One consistent SQL is a promise of a unified experience that spans edge, cloud, and software as a service (SaaS), empowering developers to create intelligent applications with ease, while enabling data professionals to modernize on their terms. Write once, deploy anywhere because customers run diverse SQL estates, and we meet them wherever they are. Whether you’re running workloads with SQL Server, modernizing in Azure SQL, or activating real-time analytics in Microsoft Fabric, one consistent SQL unifies your data estate, bringing platform consistency, performance at scale, advanced security, and AI-ready tools together in one seamless experience and creates one home for your SQL workloads in the era of AI.

With a consistent platform, optimized performance, and multi-layered security, workloads scale dynamically while staying secure and highly available. And building intelligent, scalable applications is faster than ever with developer-first tools combined with AI capabilities. This is enterprise-grade performance for the era of AI, with one consistent SQL powering innovation across hybrid, multi-cloud, and AI-powered environments, all anchored by a unified data estate.

Delivering a consistent SQL platform across cloud and on-premises

From edge to cloud, one consistent SQL is Microsoft’s commitment to deliver a consistent experience—powering mission-critical workloads, next-generation apps, and data-driven intelligence. It provides unified management across infrastructure, platform, and software services for consistent operations in hybrid scenarios. Developers can use familiar SQL skills and tools to build and manage applications across environments, while sovereign cloud support addresses data residency and compliance requirements for regulated industries.

And now, the centerpiece of this vision takes the stage: SQL Server 2025 is now generally available. Built on SQL Server’s foundation of security, performance, and availability, this release introduces built-in AI capabilities and developer-focused enhancements. These features enable organizations to use existing data to support AI initiatives securely and at scale, all within SQL Server using the T SQL language.

Achieving optimized SQL performance and advanced security

In a world where trust is non-negotiable, organizations expect the same performance, availability, and security standards everywhere in their data lives. They adapt to the demands of your workload without compromise—delivering resilience and speed while keeping data secure and operations steady. These expectations are heightened for mission-critical workloads, where uptime and reliability directly impact return on investment. Businesses need a platform that not only meets these requirements but also evolves to handle growing complexity without adding operational burden.

The next generation of Azure SQL Managed Instance is now generally available to help organizations modernize with improved performance and simplified migration. The release offers expanded storage and database capacity, flexible compute and memory options, and features designed to support diverse workload requirements. These enhancements provide a foundation for scaling applications and managing data securely while maintaining compatibility with existing SQL investments. Customers are already benefiting from Azure SQL Managed Instance. Hexure, a life insurance software company, slashed processing time by 97.2%.

The path to Azure SQL Managed Instance also got easier. SQL Server migration in Azure Arc is now generally available. Copilot-assisted migration streamlines the entire process with real-time replication, confident cutover, and trusted failover—reducing months of work to days and lowering total cost of ownership.

Knowing that we have a reliable and highly secure database platform positions us to think about how we can use AI in ways that will benefit our customers and their customers most. With Azure SQL Managed Instance in place, we’re very well equipped to continue in our role as a leader in insurance tech

—Warren Perlman, CTO, Hexure

Empowering developers with AI-ready SQL tools at scale

One consistent SQL means you can use your existing skills and familiar development tools together with AI-powered capabilities to simplify application creation. As organizations look to integrate generative AI into business processes, complexity and time to value remain major challenges. Analysts predict that most AI applications will be built on existing data platforms—reducing development effort and accelerating delivery. Customers want integration, not disruption, and they expect AI assistance embedded in the tools they already use.

This vision is supported by features that combine intelligence with security. GitHub Copilot integration enables developers to work with AI assistance directly in environments like Visual Studio Code and SQL Server Management Studio 22. Native support for retrieval of augmented generation scenarios includes vector search and semantic indexing within SQL Server and Azure SQL, while secure enclaves and Always Encrypted protect sensitive data during processing. Connections to Azure AI services and governance tools streamline data preparation and compliance, while elastic infrastructure supports training, inference, and deployment at scale. 

Creating a unified data estate for analytics and AI

Microsoft Fabric connects operations, analytics, and governance in one unified experience, unlocking the full potential of SQL data. As organizations prepare for real-time AI applications, the ability to bridge transactional and analytical workloads becomes essential. Analysts describe this capability as “translytical,” a foundation for responsive applications that combine speed with depth. A future-ready data strategy must integrate operational data with analytical insight, and Fabric delivers that integration without adding complexity.aka

Today at Microsoft Ignite 2025, we announced two key advancements: the general availability of Fabric databases and database Mirroring in Fabric. Fabric databases unify operational and analytical data within Fabric, backed by OneLake, the open data foundation for analytics and AI. SQL database in Fabric supports transactional processing, real-time analytics with zero Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL), and AI workloads side-by-side. In addition, database Mirroring enables replication of SQL Server and Azure SQL into Fabric for analytics and AI scenarios without migration or refactoring. Early adopters such as AP Pension have consolidated decades of fragmented data using Mirroring for SQL Server in Fabric and SQL database in Fabric, creating a centralized architecture with automated delivery and strong governance. These capabilities position Fabric as a cornerstone for organizations seeking to modernize data strategies and prepare for AI-powered applications.

