As of today, July 14, 2026, SQL Server 2016 has reached end of support.

For the past decade, SQL Server 2016 has helped organizations run mission-critical applications and support the data needs of their business. Whether it was end-to-end encryption with Always Encrypted or performance improvements with In-Memory OLTP, SQL Server 2016 was shaped by evolving data platform needs and what we heard directly from customers like you.

Last year, we shared guidance on how to prepare for this milestone: Protect and modernize SQL Server 2016 workloads with Microsoft. Now, after 10 years of powering innovation, the focus shifts to what comes next.

Beyond end of support: Setting up your data platform for what’s next

For organizations running SQL Server 2016, this transition is an opportunity to improve how your database environment operates. Moving to a modern platform can help reduce operational overhead, avoid recurring upgrade cycles, and simplify database management. It can also support new scenarios such as advanced analytics and AI-driven applications built on operational data.

Organizations are already taking action by moving to Azure SQL or upgrading their SQL Server. The Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) upgraded to SQL Server 2025 to modernize its SQL Server deployment and streamline how operational data flows into Microsoft Fabric, enabling faster analytics and data-driven decision-making across its global operations.

SQL Server plays a key role in powering our systems, enabling us to operate at scale and deliver on our promise to customers everywhere.

—Javier Villegas, IT Director for Database Administration and Business Intelligence Services, MSC

Assessing your options for end-of-support workloads

For organizations that still run on SQL Server 2016, there are three paths that help you stay protected while planning the next phase of your data platform modernization:

1. Move to Azure SQL: Modernize your data platform using Azure SQL, helping you reduce operational overhead and remove the need for ongoing upgrades. (Best to avoid future upgrade cycles.)
2. Upgrade to SQL Server 2025: Move to the latest version of SQL Server with enhanced performance, security, and AI capabilities. (Best for keeping your databases on premises or in hybrid cloud.)
3. Deploy Extended Security Updates (ESU): Get critical security updates for SQL Server 2016 while you’re planning a transition. (Best for short-term protection while planning next steps.)

Each path offers a way to maintain security and compliance while planning long-term business and infrastructure goals. Here’s what each of these options would mean in practice:

Option 1: Move to Azure SQL

Moving to Azure SQL provides a managed approach to updating your SQL Server environment. Azure SQL platform-as-a-service (PaaS) services handle patching and backups, provide high availability, and come with built-in version updates, allowing your team to focus less on infrastructure management and more on delivering value.

For many SQL Server 2016 workloads, Azure SQL PaaS provides a path to reduce ongoing maintenance and automate resiliency, scalability, and security. With strong backward compatibility, applications can be migrated with minimal changes in most scenarios—and where updates are required, GitHub Copilot can help accelerate code changes and modernization efforts.

Azure supports multiple options depending on your migration and modernization goals:

1. Azure SQL Database: A managed database service designed for modern applications. Azure SQL Database Hyperscale enables independent scaling of compute and storage to handle growing data and workloads without changing your application. (Choose this if you don’t need instance-level features and want a simpler, app-focused model that can flexibly scale as your data grows.)
2. Azure SQL Managed Instance: A SQL Server-compatible service that supports your existing workloads with minimal changes, enabling easier migration and reducing the need to manage your infrastructure. (Choose this if you want the closest PaaS experience to SQL Server with minimal application changes.)
3. SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines: A flexible option for running SQL Server in Azure while retaining full control over your SQL environment and operating system, including custom configurations and dependencies. (Choose this if you use software, configurations, or third-party components that require a specific SQL Server version or instance-level control of your SQL Server.)

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Option 2: Upgrade to SQL Server 2025

Upgrading to SQL Server 2025 allows you to stay on a supported platform while bringing modern capabilities directly into your existing on-premises or hybrid environments.

SQL Server 2025 is built to support evolving application and data needs, helping teams modernize while preparing for AI-driven scenarios. It includes new and improved capabilities such as:

• Performance and engine improvements: Optimizations across query processing, indexing, and concurrency help improve performance and stability for high-volume transactional workloads.
• Security and data protection: Built on the existing SQL Server security model with continued investments in encryption, access control, and compliance support for regulated environments.
• Built-in AI: Comes with native support for vector search and semantic workflows, enabling AI-driven applications directly on operational data without requiring separate data pipelines.
• Integration with Microsoft Fabric: Enables mirroring of operational data into analytics environments for near real-time insights, without impacting core transactional workloads.

