Microsoft announces the general availability of SQL Server 2022, the most Azure-compatible version of SQL Server to date, with continuous innovation in performance, security and availability. This marks the latest milestone in the more than 30-year history of SQL Server.
SQL Server 2022 is a central element of Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform. The platform seamlessly integrates operational databases, analytics and data governance. This enables customers to adapt in real time, add layers of intelligence to their applications, unlock rapid and predictive insights and manage their data, wherever it resides.
T-SQL,
the query language of SQL Server, has been enhanced with new JSON
functions, bit manipulation functions such as LEFT_SHIFT and GET_BIT,
time series functions and a new IS DISTINCT FROM expression
that simplifies the handling of "null" markers in boolean
expressions. The company announced that the Query Store feature, which captures
query history and enables performance and query plan tuning,
is now enabled by default.
Also notable is the improvement of SQL Server's PolyBase, a data
virtualisation and big data connectivity feature, to make it
compatible with AWS S3 and all object storage systems that are
compatible with its API. Here again, the "cloud" or
"on-premises" paradox arises, as several storage platforms
compatible with the S3 API, such as Minio, operate on-premises. As a result,
Microsoft touts the new PolyBase as offering access to any data
lake. This technology also enables the backup of databases
to S3-compatible object storage.
Azure-compatible features
Link feature for AZURE SQL Managed Instance:
To ensure availability, SQL Server 2022 is fully integrated with the new link feature in Azure SQL Managed Instance. With this new feature, you benefit from a PaaS environment applied to disaster recovery, allowing you to spend less time on configuration and management, even compared to an IaaS environment. You can also use this link feature in read scale-out scenarios to offload heavy queries that might otherwise impact database performance.
Azure Synapse Link for SQL:
Azure Synapse Link for SQL Server 2022 provides automated change feeds to capture changes in SQL Server and feed them into Azure Synapse Analytics. Synapse Link provides near real-time analytics and hybrid transactional and analytical processing with minimal impact on operational systems. Once data arrives in Synapse, you can combine it with many different data sources, regardless of their size, scale, or format, and run powerful analytics across all of it using your choice of Azure Machine Learning, Spark, or Power BI.
Javier Villegas states in this regard that: "Synapse Link for SQL Server 2022 helps us seamlessly replicate operational data in near real-time to enable more powerful analytics."
Microsoft Purview Integration:
Microsoft Purview is a unified data governance and management service. Microsoft is pleased to highlight that SQL Server is also integrated with Microsoft Purview for improved data discovery, enabling you to break down data silos. Thanks to this integration, you will be able to:
- Automatically and freely analyse your on-premises SQL server to capture metadata.
- Classify your data using built-in and custom classifiers and Microsoft Information Protection sensitivity labels.
- Configure and control specific SQL Server access rights.
Additional features connected to Azure:
SQL Server 2022 has a number of additional features compatible with Azure, including:
- Single view of all SQL servers deployed on-premises, in Azure and other clouds.
- Fully automated technical assessment for SQL Server at no additional cost, to help you optimise the performance, scalability, security, and business continuity of your database, etc.
- Protect your on-site data using Microsoft Defender for Cloud.
- Secured identities with Single Sign-On and Azure Active Directory.
- Pay-as-you-go billing.
Continuous innovation of the SQL Server core engine
Performance:
Within the SQL Server engineering team at Microsoft, the core principles of their engine's features are as follows: do no harm, no application changes are required. With SQL Server 2022, performance improvements do not require any code changes by the end user.
SQL Server continues to deliver differentiated performance, with OLTP performance, non-clustered DW performance at 1 TB, 3 TB, 10 TB and 30 TB according to the independent Transaction Processing Performance Council. In SQL Server 2022:
- With Query Store, Microsoft adds support for read replicas and enables query hints to improve performance and quickly mitigate issues without having to modify the source T-SQL.
- With the "parameter-sensitive plan" optimization feature in SQL Server 2022, Microsoft automatically enables the generation of multiple active cached plans for a single parameterized statement. These cached execution plans will support different data sizes based on the runtime parameter values provided.
Security:
Over the past ten years, SQL Server has had few vulnerabilities. Building on this, the new Ledger feature for SQL Server creates a tamper-proof record of data changes over time. This detects tampering by malicious actors and is beneficial for scenarios such as internal and external audits.
Availability:
With contained availability groups, you can create an "Always On" availability group that manages its own metadata objects (users, logins, permissions) at the availability group level in addition to the instance level with contained availability groups. Furthermore, it ensures the proper functioning of multi-write environments when you have users distributed across multiple sites. With SQL Server 2022, Microsoft automates the last-writer-wins rule to ensure that when a conflict is detected, the most recent modification time will be chosen to be persisted across all replicas.
New pay-per-use SQL Server billing model, enabled by Azure Arc
Today, Microsoft is also pleased to announce a new billing model that offers the flexibility to innovate quickly and act as fast as you do.
Through a simple connection to Azure Arc, a default part of the SQL Server 2022 configuration process, you now have access to a new cloud-compatible billing model for SQL Server, offering you a cost-effectiveness to pay only for what you use. Pay by the hour for consumption peaks and ad hoc usage without the need for an upfront investment.
Azure SQL migration offer
Si vous êtes prêt à commencer votre voyage vers le cloud, Microsoft peut vous aider. Il annonce aujourd'hui une nouvelle offre, la SQL + Apps Migration Factory. Ce programme peut évaluer et migrer gratuitement les applications et les bases de données SQL Server éligibles à faible complexité vers Azure SQL.
Source: Microsoft
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