Eastman built a new agentic sales copilot app, enabling their sellers to instantly query unified customer data using natural language. By integrating SQL querying with Fabric’s analytics and vector capabilities, the copilot retrieves hyper-precise answers directly from the database.

When it comes to SQL in Fabric, a huge advantage is you have the robustness of SQL Server, but already in the context of Fabric. The fact that it already has so many security features and integrations with the rest of the Fabric platform is a huge advantage.

—Logan Finke, Principal AI Data Architect at Eastman

Innovate with one consistent SQL

One SQL is a promise of consistency, security, and flexibility from edge to cloud, helping you innovate without disruption. Build intelligent apps powered by agentic AI, unlock real-time insights, and meet compliance demands, all with the tools and skills you already trust. Make your legacy databases your launchpad to innovation.

One engine. One experience. One SQL.

Take the next step today

• Learn more about SQL Server 2025 and download now.
• Learn more about next-generation Azure SQL Managed Instance.
• Learn more about SQL database in Fabric and database Mirroring in Fabric.

The post One consistent SQL: The launchpad from legacy to innovation appeared first on Microsoft SQL Server Blog.

Adoption gains speed 

We’re seeing incredible momentum with SQL Server 2025 since its public preview debut at Microsoft Build. From lighting up community events like SQL Saturdays to being featured at SQLBits 2025 with CTP 2.1, the excitement is electric. SQL Server 2025 isn’t just keeping pace, it’s setting a new standard. Customers are adopting SQL Server 2025 twice as fast as SQL Server 2022 based on downloads of the public preview.

In the early adoption program, participants were asked to rank the SQL Server 2025 features they were most interested in testing. Built-in AI emerged as one of the top priorities, alongside performance and scalability enhancements. In addition, based on feedback from our preview customers, developer-friendly enhancements—especially the introduction of native JSON support—along with powerful T-SQL additions like regular expression support, have also been positively received—streamlining data processing and boosting developer efficiency. Enterprise customers like Entain, Mediterranean Shipping Company, Kramer & Crew, Schultz, and Bühler are already hands-on, exploring how SQL Server 2025 can power their next-gen applications. 

“As one of the largest SQL Server consulting firms in Brazil, we are excited about the AI features in SQL Server 2025, especially the potential for text processing that can benefit companies of all sizes. AI brings new ways to process and extract insights from data and with SQL Server being the core repository for many businesses, native AI features like embeddings, REST API support, and vector indexes are game changers. They eliminate the need for external vector databases, making AI integration more seamless and efficient.”

Rodrigo Ribeiro Gomes, Head of Innovation, Power Tuning

“SQL Server 2025 introduces seamless Azure and Arc integration and features, enhanced JSON and RegEx capabilities, and enhancements to database engine.”  

Shailesh Panday, Deputy Manager, IT, Buhler AG

Explore capabilities with new preview features

SQL Server 2025 introduces a new preview feature option, giving customers the flexibility to balance production stability with early access to innovation. When turned on, it unlocks access to upcoming features still in preview, enabling developers to test and evaluate new capabilities like vector indexing, improved text chunking, and change event streaming without impacting production workloads (a complete list of preview features is here).  

This opt-in model brings the agility of the cloud to on-premises SQL Server, empowering customers to innovate on their terms. Preview features are provided in alignment with Microsoft’s supportability guidelines. They are intended for evaluation and testing purposes only and are not recommended for use in production environments. The database itself in SQL Server 2025 remains as fully supported and is an essential component of the general availability release. Preview features are optional and designed to operate independently in preview mode. Enabling these features does not impact the stability or supportability of your database.  

SQL Server has traditionally used trace flags to enable or disable specific behaviors within the database engine. The new preview feature switch in SQL Server 2025 is fundamentally different from traditional trace flags. While trace flags are primarily used for debugging and diagnostics, often by DBAs or support engineers to control internal engine behavior, the preview feature switch is designed for developers to explore and test new, user-facing capabilities. Trace flags typically operate at the instance level, affecting the entire server, whereas the preview feature switch is a database-scoped configuration, offering more granular control and safer experimentation without impacting other workloads. Learn more about the preview features in the frequently asked questions.

New feature highlights

As SQL Server adoption on Linux continues to grow, we’re excited to introduce preview support for Ubuntu 24.04, one of the most widely used and trusted Linux distributions. This marks a significant step forward in our commitment to cross-platform flexibility and developer choice. By embracing the latest Ubuntu release, SQL Server 2025 ensures developers and IT teams can build and run modern, cloud-connected applications on a familiar and up-to-date Linux environment. 