This path is especially relevant for organizations powering large-scale applications or complex data environments where control, performance, and consistency are essential. It allows you to modernize in place, retain your existing infrastructure, and prepare your platform for the next generation of applications without requiring the shift to a new operating model.

Option 3: Deploy Extended Security Updates (ESU)

Some migrations take time, and we understand that not every environment can move immediately. Extended Security Updates (ESU) provide a short-term option to maintain security coverage for SQL Server 2016 after end of support, helping reduce risk while you plan and execute your next step.

Extended Security Updates are available for workloads running in Azure, including SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines and Azure VMware Solution, and for on-premises and multi-cloud environments through Azure Arc. They are offered as a paid program to extend security coverage while modernization work is underway.

This option is best suited for environments with application dependencies, testing requirements, or migration complexity that require additional time. Extended Security Updates are designed as a temporary bridge that helps you maintain your existing operations while you move to a supported platform like Azure SQL or SQL Server 2025.

Take the next step

As you plan this transition, there are clear paths to stay secure and move forward based on your environment and priorities. Whether you choose to modernize on Azure, upgrade to SQL Server 2025, or use Extended Security Updates as a bridge, taking a structured approach will allow you to reduce risk and ensure continuity.

If you need help evaluating your options or getting started, reach out to your Microsoft representative to explore the right path forward for your environment.

Resources

Explore the following resources to help you plan your next steps:

Migrate SQL Server workloads to Azure

• Azure SQL Database: Explore a cloud-native database platform for modern applications.
• Azure SQL Managed Instance: Learn how to migrate SQL Server workloads with minimal changes.
• Azure Database Migration Service: Assess, plan, and migrate SQL Server workloads to Azure.

Upgrade SQL Server to a supported version

• SQL Server 2025: Explore features, performance improvements, and AI capabilities in the latest release.
• Upgrade SQL Server using SQL Server Management Studio: Step-by-step guidance for upgrading SQL Server versions.
• AI capabilities in SQL Server: Learn about vector search, semantic processing, and AI scenarios in SQL Server.

Extended Security Updates (ESU)

• Extended Security Updates overview: Understand ESU coverage, timelines, and how to apply updates.
• SQL Server 2016: Stay Protected While You Modernize: Maintain your existing workloads while you upgrade or modernize.

The post SQL Server 2016 end of support is here: Plan your next steps 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.

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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.

The Microsoft Connector for Oracle enables data export from and import into Oracle databases within an SSIS package. This feature, available in Enterprise editions of SQL Server 2019 and 2022, will remain functional for the lifecycle of the SQL Server product. However, support for this feature will officially end on July 4, 2025. With the deprecation, future product releases will provide no further bug fixes. Additionally, it will not be supported from SQL Server 2025 and onwards.

Today, customers are leveraging the Microsoft Connector for Oracle in a variety of scenarios, including integrating Oracle data with other sources and supporting ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) processes to gain valuable insights. We recommend that customers use the SSIS ADO.NET Source and ADO.NET Destination components as the primary alternative solution to the Microsoft Connector for Oracle.

These SSIS ADO.NET components offer similar ETL capabilities for connecting Oracle databases with a .NET provider, specifically the OracleClient Data Provider, to connect, transfer, and transform your data efficiently. For further detailed instructions, please refer to the step-by-step guide.

If you need any assistance, please contact Microsoft Support.

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Exploring best-in-class connectivity to Oracle with Microsoft Fabric 

The announcement of the deprecation of the SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) Microsoft Connector for Oracle also presents an opportunity to explore new solutions for modern data integration with Oracle.

Microsoft Fabric is an end-to-end analytics and data platform designed for enterprises that require a unified solution. It encompasses data movement, processing, ingestion, transformation, real-time event routing, and report building. It offers a comprehensive suite of services including Data Engineering, Data Factory, Data Science, Real-Time Analytics, Data Warehouse, and Databases. 

Data Factory in Microsoft Fabric offers a modern data integration experience with Oracle databases, allowing reading from Oracle databases on-premises or behind a virtual network, and writing to any data destination.

