At Microsoft Build 2022 Microsoft released the first preview of the next release of SQL Server – SQL Server 2022. For busy database administrators, this is a double edge sword – excitement of all those new features in the latest release and how they can save time and make your SQL Server estate operate more efficiently, but the knowledge that you are now another major release behind and where will you find the time to upgrade or migrate?
Let’s start by exploring my top 5 new or improved features in SQL Server 2022 and try and quantify how they can help your organisation do more or work more efficiently.
- Failover to SQL Server Managed Instance. Do you want to run in a Hybrid Cloud/On Premises or multi Cloud environment, failing over to Azure SQL Managed Instance? Well now you can, using AlwaysOn and by creating a distributed availability group using the built-in wizard, just like a regular Availability Group. The SQL Managed Instance replica can also be used as a read only replica. It is also possible to restore the Azure SQL Managed Instance databases back to SQL Server, something that was not possible with previous versions.
- Azure Synapse Link integration. Are you reporting from data in your OLTP SQL Server database and experiencing slow downs in SQL Server. Do you want to pull data in Azure Synapse Analytics? Azure Synapse link for SQL Server allows you to keep your reporting datasets close to real-time and offload these reporting processes from your OLTP environment into Azure Synapse Analytics.
- SQL Server Ledger. As per my recent blog on Azure SQL Ledger Tables (Providing Tamper Proof Data Solutions – risual), this feature is now coming to SQL Server. The new feature creates an immutable record of data modifications over time using blockchain type technologies. This protects data from tampering, which is useful for certain use cases, and also offers advantages for internal and external audits.
- Parameter sensitive plan optimisation. The database engine can now support multiple cached plans for the same query with the only difference being the parameter values that are being used. This allows SQL Server to have the best plan for the workload it needs to solve rather than having a single plan for every combination of query. All with no code change.
- Better Microsoft Purview Integration. SQL Server 2022 has enhanced integration with Microsoft Purview, allowing better metadata access and faster scanning to make cataloguing your data better and more efficient.
It can feel sometimes that you are spending all your time keeping things running, upgrading or migrating, but you never have time to innovate and unlock the benefits of what these new features deliver. Has your organisation taken advantage of new technologies in previous SQL Server versions such as Column Store Indexes, In Memory OLTP or AlwaysOn? I see a lot of organisations that haven’t, often not for the want of doing it, it’s just not having the time to spend implementing, testing and amending processes.
If you want to work smarter with SQL Server, come and talk to risual about SQL Server Modernisation and Data Transformation, and how to unlock the benefits of these new releases. Make the software work for you.
