We’ve been on the road the last couple of weeks at MVP Summit, SQLBits and Fabric Con, connecting with customers talking about the value of migration and modernization. We want to dig into specifically, how Azure can deliver real business value through cost optimization and streamlined productivity for their Windows Server and SQL Server deployments when they migrate to Azure. 

We’ve helped countless organizations migrate their SQL Server and Windows workloads to Azure a critical 1^st step in any transformation initiative. The move can help improve cybersecurity posture and business continuity, boost productivity, and lay the foundation for AI and other highly scalable data innovations, while automating updates, backups, and other time-consuming IT tasks. 

Modernize and lower total cost of ownership (TCO) 

Migration is a business strategy that pays off. In The Business Value of Microsoft Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Managed Instance Workload,¹ organizations that migrated to Azure SQL Managed Instance and Microsoft Azure SQL Database can get up to 406 percent return on investment over 3 years and can expect a 30-percent reduction in TCO over 5 years, protecting an additional $6.85 million in annual revenue.

A separate study found that customers that migrated both Windows Server and SQL Server workloads to Azure generated more value. According to The Business Value of Microsoft Azure for SQL Server and Windows Server Workloads,² by optimizing costs, operations, and business opportunities, companies gained $15.85 million in total annual benefits while also increasing IT security efficiency by 43 percent with cloud tools and automation.

Azure SQL

Migrate, modernize, and innovate with the modern SQL family of cloud database services.

Start today

A smooth path to migration, a more powerful destination

Migrating to a cloud platform is an essential step on the journey to modernization, and there are many choices. 

What makes SQL unique is that it’s built on the same engine, no matter where you deploy, which means you can build on your existing SQL experience while gaining the layered security, intelligent threat detection, and data encryption that Azure provides. And as we shared with customers at SQLBits, there’s now an even more powerful option available for customers looking to leverage the full PaaS experience. Azure SQL Managed Instance Next-gen GP  brings significantly improved performance and scalability to power up your existing Azure SQL Managed Instance fleet, and help bring more mission-critical SQL workloads to Azure. With close to 100 percent feature compatibility with SQL Server, Azure SQL Managed Instance is the recommended choice to migrate and modernize SQL apps at scale and at your own pace.

Another option many of our customers start with is by running their Windows Server workloads on Azure Virtual Machines, benefiting from a simplified, managed experience and cloud-native support for SQL Server, .NET apps, and Remote Desktop Services. Or you can modernize your entire Windows Server estate, choosing from more than 200 Azure services and capabilities, including support for hybrid environments. 

Take the first step or the next: You have choices

When it comes to migration, Azure meets you where you are with options for moving on-premises workloads and for developing new cloud solutions. For example, many organizations start by moving Windows Server workloads to Azure Virtual Machines, enabling them to easily scale to support new developments and more efficiently manage peak loads. Hokkoku Bank took this step, migrating its Windows Server–based estate to Azure as part of a cloud-first initiative. Azure supports the bank’s modernization plans and helps provide a disaster recovery solution in an earthquake-prone region.  

Correios de Portugal, the country’s postal service, migrated its Windows Server workloads to Azure Virtual Machines backed by Azure SQL, which provides a smooth path to a cost-effective, highly scalable, fully managed PaaS database. It’s the best choice for modernizing your apps and getting the most out of your existing investments.

Many of our database customers move to SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines for the cost benefits on top of the scalability and resilience of Azure. As an example, healthcare software manufacturer Allscripts migrated on-premises applications to Azure SQL Database Managed Instance when possible, but another 600 on-premises VMs needed a different migration approach. Allscripts moved them to SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines, a quick, low-risk step for workloads it plans to optimize and modernize later. The lift-and-shift approach can be an easy first   step in your cloud journey.

Azure also offers hybrid solutions that bridge your on-premises and cloud resources. For example, you can move or extend on-premises VMware environments using Azure VMWare Solution. You can even use the free Windows Admin Center tool to manage across Windows Server environments—physical, virtual, on-premises, in Azure, or in a hosted environment—at no additional cost. To get started with a Windows Server migration, start discovering and assessing on-premises resources using the free Azure Migrate tool.

Watch the Migrate to Innovate digital event on demand and learn the business benefits of migrating to Azure.

Try it for free 

If you want to know how your workload will perform before migrating, try these Azure offers and get started building that proof-of-concept.  

