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SQL Server 2017

Once again, Microsoft surprises us with its innovations in the SQL Server product. Less than a year after the release of SQL Server 2016, Microsoft is already preparing to launch a new version of the product, which is SQL Server 2017. If we think about previous versions (2000 > 2005 > 2008 > 2012 > 2014 > 2016), we saw that the intervals between versions started to be quite large, and from version 2012 onwards Microsoft started to release new versions every 2 years. What the vast majority of SQL Server professionals expected was SQL Server 2018, but Microsoft anticipated it and will launch a version full of new features (again).

While its competitors innovate at a snail's pace in “slow motion”, Microsoft is increasingly coming, bringing a range of new features, improvements and impressive news in a short period of time, as we saw in the post SQL Server 2016 – List of new features and features.

During the event Microsoft Data Amp, held on 04/19, SQL Server 2017 was presented to the public (SQL Server 2017 Community Technology Preview 2.0), available for Windows and Linux.

Among the new features available so far, we can highlight:

  • Using the Python language to perform Advanced Analytics (previously it was only possible with R)
  • Official support for SQL Server on Linux, including documentation on MSDN
  • Use of Graph extensions, which allow the creation of relationships between data to obtain better analysis and important insights for your business, very useful in scenarios such as fraud analysis, social networks, risk management, predictive analysis, etc.
  • Improvements in Adaptive Query Processing, which will generate improvements in workloads in several situations where classic Performance Tuning methodologies are not effective
  • Resumable online indexing, an innovative feature that allows you to REBUILD an online index and PAUSE this operation at will, whether to free up resources on the server to carry out an urgent process or any other need, and CONTINUE where you left off.
  • It just runs faster. Several performance improvements have been applied to SQL Server 2017, making your applications run faster with minimal (or no) effort.

To check out the official announcement of SQL Server 2017, access this link. Also follow the SQL Server Developers Blog to always stay up to date with the latest news.

See also the official videos of the new features of SQL Server 2017, presented at the Microsoft Data Amp event:

Want to download and start testing SQL Server 2017 now?

Azure SQL Managed Instance

As if the new features of SQL Server 2017 weren't enough, Microsoft decided to innovate in the cloud as well. If many people could not/wanted to migrate their SQL Server On Premises instances to Azure SQL Database due to lack of resources, such as the CLR, SQL Agent, possibility of using Cross-database, among others, this will no longer be an excuse, as Microsoft announced that it will support SQL Server instances as a service, working in a very similar way to what we use today, in our local instances.

This makes migrations to Azure easier than ever! Furthermore, responsibility for managing the VM, operating system and SQL Server configurations will continue to be in the hands of the DBA, but all cloud advances are also present, such as Elastic Pool, patching routines and automatic backups, facilities for adding disks, etc.

With this, Microsoft creates a middle ground between a local SQL Server instance and the Single Database Model instances, which currently work in Azure, allowing you to have more control and resources, using the Managed Instance model or greater isolation, using the Single Database model, as shown below:

To learn more about this new feature, be sure to visit this link.

That's it, folks!
Many new features are coming to SQL Server.

Follow the blog to stay up to date with all the news!
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