We use the on-premises deployment model.

In terms of advice I would give to others, I would say that if they want to evaluate it, they should install a SQL Server Express. Install that as a management studio to get a feel for how it works, and then from there decide if it's suitable, in terms of a full license installation. 

You can get up and running with it, and play around with it quite easily. Once you install SQL Server Express, you can get a good feel for how the full SQL Server would be set up and maintained, and how it works.

If you're going to do a large database setup, make sure you do a bit of planning before you begin.

I would rate the solution ten out of ten.

Based on my experience it's easier to use, and there are a lot of resources online that can give you a headstart. By comparison, Oracle Database is complicated to use.

I like the ease of use and quick data usage. 

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

If you do SQL for a living you need a robust productivity tool. You won't regret using a proper software you can rely on. My customers are moving from on-premise to Azure based databases and I wasn't able to migrate their data to the cloud with another product. Devart has a solid history of data connectors, their oledb drivers are famous around the developer community. When working on tight deadlines every hour count and you cannot afford to format code by hand or write scripts just to check if the data matches between TEST and PROD. So far I found the data compare to be the most reliable and easy to use with SQL Server. The software has a report writing and delivery tool and a Pivot table facility. Did not use them myself, but 'hey' they are free in the box, you never know what your customer will ask you. I have used the data export feature every now and then to send data back and forth with other systems and it has enough formats available. One point: it would be good to have export in JSON to ship data to web services. The T-SQL debugger works much like the SSMS one, and the code completion is very accurate. It actually works, and suggests objects based on the context of the SELECT where you are. I was impressed by the JOIN suggestion, which I never saw before: very clever, it relies on foreign keys and similar column names. A little trick: when the code completion drop-down is visible, press the CTRL key and it becomes transparent so you can see thru'There are a lot of other features we did not use yet, but the ones I personally like are: Git, seamless Azure SQL, data compare and code beautifier.

http://imgur.com/BjG26L8