• Try Azure SQL Managed Instance for free. For 12 months, you can get up to two instances per Azure subscription, 750 vCore hours of compute per month, and 32 GB data storage and 32 GB backup storage per month. 

• Try Azure SQL Database for free. Test and develop applications or run small production workloads for free. This offer provides the first 100,000 vCore seconds, 32 GB of data, and 32 GB of backup storage per month at no charge for the lifetime of your subscription. 

• Try Windows Server in the cloud with an Azure free account. Extend your existing Windows Server datacenter and try out popular services free for 12 months. 

Learn more about Azure SQL

Stay tuned for more migration announcements in the coming months. To get started now: 

• Get the full ROI and TCO reports from IDC: The Business Value of Microsoft Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Managed Instance Workload and The Business Value of Microsoft Azure for SQL Server and Windows Server Workloads.

• Review the benefits of migration in Better on Azure: The benefits of using Azure for Windows Server and SQL Server workloads. 

• Discover why cloud economics make sense and get greater return on your investment. 

1. IDC report, The Business Value of Microsoft Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Managed Instance Workloads, IDC #US51073123, August 2023. 
2. The Business Value of Microsoft Azure for SQL Server and Windows Server Workloads

The post Why migrate Windows Server and SQL Server to Azure: ROI, innovation, and free offers appeared first on Microsoft SQL Server Blog.

Now, for the first time ever, SQL Server 2019 creates a unified data platform with Apache Spark^TM and Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) packaged together with SQL Server as a single, integrated solution. Through the ability to create big data clusters, SQL Server 2019 delivers an incredible expansion of database management capabilities, further redefining SQL Server beyond a traditional relational database. And as with every release, SQL Server 2019 continues to push the boundaries of security, availability, and performance for every workload with Intelligent Query Processing, data compliance tools and support for persistent memory. With SQL Server 2019, you can take on any data project, from traditional SQL Server workloads like OLTP, Data Warehousing and BI, to AI and advanced analytics over big data.

SQL Server provides a true hybrid platform, with a consistent SQL Server surface area from your data center to public cloud—making it easy to run in the location of your choice. Because SQL Server 2019 big data clusters are deployed as containers on Kubernetes with a built-in management service, customers can get a consistent management and deployment experience on a variety of supported platforms on-premises and in the cloud: OpenShift or Kubernetes on premises, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Azure Stack (on AKS) and OpenShift on Azure. With Azure Hybrid Benefit license portability, you can choose to run SQL Server workloads on-premises or in Azure, at a fraction of the cost of any other cloud provider.

SQL Server – Insights over all your data

SQL Server continues to embrace open source, from SQL Server 2017 support for Linux and containers to SQL Server 2019 now embracing Spark and HDFS to bring you a unified data platform. With SQL Server 2019, all the components needed to perform analytics over your data are built into a managed cluster, which is easy to deploy and it can scale as per your business needs. HDFS, Spark, Knox, Ranger, Livy, all come packaged together with SQL Server and are quickly and easily deployed as Linux containers on Kubernetes. SQL Server simplifies the management of all your enterprise data by removing any barriers that currently exist between structured and unstructured data.

Here’s how we make it easy for you to break down barriers to realized insights across all your data, providing one view of your data across the organization:

• Simplify big data analytics for SQL Server users. SQL Server 2019 makes it easier to manage big data environments. It comes with everything you need to create a data lake, including HDFS and Spark provided by Microsoft and analytics tools, all deeply integrated with SQL Server and fully supported by Microsoft. Now, you can run apps, analytics, and AI over structured and unstructured data – using familiar T-SQL queries or people familiar with Spark can use Python, R, Scala, or Java to run Spark jobs for data preparation or analytics – all in the same, integrated cluster.
• Give developers, data analysts, and data engineers a single source for all your data – structured and unstructured – using their favorite tools. With SQL Server 2019, data scientists can easily analyze data in SQL Server and HDFS through Spark jobs. Analysts can run advanced analytics over big data using SQL Server Machine Learning Services: train over large datasets in Hadoop and operationalize in SQL Server. Data scientists can use a brand new notebook experience running on the Jupyter notebooks engine in a new extension of Azure Data Studio to interactively perform advanced analysis of data and easily share the analysis with their colleagues.
• Break down data silos and deliver one view across all of your data using data virtualization. Starting in SQL Server 2016, PolyBase has enabled you to run a T-SQL query inside SQL Server to pull data from your data lake and return it in a structured format—all without moving or copying the data. Now in SQL Server 2019, we’re expanding that concept of data virtualization to additional data sources, including Oracle, Teradata, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, and others. Using the new PolyBase, you can break down data silos and easily combine data from many sources using virtualization to avoid the time, effort, security risks and duplicate data created by data movement and replication. New elastically scalable “data pools” and “compute pools” make querying virtualized data lighting fast by caching data and distributing query execution across many instances of SQL Server.

