With Microsoft's shift towards open-source development, running .NET applications and services outside of Windows has become feasible, notably with the release of SQL Server 2017 and its successors, which can now operate on various platforms, including Windows, Mac, and Linux, using Docker containers. Docker provides a way to package applications and their dependencies into portable containers, enabling SQL Server to be run across different platforms, thus facilitating cross-platform development. This guide demonstrates how to set up a SQL Server database inside a Docker container, using a Docker compose file and the npm library mssql, to connect, update, and query the database, making it easier for development teams to use a consistent database environment across different systems. This capability is particularly beneficial for both production deployments and development settings, as it allows developers to share and run the same database setup by simply executing a few Docker commands, highlighting the enhanced versatility and accessibility of Microsoft's tools and frameworks in a multi-platform ecosystem.