoiding costly alternative tactics remains a top priority.

Ensuring Peak Performance

Quest Spotlight on SQL Server Enterprise gives SQL Server database administrators the power to easily secure data, move data, and monitor overall health for on premise and Azure SQL database environments. The newest release of Spotlight v12 is a 'download and go' software that delivers detailed performance metrics and monitoring capacities for Microsoft SQL Server on premise and in the cloud. This latest release now monitors SQL Server deployed on Linux.

Additionally, the Spotlight Extensions for SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) now feature two new toolsets inside SSMS to help developers quickly see and fix potential SQL Server performance issues before they impact the business. These tools include:

  • Spotlight Developer gives developers eal-time alerts to performance issues so they can react fast with fixes.
  • Spotlight Tuning Pack provides developers at all levels the tools to navigate complex query plans, deliver an accurate interpretation of the plan, and make necessary improvements and optimize the SQL code itself. Spotlight Tuning Pack does this by harnessing an artificial intelligence engine to optimize the SQL itself by automatically churning through hundreds of optimization and reporting choices to determine the best option to the developer.



Unmatched Management Capabilities & Zero-Impact Migration

The Quest Toad offering continues to boast feature-rich capabilities to help developers and administrators better manage, monitor and protect databases in emerging hybrid cloud environments. The soon-to-be-released Toad for SQL Server v6.8 features new plug in capabilities to help administrators fully leverage features of Toad within SQL Server Management Studio. Also, the new release will support SQL Server 2016 and Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2015 Version Control to allow database administrators to run faster, more reliable databases by doing more work in less time. As a single toolset, Toad for SQL Server helps database administrators quickly resolve issues, manage change and ensure the highest levels of quality, performance and maintainability in SQL Server database environments.


Quest SharePlex is currently used by thousands of database administrators to successfully replicate and migrate data and workloads from Oracle database platforms to other enterprise databases. Further extending the capabilities support to SQL Server environments, a soon-to-be-released version of SharePlex will enable real-time replication of database workloads from SQL Server to a myriad of other databases on premise and include cloud databases such as Microsoft Azure and AWS.

"Microsoft SQL Server continues to be a vital part of customers' database solution mix both on premise and in the cloud," said Patrick O'Keeffe, Executive Director, Software Engineering for Quest database management solutions. "The newest releases of our database management and performance monitoring solutions ensure database administrators maintain optimal performance of their existing SQL Server environments. Whether you are considering deploying SQL on Linux, want to understand the performance and reduce the cost of your SQL queries, or you are looking to move data into and out of the cloud, Quest has solutions to help DBAs cost effectively manage, monitor and protect SQL Server databases wherever they are deployed."

Pricing and Availability

Spotlight v12 is available now. Pricing starts at $1995 per monitored instance. For more information, go here.

Spotlight Extensions is available now. For a limited time only, the new Spotlight Tuning Pack will be offered for a free, six-month trial subscription. To activate your free subscription, please go here.

Toad for SQL Server v6.8 will be available in June. Pricing starts at $655 per named user.

SharePlex v9 will be generally available later this quarter. Pricing for the new Microsoft SQL Server source capture will start at $2,500 per database server.

Quest Spotlight drives Azure SQL database performance improvements white paper

Join the Toad World community by registering here.

About Quest Information Management

Quest Information Management boasts a market leading portfolio of database management and performance monitoring solutions that support a variety of applications and database platforms, including Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Hadoop, DB2, and SAP (News - Alert)/Sybase. Our easy-to-use products help organizations better manage, protect, and ensure optimal performance of mission critical workloads across multi-database environments - on premise and in the cloud - from a common view. Flagship products include: Toad, Foglight for Databases, Spotlight and SharePlex.

About Quest

Quest helps solve the complex technology and security problems that stand in the way of organizations' ability to always be ready for what's next. With Quest solutions, companies of all sizes can reduce the time and money spent on IT administration and security, so they have more time to focus on and invest in business innovation. Quest has more than 100,000 customers worldwide across its portfolio of software solutions spanning information management, data protection, endpoint systems management, identity and access management, and Microsoft platform management. For more information, visit www.quest.com.


[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]