“From its inception, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey database has run on SQL Server, and SQL Server also stores object catalogs from large cosmological simulations. We are delighted with the promise of SQL Server 2019 big data clusters, which will allow us to enhance our databases to include all our big data sets. The distributed nature of SQL Server 2019 allows us to expand our efforts to new types of simulations and to the next generation of astronomical surveys with datasets up to 10PB or more, well beyond the limits of our current database solutions.”- Dr. Gerard Lemson, Institute for Data Intensive Engineering and Science, Johns Hopkins University.

Enhanced performance, security, and availability

The SQL Server 2019 relational engine will deliver new and enhanced features in the areas of mission-critical performance, security and compliance, and database availability, as well as additional features for developers, SQL Server on Linux and containers, and general engine enhancements.

Industry-leading performance – The Intelligent Database

• The Intelligent Query Processing family of features builds on hands-free performance tuning features of Adaptive Query Processing in SQL Server 2017 including Row mode memory grant feedback, approximate COUNT DISTINCT, Batch mode on rowstore, and table variable deferred compilation.
• Persistent memory support is improved in this release with a new, optimized I/O path available for interacting with persistent memory storage.
• The Lightweight query profiling infrastructure is now enabled by default to provide per query operator statistics anytime and anywhere you need it.

Advanced security – Confidential Computing

• Always Encrypted with secure enclaves extends the client-side encryption technology introduced in SQL Server 2016. Secure enclaves protect sensitive data in a hardware or software-created enclave inside the database, securing it from malware and privileged users while enabling advanced operations on encrypted data.
• SQL Data Discovery and Classification is now built into the SQL Server engine with new metadata and auditing support to help with GDPR and other compliance needs.
• Certification Management is now easier using SQL Server Configuration Manager.

Mission-critical availability – High uptime

• Always On Availability Groups have been enhanced to include automatic redirection of connections to the primary based on read/write intent.
• High availability configurations for SQL Server running in containers can be enabled with Always On Availability Groups using Kubernetes.
• Resumable online indexes now support create operations and include database scoped defaults.

Developer experience

• Enhancements to SQL Graph include match support with T-SQL MERGE and edge constraints.
• New UTF-8 support gives customers the ability to reduce SQL Server’s storage footprint for character data.
• The new Java language extension will allow you to call a pre-compiled Java program and securely execute Java code on the same server with SQL Server. This reduces the need to move data and improves application performance by bringing your workloads closer to your data.
• Machine Learning Services has several enhancements including Windows Failover cluster support, partitioned models, and support for SQL Server on Linux.

Platform of choice

• Additional capabilities for SQL Server on Linux include distributed transactions, replication, Polybase, Machine Learning Services, memory notifications, and OpenLDAP support.
• Containers have new enhancements including use of the new Microsoft Container Registry with support for RedHat Enterprise Linux images and Always On Availability Groups for Kubernetes.
  You can read more about what’s new in SQL Server 2019 in our documentation.

SQL Server 2019 support in Azure Data Studio

Expanded support for more data workloads in SQL Server requires expanded tooling. As Microsoft has worked with users of its data platform we have seen the coming together of previously disparate personas: database administrators, data scientists, data developers, data analysts, and new roles still being defined. These users increasingly want to use the same tools to work together, seamlessly, across on-premises and cloud, using relational and unstructured data, working with OLTP, ETL, analytics, and streaming workloads.

Azure Data Studio offers a modern editor experience with lightning fast IntelliSense, code snippets, source control integration, and an integrated terminal. It is engineered with the data platform user in mind, with built-in charting of query result sets, an integrated notebook, and customizable dashboards. Azure Data Studio currently offers built-in support for SQL Server on-premises and Azure SQL Database, along with preview support for Azure SQL Managed Instance and Azure SQL Data Warehouse.

