SQL Server Management Studio should be launched after connecting to a SQL Server instance. As soon as you run SSMS for the first time, the Connect to Server window appears. Object Explorer > Connect > ...

In SQL Server 2014, Microsoft is introducing the In-Memory OLTP database engine which essentially performs the entire I/O operation set against selected tables straight from memory.

Untangle SQL Server connection strings Today’s README file explains how to create connection strings to SQL Server databases using Visual Studio’s built-in tools.