Mirroring in Microsoft Fabric allows users to enjoy a highly integrated, end-to-end, and easy-to-use product that is designed to simplify your analytics needs. You can continuously replicate your existing data estate directly into Fabric’s OneLake, which can be used for all your analytical needs. This feature allows businesses to continuously integrate their existing data estate without complex ETL. 

Let’s explore the details of each of the approaches below. 

Oracle connectivity with Data Factory

Data Factory in Microsoft Fabric provides a modern data integration experience to ingest, prepare, and transform data from a rich set of data sources. It incorporates the simplicity of Power Query, and you can use more than 200 native connectors to connect to data sources on-premises and in the cloud.

One of the powerful features of Data Factory is its ability to configure and manage Oracle database connections in a copy activity. This functionality allows organizations to seamlessly integrate their Oracle databases into their data pipelines, ensuring efficient data movement and transformation. Configure Oracle database in a copy activity provides comprehensive instructions on how to perform this configuration. 

You can leverage the on-premises data gateway to securely connect to your on-premises Oracle database. This gateway acts as a bridge, enabling seamless data movement between on-premises data sources and cloud services. For detailed instructions, please refer to move data from Oracle to Fabric Lakehouse via pipeline and on-premises data gateway.

Replicating Oracle data into Fabric’s OneLake with Mirroring 

Mirroring in Microsoft Fabric offers a modern approach to seamlessly accessing and ingesting data from any database or data warehouse into OneLake in Microsoft Fabric. This feature allows businesses to continuously integrate their existing data estate without complex ETL processes. 

Open Mirroring in Fabric is extensible, customizable, and built on the open Delta Lake table format. It enables applications and data ISVs (Independent Software Vendors) to write change data directly into a mirrored database in Fabric using public APIs (Application Programming Interface). Once the data lands in OneLake, Open Mirroring handles complex data changes, ensuring all mirrored data remains continuously up-to-date and ready for analysis. 

We are thrilled to see Oracle Golden Gate streamline the delivery of mirroring solutions in Microsoft Fabric by integrating their data solution into Open Mirroring. As a key partner in our Open Mirroring ecosystem, Oracle Golden Gate offers a powerful and seamless approach to data replication, enabling continuous and efficient integration of data into Microsoft Fabric’s OneLake. This partnership highlights our commitment to providing modern, extensible solutions that simplify data integration and drive value for our customers. 

Simplifying Oracle to SQL Server Migration: Leveraging Microsoft SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA)

Additionally, if you are looking to migrate Oracle Database to SQL Server, Microsoft SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) is a tool designed to automate database migration. SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) for Oracle is a comprehensive environment that helps you quickly migrate Oracle databases to SQL Server, Azure SQL Database. The Oracle to SQL Server migration guide provides detailed instructions on how to migrate your Oracle database to SQL Server using SSMA for Oracle. This comprehensive guide ensures a smooth transition, minimizing disruptions and maximizing efficiency.

Looking forward

The deprecation of the SSIS Microsoft Connector for Oracle offers an opportunity to explore and implement more advanced and robust data integration solutions. By considering the ADO.NET components, Microsoft Fabric, or Microsoft SQL Server Migration Assistant for Oracle, organizations can ensure continued efficiency and reliability in their data integration processes. Each of these alternatives brings unique benefits, allowing businesses to choose the one that best aligns with their operational requirements and strategic goals. 

As the landscape of data integration evolves, staying informed about the latest tools and technologies will be crucial for maintaining a competitive edge and achieving seamless data connectivity. By proactively addressing the deprecation and selecting the appropriate alternative, organizations can continue to leverage their data assets effectively and drive business success. 

Resources 

Learn more about Data Factory in Microsoft Fabric and Oracle to SQL Server migration

• Load data from or into Oracle database—SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) | Microsoft Learn 

• What is Microsoft Fabric—Microsoft Fabric | Microsoft Learn

• Data Factory in Microsoft Fabric documentation—Microsoft Fabric | Microsoft Learn 

• Configure Oracle database in a copy activity—Microsoft Fabric | Microsoft Learn 

• Move data from Oracle to Fabric Lakehouse via pipeline and on-premises data gateway—Microsoft Fabric | Microsoft Learn 

• Mirroring—Microsoft Fabric | Microsoft Learn

• Introducing Open Mirroring in Microsoft Fabric | Microsoft Fabric Blog | Microsoft Fabric 

• Open Mirroring (Preview) Partner Ecosystem—Microsoft Fabric | Microsoft Learn

• Oracle to SQL Server: Migration guide—SQL Server | Microsoft Learn

• Migrating Oracle Databases to SQL Server (OracleToSQL)—SQL Server | Microsoft Learn

The post SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) Microsoft Connector for Oracle deprecation  appeared first on Microsoft SQL Server Blog.