Azure Data Studio is today shipping a new SQL Server 2019 Preview Extension to add support for select SQL Server 2019 features. The extension offers connectivity and tooling for SQL Server big data clusters, including a preview of the first ever notebook experience in the SQL Server toolset, and a new PolyBase Create External Table wizard that makes accessing data from remote SQL Server and Oracle instances easy and fast.

Getting started

Find additional resources and get started today by visiting the links below:

• Preview SQL Server 2019 for Windows, Linux, or Docker.
• Sign up for the Early Adoption Program to get advice and support for your project from SQL Server engineering, or to try SQL Server 2019 big data clusters.
• Download Azure Data Studio to get started with new SQL Server big data features like data virtualizations and notebooks.

The post SQL Server 2019 preview combines SQL Server and Apache Spark to create a unified data platform appeared first on Microsoft SQL Server Blog.

SQL Server

With SQL Server virtual machines, you can use full versions of SQL Server in the cloud without having to manage any on-premises hardware. SQL Server virtual machines also simplify licensing costs when you pay as you go. They run many different geographic regions worldwide and offer a variety of machine sizes.

• Leverage SQL Server by moving to Azure Virtual Machines

As data continues its exponential growth, it’s increasingly important to trim costs and manage risks while ensuring that your users have uninterrupted access. Register for this upcoming session to learn how to get started with SQL Server on Azure virtual machines, migrate your on-premises database to the cloud and use built-in features such as automated backup and patching.

Intelligence (AI)

Infuse your apps, websites, and bots with intelligent algorithms to see, hear, speak, understand, and interpret your user needs through natural methods of communication. The Microsoft AI platform offers a comprehensive set of flexible AI services for any scenario and enterprise-grade AI infrastructure that runs AI workloads anywhere at scale.

• Create Your First Intelligent Bot with Azure AI

Artificial intelligence is accelerating digital transformation across every industry. Join this session with AI experts to learn how to use AI to augment human ingenuity and create the next generation of intelligent applications. We will dive into the tools, infrastructure, and services available as part of the Microsoft Azure AI platform and show you how to teach your bot to use prebuilt AI capabilities in computer vision, speech, and translation.

Big Data and Analytics

Deliver better experiences and make better decisions by analyzing massive amounts of data in real time. Get the insight you need to deliver intelligent actions that improve customer engagement, increase revenue, and lower costs.

• Making R-based Analytics Easier and More Scalable

R is an increasingly popular programming language for running predictive analytics workloads. For analytics practitioners looking to scale out R-based advanced analytics to big data, Azure Databricks starts in seconds, integrates with RStudio, and automatically executes R workloads at unprecedented scale across single or multiple nodes. View this session to see how to get the ideal dataset for your needs.

• Enterprise Data Curation for the AI Future

The insights gathered from AI provide a competitive advantage in the digital marketplace. Watch this session from GigaOm Research and Microsoft to explore AI’s impending impact on the world, learn what organizations need to do to prepare for building AI solutions, and experience how you can build a data platform to bring together all kinds of data.

The post Cloud Data and AI Services training roundup September 2018 appeared first on Microsoft SQL Server Blog.

SQL Database

Azure SQL Database is the intelligent, fully managed relational cloud database service that provides the broadest SQL Server engine compatibility, so you can migrate your SQL Server databases without changing your apps. Accelerate app development and make maintenance easy and productive using the SQL tools you love to use. Here’s a rundown of recent and upcoming training sessions to help you learn more.

Upgrade Your Data Estate to the New Azure SQL Database Managed Instance

Getting ahead means embracing digital transformation to leverage the cloud. As you take your first steps toward modernization, it’s critical to ensure that your IT operations are optimized to effectively manage growth. Our new fully managed relational database-as-a-service solution lets you lift and shift your SQL Server instances with no application code changes. Register for this session to learn how to start your migration journey.

Optimize Your Performance with Azure SQL Database

If you are looking to take steps to optimize your database performance at minimal cost, this session is for you. We highlight some of the capabilities of Azure SQL Database that will help with this process, including (1) dynamic resource scaling: understanding how to scale when needed, (2) database performance features: in-memory technologies designed to help you make the most of your existing resources, and (3) tips for intelligent monitoring and tuning. Before you pay for more resources, watch this session to ensure you’re getting the most out of the ones you already have.

