Log shipping has a long history in
SQL Server for high availability. Although officially log shipping was introduced
in SQL Server 2000, it can be used to create jobs to do the same
thing in 6.5 & 7.0 with creating customized jobs/SP (http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic603471-146-1.aspx).
Database Mirroring was introduced in SQL Server 2005 as a favorable solution over log shipping to high availability (https://www.simple-talk.com/blogs/2009/06/25/the-fall-and-rise-of-log-shipping/).
There was one time that Microsoft announced to deprecate log shipping in the near feature. In the book “Microsoft SQL Server 2008R2 Unleashed” By Ray Rankins, Paul T. Bertucci etc. Chapter 18:
Nevertheless, it did not happen. In SQL Server 2012, Microsoft recommends
retiring database mirroring by using AlwaysOn. If the editions do not support
AlwaysOn, use Log Shipping:
If your edition of SQL Server does not support AlwaysOn Availability Groups, use log shipping (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143729.aspx)
Also the updated version of the book “Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Unleashed” (by Ray Rankins, Paul T. Bertucci etc., page 1482) states:
