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> PROS has been using R for a while in development, but found running R within SQL Server 2016 to be 100 times (not 100%, 100x!) faster for price optimization.

• nerdponx 10y ago
  What does it mean to run R "within" SQL Server here?
  • larrydag 10y ago
    SQL Server R Services https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt604845.aspx https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt604845.aspx New for SQL Server 2016
  • vmarsy 10y ago
    I found this blog post a good introduction to R within SQL: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlcat/2016/06/16/early-customer-experiences-with-sql-server-r-services/ https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlcat/2016/06/16/early-cus...
• apohn 10y ago
  That statement is overly vague and sounds like marketing BS. I worked on a project where we scored streaming data in R. The biggest bottleneck was getting the data into and out of the R session. We started out using disk based I/O and ended up using using rJava so our streaming system could communicate with R. In that case we did get a 100X speed up between our first iteration and the final version which used rJava to serialize the data. So basically, the major bottleneck was not R. It was the communication with R. In the article R is installed on the same hardware as SQL Server, which should automatically give it a speedup with streaming data. If Microsoft also has an optimized way to get data from SQL Server to R I can see how they got a 100X speedup. In certain cases using the MKL libraries can give you that as well from faster scoring, but I suspect the speedup just comes from improving the data transfer method.
  • buro9 10y ago
    > If Microsoft also has an optimized way to get data from SQL Server to R I can see how they got a 100X speedup. In certain cases using the MKL libraries can give you that as well, but I suspect the speedup just comes from improving the data transfer method. The optimized method is that you can run R inside the database in the latest version of SQL Server. I've actually installed Windows again, just to play with this feature (though I cannot make claims to actually putting it to good use yet).
    • deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
    • apohn 10y ago
      This is what the docs say "When you select this feature, extensions are installed in the database engine to support execution of R scripts, and a new service is created, the SQL Server Trusted Launchpad, to manage communications between the R runtime and the SQL Server instance." So basically SQL Server is talking to the R session. The speedup is coming from R being installed locally and the "communication" which I've yet to figure out.
    • baldfat 10y ago
      > I've actually installed Windows again, just to play with this feature (though I cannot make claims to actually putting it to good use yet). I heard the Linux SQL Server is surprisingly decent. https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2016/03/07/announcing- https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2016/03/07/announcing- sql-server-on-linux/
      • apathy 10y ago
        postgresql used to have a way to embed R into PostGreSQL too: https://github.com/jconway/plr https://github.com/jconway/plr I guess it still does, though I haven't used it in years. You can, of course, do the same thing with Python.
    • Jweb_Guru 10y ago
      No need to install Windows to get R in a database, you can run with PL/R on Postgres (unless you have a particular desire to run it within SQL Server, of course, but doesn't it run on Linux now?). http://www.joeconway.com/plr/ http://www.joeconway.com/plr/
• madenine 10y ago
  Microsoft has gone all in on R, excited to see where things go. Some cool stuff out of Ignite this week.