Intelligence (AI)

Infuse your apps, websites, and bots with intelligent algorithms to see, hear, speak, understand, and interpret your user needs through natural methods of communication. The Microsoft AI platform offers a comprehensive set of flexible AI services for any scenario and enterprise-grade AI infrastructure that runs AI workloads anywhere at scale.

Develop Bots with Microsoft’s Bot Builder SDK

Learn to build a great conversationalist. The Microsoft Bot Framework provides just what you need to build and connect intelligent bots that interact naturally wherever your users are talking, including text/SMS, Skype, Slack, and Office 365 email. Watch this training for demos and details about the Bot Builder SDK component of the framework which provides a familiar way for .NET and Node.js developers to build bots.

Big data and analytics

Deliver better experiences and make better decisions by analyzing massive amounts of data in real time. Get the insight you need to deliver intelligent actions that improve customer engagement, increase revenue, and lower costs.

How Big Data Gives Your Applications an Edge

Learn to take advantage of relational and non-relational data created by applications, as well as data available through third parties, marketplaces, and social applications. In this demo-heavy training session, you’ll get a close look at Azure’s big data and advanced analytics capabilities. Watch this session and we’ll show you how to build a big data processing pipeline to ingest and process massive volumes of data, extract business insights from unstructured data and apply real-time analytics to get instant updates.

The post Cloud data and AI services training roundup May 2018 appeared first on Microsoft SQL Server Blog.

Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) enables IT professionals to build semantic models over large, integrated managed datasets for end-user consumption. SSAS runs on Windows and is part of the larger suite of SQL Server’s BI offerings. SSAS 2017 brings a host of new connectivity and modeling features for comprehensive, enterprise-scale analytic solutions delivering actionable insights.

SSAS 2017 introduces the 1400 compatibility level. Here are just some highlights of the new features:

• New infrastructure for data connectivity and ingestion into tabular models with support for TOM APIs and TMSL scripting. This enables support for a range of additional data sources, and data transformation and mashup capabilities.
• Support for BI tools such as Microsoft Excel enables drill-down to detailed data from an aggregated report. For example, when end-users view total sales for a region and month, they can view the associated order details.
• Object-level security to secure table and column names in addition to the data within them.
• Enhanced support for ragged hierarchies such as organizational charts and chart of accounts.
• Various other improvements for performance, monitoring, and consistency with the Power BI modeling experience.

To benefit from the new features for models at the 1400 compatibility level, you’ll need to download and install SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) 17.0 from documentation.

In SSDT, you can select the new 1400 compatibility level when creating new tabular model projects. Alternatively, you can upgrade an existing tabular model by selecting the Model.bim file in Solution Explorer and setting the Compatibility Level to 1400 in the Properties window. Models at the 1400 compatibility level cannot be downgraded to lower compatibility levels.

New infrastructure for data connectivity

1400 models introduce a new infrastructure for data connectivity and ingestion into tabular models with support for TOM APIs and TMSL scripting. This is based on the similar Power Query functionality in Power BI Desktop and Microsoft Excel 2016. For more information, please refer to the Analysis Services Team blog.

Detail Rows

A much-requested feature for tabular models is the ability to define a custom row set contributing to a measure value. Multidimensional models achieve this by using drillthrough and rowset actions. This allows end-users to view information in more detail than the aggregated level.

For example, the following PivotTable shows Internet Total Sales by year from the Adventure Works sample tabular model. Users can right-click the cell for 2010 and then select the Show Details menu option to view the detail rows.

By default, all the columns in the Internet Sales table are displayed. This behavior is often not meaningful for the user because too many columns may be shown, and the table may not have the necessary columns to show useful information such as customer name and order information.

Detail Rows Expression Property for Measures

1400 models introduce the Detail Rows Expression property for measures. It allows the modeler to customize the columns and rows returned to the end user. The following example uses the DAX Editor in SSDT to define the columns to be returned for the Internet Total Sales measure.

With the property defined and the model deployed, the custom row set is returned when the user selects Show Details. It automatically honors the filter context of the cell that was selected. In this example, only the rows for 2010 value are displayed.

Further information on Detail Rows is available our blog post, What’s new for SQL Server vNext on Windows CTP 1.1 for Analysis Services.

Object-Level Security

Roles in tabular models support a granular list of permissions, and row-level filters to help protect sensitive data. 1400 models introduce table- and column-level security allowing sensitive table and column names to be protected in addition to the data within them. Collectively these features are referred to as object-level security (OLS).