PolyBase plays a critical role in enabling analytics scenarios by allowing SQL Server to query external data sources like Microsoft Azure Data Lake or Azure Blob Storage using familiar T-SQL. As many of SQL Server’s modern analytics capabilities are deeply integrated with Microsoft Azure services, secure and seamless access to cloud storage is essential. With preview support for Managed Identity authentication to Azure Storage, SQL Server 2025 takes a step forward in simplifying security and access management. This enhancement aligns with SQL Server’s decade-long track record as the most secure database and reinforces our commitment to enterprise-grade security. By eliminating the need for storing secrets or keys, Managed Identity makes it easier and safer for customers to build scalable, cloud-connected analytics solutions using PolyBase. 

Mirroring in Microsoft Fabric is a game-changing capability that unlocks seamless, near real-time analytics on operational data from SQL Server 2025. To help customers manage compute resources efficiently during the mirroring process, SQL Server now supports creating a dedicated Resource Governor (RG) pool. Each phase of mirroring—such as ingestion, transformation, and synchronization—can be assigned to a specific workload group, giving administrators fine-grained control over resource allocation. These workload groups can be placed in the same or different pools depending on capacity planning needs.  

Discover more 

SQL Server 2025

An AI-ready enterprise database with best-in-class security, performance, and availability.

Download RC0 today

• Download release candidate (RC0). 
• Learn more on Microsoft Learn.
• Discover what’s new in SQL Server 2025 in our latest Mechanics video.

The post Accelerating SQL Server 2025 momentum: Announcing the first release candidate appeared first on Microsoft SQL Server Blog.

SQL Server 2025, now in public preview, empowers customers to develop modern AI applications securely using their data, complete with best-in-class security, performance, and availability. It provides built-in, extensible AI capabilities, enhanced developer productivity, and seamless integration with Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Fabric—all within the SQL Server engine using familiar T-SQL language. 

Your data, any model, anywhere 

One of the most exciting new capabilities of SQL Server 2025 is the integration of AI directly into the database engine, enabling more intelligent search. With built-in vector search capabilities, you can perform semantic searches over your own data to find matches based on similarity, alongside full text search and filtering you are already using in SQL Server. This built-in capability opens up a host of exciting new use cases such as discovering deeper connections within large datasets, providing a natural conversational experience across various enterprise systems.  

SQL Server 2025 introduces enhanced model management by building model definitions directly into T-SQL, enabling seamless integration with popular AI services such as Azure AI Foundry, Azure OpenAI Service, OpenAI, Ollama, and others. Models are all accessed through REST APIs allowing you to deploy any model securely isolated from the SQL Server engine, anywhere from ground to cloud. As developers test embedding models to find the best fit for their use cases, whether running open-source models on laptops or hosting purpose-trained models, SQL Server 2025 makes it convenient to switch models without needing to change the code. 

This release also provides other essential building blocks for AI development and operational retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) patterns powered by AI agents. It includes vector embedding generation and text chunking built into T-SQL, using Disk Approximate Nearest Neighbor (DiskANN) as a vector index for faster, resource-efficient, and accurate results. Additionally, SQL Server 2025 offers seamless integration with popular AI frameworks like LangChain, Semantic Kernel, and Entity Framework Core. 

“With the new semantic search and RAG capabilities in SQL Server 2025, we can empower existing GenAI solutions with data embeddings to create next-generation, more intelligent AI applications. By connecting systems, we deliver a seamless, natural conversational experience across enterprise environments.”

—Markus Angenendt, Data Platform Infrastructure Lead, Kramer & Crew  

Microsoft’s most significant release for SQL developers in the last decade 

We understand that developers need the right tools and interfaces for modern, data-intensive applications. SQL Server 2025 delivers a rich set of feature enhancements that significantly streamline development process, reduce code complexity, and improve developer productivity. Along with built-in AI capabilities, this release makes SQL Server 2025 the most significant release for SQL developers since the introduction of SQL Server 2016 a decade ago.  

Enhancing data enrichment is our first area of focus in this release. SQL Server 2025 offers native JSON support, empowering developers to process JSON documents natively. Combined with REST APIs and Regular Expressions (RegEx) enablement, developers can now enrich, validate, and manipulate their datasets with external data sources. This allows for building more dynamic, enterprise-grade applications with richer functionality and enhanced performance. 

Empowering developers to build real-time, event-driven applications with SQL Server is another scenario that this release unlocks. Change Event Streaming allows users to consume transaction log changes as events directly from SQL Server to Microsoft Azure Event Hubs. This provides a new method to mitigate some of the issues developers have seen with the Input/Output (I/O) overhead of Change Data Capture (CDC). It also opens new possibilities such as developing real-time, event-driven applications powered by AI agents. 