The following example uses the Role Manager in SSDT to protect sensitive employee information. Unauthorized users cannot access the selected columns using client tools like Power BI and Excel Pivot Tables. Additionally, such users cannot query the columns using DAX or MDX, or measures that refer to them.

Further information on OLS is available in a recent post, titled, What’s new in SQL Server 2017 CTP 2.0 for Analysis Services.

Ragged Hierarchies

Tabular models with previous compatibility levels can be used to model parent-child hierarchies. Hierarchies with a differing number of levels are referred to as ragged hierarchies. An example of a ragged hierarchy is an organizational chart. By default, ragged hierarchies are displayed with blanks for levels below the lowest child. This can look untidy to users, as shown by this organizational chart in Adventure Works:

1400 models introduce the Hide Members property to correct this. Simply set the Hide Members property to Hide blank members.

With the property set and the model deployed, the more presentable version of the hierarchy is displayed.

Other Features

Various other features such as the following are introduced with the 1400 compatibility level. For more information, please refer to the Analysis Services Team blogs, What’s new for SQL Server vNext on Windows CTP 1.1 for Analysis Services and What’s new in SQL Server 2017 CTP 2.0 for Analysis Services.

• Transaction-performance improvements for a more responsive developer experience.
• Dynamic Management View improvements enabling dependency analysis and reporting.
• Date relationships to easily create relationships to date dimensions based on date columns.
• DAX enhancements to make DAX more accessible and powerful. These include the IN operator, and table and row constructors.

The post Analysis Services Innovations in SQL Server 2017 appeared first on Microsoft SQL Server Blog.

Key CTP 2.1 enhancements

The primary enhancement to SQL Server 2017 in this release is the ability to configure SQL Server configuration settings through environment variables passed in as parameters to docker run. This enables many of the SQL Server configuration scenarios in Docker containers such as setting the collation.

For additional detail on CTP 2.1, please visit What’s New in SQL Server 2017, Release Notes and Linux documentation.

SQL Server Integration Services on Linux

SQL Server Integration Services now supports Linux for the first time! Today we are also releasing a preview of SQL Server Integration Services for Ubuntu. The preview enables you to run SSIS packages on the Linux OS, extract data from and load it to most common sources and targets, and perform common transformations. It has a simple command line installation. For more information, see our SSIS blog.

Updated SQL Server Tooling

The latest release of SQL Server Management Studio is out! It features improvements to how it works with SQL Server on Linux so make sure you have the latest. In addition, we are excited to announce the public preview availability of two new command line tools for SQL Server:

• The mssql-scripter tool enables developers, DBAs, and sysadmins to generate CREATE and INSERT T-SQL scripts for database objects in SQL Server, Azure SQL DB, and Azure SQL DW from the command line.
• The DBFS tool enables DBAs and sysadmins to monitor SQL Server more easily by exposing live data from SQL Server Dynamic Management Views (DMVs) as virtual files in a virtual directory on Linux operating systems.

New lightweight installer for SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS)

In CTP 2.1, we moved Reporting Services installation from the SQL Server installer to a separate installer. This is a packaging change, not a product change; access to SQL Server Reporting Services is still included with your SQL Server license. The new installation process keeps our packages lean and enables customers to deploy and update Reporting Services with zero impact on your SQL Server deployments and databases.

To learn more about what’s new in SQL Server 2017 Reporting Services preview, read our Reporting Services Release Notes. To download the latest preview in the new lightweight installer, go to https://aka.ms/ssrs2017download

To learn more about the recent announcement of a Power BI Report Server preview, which includes the capabilities of SQL Server 2017 Reporting Services and support for Power BI reports, you can read this blog article.

Get SQL Server 2017 CTP 2.1 today!

Try the preview of the SQL Server 2017 today! Get started with the preview of SQL Server with our updated developer tutorials that show you how to install and use SQL Server 2017 on macOS, Docker, Windows, and Linux and quickly build an app in a programming language of your choice.

• Register to attend an Engineering Town Hall about Client Tools (May 25) or Backup (June 8)
• Watch our recent Security and Monitoring town halls on-demand
• Install on Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Install on Ubuntu Linux
• Install on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
• Pull and run a Linux Docker container on Linux, Windows, or macOS
• Download the preview for Windows
• Sign up for the Early Adoption Program (EAP), designed to help customers and partners evaluate new features in SQL Server 2017, and to build and deploy applications for SQL Server 2017 on Windows and Linux.

Have questions? Join the discussion of SQL Server 2017 at MSDN. If you run into an issue or would like to make a suggestion, you can let us know through Connect. We look forward to hearing from you!

The post SQL Server 2017 CTP 2.1 now available appeared first on Microsoft SQL Server Blog.

Today Microsoft announced Power BI Premium — a capacity-based licensing model that increases flexibility for how users access, share and distribute content in Power BI. The new offering also introduces the ability to manage Power BI Reports on-premises with the included Power BI Report Server.

Power BI Report Server will be generally available late in the second quarter of 2017.

Read the Power BI Report Server announcement and learn more about Power BI Report Server on the Power BI website.

The post Announcing Power BI Report Server appeared first on Microsoft SQL Server Blog.

1. Seamless step-up without rewriting apps. Thanks to November’s SQL Server 2016 Service Pack 1 (SP1), SQL Server now has one programming surface across all editions. If you switch from Express to Standard, or Standard to Enterprise, you don’t have to rework code to take advantage of additional features. Time saved! In addition, the change brings access to innovative features across performance, security, and analytics not previously available in Express or Standard—a great reason to upgrade applications that run on those editions. The Enterprise edition of SQL Server 2016 continues to set the industry benchmark in terms of price, performance, and scalability at unparalleled TCO.
2. Take back your weekend. With SQL Server 2016 you won’t have to wait for weekends or after-hours to run analytical workloads. You don’t have to wait until you can extract, transform, and load (ETL) the data to your Enterprise Data Warehouse, either. Now you can run your analytics workloads simultaneously on your operational data, without losing performance, by using in-memory OLTP tables and in-memory columnstore together. This process can provide real-time operational analytics, also known as hybrid transactional/analytics processing (HTAP). Get even more from your data with in-database advanced analytics using R statistical language, so you can model and score quickly and at scale with native integration in SQL Server’s T-SQL query language. Read all the details here.
3. Unparalleled level of data security. Rest easy, you don’t need to lose sleep over potential breaches when your data is Always Encrypted—whether at rest or in motion. With SQL Server 2016 and Azure SQL Database, your database data remains encrypted at all times; at rest, during computation, and while processing queries. This is in addition to row-level security and new dynamic data-masking capabilities built-in.
4. Free your users from their desks. Take a trip, work from home, or linger over lunch—Mobile BI in SQL Server 2016 has got you covered. You can get your critical business insights in rich and beautiful reports anywhere, anytime, online and offline, and on any device (IOS, Android, and Windows). Learn more about end-to-end mobile BI here.
5. Upgrade without headaches. Upgrading from older versions doesn’t need to be painful. We’ve created a painless Data Migration Assistant for upgrading to SQL Server 2016 as well as Azure SQL Database. You can read all the details here, but the short version is that you can now migrate your data from an old SQL Server version to a new one, plus get help finding and fixing breaking changes from earlier versions.

Now that you’re up to speed on the benefits of SQL Server 2016, find out what’s coming next by joining us for the upcoming Data Amp online event on Wednesday, April 19, 2017. This online event begins at 8 a.m. Pacific Time and will feature keynotes by Scott Guthrie, executive vice president, Microsoft Cloud and Enterprise Group, and Joseph Sirosh, corporate vice president, Microsoft Data Group, who will demonstrate how innovations in data, intelligence, and analytics are driving digital transformation. We’ll be making important announcements and showing off the latest tech that can get the most out of your data and give you a competitive edge, so you don’t want to miss it.

Register for Data Amp today.

The post The top 5 reasons to upgrade to SQL Server 2016 appeared first on Microsoft SQL Server Blog.

In its most recent Agile BI Wave report, Forrester Research shows Microsoft BI moving all the way to the upper right, as a leader in BI. Forrester says that with Microsoft BI innovations, the “sleeping giant” has awoken.” In fact, Phillips notes that Power BI makes Microsoft the world’s fastest growing visualization platform, with more than 185 countries signing up for—and truly using—Power BI. Microsoft is passionate about making Power BI quick, easy, and free so that customers have the experience of “five minutes to sign-up; five minutes to WOW!” with Power BI.

With all the insights into customer and business activity available in today’s digital world, BI is a requirement for success. Check out this informative and fascinating video and find out how Microsoft is acting on the fact that “software is the greatest driving force in bringing business closer to customers … [and] software makes data…Organizations that turn data into value through insights will thrive.”