There’s also excitement on the language and tooling front. We’re thrilled to announce the preview of our new open-source Python driver for SQL Server.¹ Built from the ground up, this driver offers Python developers a robust, efficient, and fully open-source solution for connecting to SQL Server, as simple as pip install. In addition, we are bringing AI-powered assistance directly into your workflow with the integration of MSSQL Extension for Visual Studio Code with GitHub Copilot, now in preview. With GitHub Copilot aware of your SQL Server database connection, developers can generate SQL and object-relational mapping (ORM) migrations, explore schemas, optimize queries with intelligent suggestions, and streamline database interactions—all within in Visual Studio Code.  

“I am genuinely enthusiastic about the AI advancements in SQL Server 2025. These features, along with the enhancements in RegEx and JSON data support, promise to make AI functionalities accessible to a broader range of software applications, and significantly enhance our database operations.” 

—Jacob Saugmann, SQL Specialist, J.H. Schultz Information A/S

Best-in-class security, performance, and availability 

This release builds on SQL Server’s history as an industry leader in database security, performance, and availability. For our enterprise customers, security is non-negotiable. SQL Server remains as the most secure database in the last decade.² SQL Server 2025 continues the product’s legacy of top-notch security by incorporating modern identity and encryption practices. Support for Microsoft Entra managed identities improves credential management and reduces potential vulnerabilities.³

We’re bringing Optimized Locking to SQL Server, to reduce lock memory consumption and minimize blocking for concurrent transactions through Transaction ID (TID) Locking and Lock After Qualification (LAQ). This capability enables customers to increase uptime and enhance concurrency and scale for SQL Server applications. 

SQL Server 2025 has over 50 enhancements made to the database engine including key improvements for HADR all based on customer feedback. This new release will bring enhancements to performance for applications with no code changes required through Intelligent Query Processing (IQP) and columnstore improvements, enhancements for query processing, and enabling Query Store for readable secondaries.  

“Security Cache Improvement proved invaluable for high-demand environments like ours, reducing disruption when applying permissions on servers with 20,000–25,000 active connections. This enhancement ensures minimal performance impact, streamlining security management. The ordered non-clustered Columnstore index significantly improved query performance by over 63%, optimizing workloads reliant on analytical processing.”

—Madhab Paudel, Database Engineer, Entain

Cloud agility through Azure 

To build scalable analytics, data needs to be extracted, transformed, normalized, and made available in a central place. SQL Server 2025 will support database mirroring in Fabric, giving you near real-time analytics using a zero extract, transform, and load (ETL) experience and allowing you to offload your analytical workloads to Fabric.³  

Azure is a critical component of SQL Server. With Azure Arc, SQL Server 2025 will continue to offer cloud capabilities to enable customers to better manage, secure and govern your SQL estate at scale across on-premises and cloud. 

“Fabric mirroring for SQL Server 2025 helps MSC to build the bridge to bring our operational data into Microsoft Fabric.”

—Javier Villegas, IT Director of DBA and BI Services, Mediterranean Shipping Company

Get started with SQL Server 2025 today

With every AI-powered query for hybrid search, every millisecond saved in query execution, every change event streamed in real time, SQL Server 2025 is a critical building block for modern data-intensive applications in this AI era. Ready to try it out? Learn more about SQL Server 2025.

SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) 21, now generally available, is based on Visual Studio 2022 and includes 64-bit support. This modernized version is available from the Visual Studio Installer, offers automatic updates, and introduces Git integration, query editor enhancements, and a new connection experience.

Microsoft Copilot in SSMS, now in preview, is available as an optional workload when installing SSMS 21, and assists customers in writing, editing, and fixing T-SQL queries using natural language. Leveraging database context, it also helps with database administration, maintenance, configuration and more.³

Explore solutions and capabilities

• Learn more from our Microsoft Build 2025 session: SQL Server 2025: The Database Developer Reimagined.
• Deep-dive blog on Tech Community.
• Explore solutions from Microsoft SQL Server.
• MSSQL Extension for Visual Studio Code with GitHub Copilot.
• Learn What’s new in SQL Server 2025.
• Follow the SQL Server 2025 Blogging Series to stay up to date.

SQL Server 2025

Explore new capabilities in AI development, enhanced model management, and more

Sign up today

¹ Public preview of Python driver is June 1, 2025. The alpha version is available on GitHub today. 

² According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology Comprehensive Vulnerability Database, as of December 2024.

³ Although SQL Server 2025 in public preview is free to try, using some features such as Microsoft Entra, Fabric and Copilot in SQL Server Management Studio 21 could incur costs based on usage. Try Azure for free and explore Fabric trial capacity.

The post Announcing SQL Server 2025 (preview): The AI-ready enterprise database from ground to cloud appeared first on Microsoft SQL Server Blog.