Click here to learn about currently available BI capabilities and how they fit together to form an unmatched solution that’s moving forward and an unmatched pace to deliver insights.

The post Microsoft Business Intelligence PASS keynote: Five minutes to sign up; five minutes to WOW! appeared first on Microsoft SQL Server Blog.

In SQL Server 2016 CTP 3.2, available for download today, you will see enhancements in several areas, including:

SQL Server Reporting Services – End-to-end mobile BI on any device

The SQL Server 2016 CTP 3.2 release marks a significant milestone for SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) as we continue to deliver on our Microsoft BI reporting roadmap and the promise to enable users to get business insights, anyway, anywhere and from any device.

In this preview release, we are adding support for mobile reports to SQL Server Reporting Services for on-premises implementations. This means that Reporting Services will be able to support two report types, paginated reports, which are the existing Reporting Services reports and mobile reports, which are based on Datazen technology that was acquired in April of 2015.

Mobile reports are optimized for mobile devices and form factors and provide an optimal experience for users accessing BI reports on mobile devices. With SQL Server 2016 CTP 3.2, you can author and manage mobile reports for easy consumption by users across your organization online and on mobile devices.

Author interactive mobile reports

Microsoft SQL Server Mobile Report Publisher is the single point for creation of mobile reports. You can simply connect to SQL Server Reporting Services to access data sources and easily create stunning reports, then publish them to SQL Server Reporting Services for access by others in the organization via a unified web experience or on mobile devices.

Microsoft SQL Server Mobile Report Publisher preview is available for download from the Microsoft Download Center.

Consume mobile reports using a unified Mobile BI experience

Whether you are using SQL Server Reporting Services on-premises, Power BI in the cloud, or both as your report delivery solution you will only need one mobile app (for each of Windows, iOS and Android) to access dashboards and mobile reports on mobile devices.

Starting with the Power BI app for iOS all of your BI content will be available at your fingertips from within one single, unified mobile app. The Power BI app for iOS that includes a preview of the SSRS mobile reporting capabilities is available from the App Store.

New Web portal experience

The addition of the mobile report type in SQL Server Reporting Services is accompanied with an entirely new web portal experience allowing users to access KPIs, paginated and mobile reports in one centralized location.

Ready to learn more about these exciting new capabilities and explore the opportunities and scenarios it can enable for you and your organization? Download the CTP 3.2 release today and check out this SSRS blog post to find out how your organization can get business insights, any way, anywhere and from any device.

Additional enhancements

SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) features improvements to the XEvents wizard to allow the use of templates when connected to an Azure v12 server, user interface improvements to AlwaysEncrypted wizards and dialogs, an improvement to the Results pane to enable switching to the results tab after query execution, and updates to the Showplan comparison feature to enable comparison of the current execution plan with one saved in a file. Please visit the SSMS blog post to learn more.

SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) updates allow scripting in SSMS, creation of calculated tables, and DirectQuery for models with the 1200 compatibility level. Please visit the SSAS team blog post to learn more.

SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) now includes enhancements for the new connection experience for Microsoft SQL Server and Azure SQL Database which was introduced in the CTP 3.1, as well as programmability support for SQL Server 2016 CTP3.2 features and enhancements in SQL Server Analysis Services.  Please visit the SSDT team blog post to learn more.

SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) enhancements include HDFS-to-HDFS copy support, as well as Hadoop connectivity improvements, including ARVO file format support and Kerberos authentication support.

Download SQL Server 2016 CTP 3.2 today!

As the foundation of our end-to-end data platform, SQL Server 2016 is the biggest leap forward in Microsoft’s data platform history with real-time operational analytics, rich visualizations on mobile devices, built-in advanced analytics, new advanced security technology, and both on-premises and in the cloud.

To learn more about SQL Server 2016, visit the SQL Server 2016 preview page. To experience the new, exciting features in SQL Server 2016 and the new rapid release model, download the preview and start evaluating the impact these new innovations can have for your business.

Have questions? Join the discussion on the new SQL Server 2016 capabilities at MSDN and StackOverflow. If you run into an issue or would like to make a suggestion, you can let us know through Connect. We look forward to hearing from you!

For additional information about CTP 3.2, see What’s New in SQL Server 2016 and SQL Server 2016 Release Notes.

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