Microsoft SQL Server 2025, now in preview, is an enterprise AI-ready database from ground to cloud that tackles these challenges by bringing AI to customers’ data. This release continues SQL Server’s three decades of innovation in performance and security, adding new AI capabilities. With Microsoft Fabric integration, customers can bring their data into the next generation of data analytics. The release supports hybrid environments across clouds, on-premises datacenters, and edge, leveraging Microsoft Azure innovation for customers’ databases.

Over the years, SQL Server has transcended well beyond a traditional relational database. With the latest release of SQL Server, we’re enabling customers to build AI applications deeply integrated with the SQL engine. SQL Server 2025 is transforming into a vector database in its own right, using the built-in filtering capabilities along with a vector search, with great performance and is easily consumable by developers using T-SQL.

AI built-in

This new version has AI built-in, simplifying AI application development and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) patterns with secure, performant, and easy-to-use vector support, leveraging familiar T-SQL syntax. With this new capability, you can combine vectors with your SQL data for a hybrid AI vector search.

Build AI applications with your enterprise database

SQL Server 2025 is an enterprise-ready vector database with built-in security and compliance, bringing enterprise AI to your data. It features a native vector store and index powered by DiskANN, a vector search technology using disk storage to efficiently find similar data points in large datasets. These databases efficiently support chunking and enable accurate data retrieval through semantic searching. In this latest SQL Server version, flexible AI model management within the engine using Representational State Transfer (REST) interfaces allows you to use AI models from ground to cloud.

In addition, whether customers are working on data preprocessing, model training, or RAG patterns, extensible, low-code tools offer flexible model interfaces within the SQL engine, supported by T-SQL and external REST endpoints. These tools enhance developers’ ability to create various AI applications through seamless integration with popular AI frameworks like LangChain, Semantic Kernel, and Entity Framework Core.

Boost developer productivity

When building data-intensive applications such as AI applications, it’s critical to focus on extensibility, frameworks, and data enrichment to enhance developers’ productivity. We ensure SQL will provide a best-in-class experience for developers by incorporating features such as REST API support, GraphQL integration through Data API Builder, and Regular Expression enablement. Additionally, native JSON support enables developers to more effectively deal with frequently changing schema and hierarchical data, facilitating the creation of more dynamic applications. Overall, we’re enhancing SQL development to be more extensible, performant, and user-friendly. All functionalities are underpinned by the security provided by the SQL Server engine, making it a truly enterprise-ready platform for AI.

Best-in-class security and performance

SQL Server 2025 is an industry leader in database security and performance. Support for Microsoft Entra managed identities improves credential management, reduces potential vulnerabilities, and provides compliance and auditing capabilities. SQL Server 2025 introduces outbound authentication support for MSI (Managed Service Identity) for SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc.

We’re also introducing performance and availability enhancements, extensively battle-tested on Microsoft Azure SQL, to SQL Server. In the new version you can boost workload performance and reduce troubleshooting with enhanced query optimization and query performance execution. Optional Parameter Plan Optimization (OPPO) is designed to enable SQL Server to choose the optimal execution plan based on customer-provided runtime parameter values and to significantly reduce bad parameter sniffing problems that can exist in workloads. Persisted statistics on secondary replicas prevent the loss of statistics during a restart or failover, thereby avoiding potential performance degradation. Regarding query execution, the improvements in batch mode processing and columnstore indexing further establish SQL Server as a mission-critical database for analytical workloads.   

Optimized locking reduces lock memory consumption and minimizes 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. 

Change event streaming for SQL Server brings real-time application integration with event driven architectures, command query responsibility segregation, and real-time intelligence. This will add new database engine capabilities to capture and publish incremental changes to data and schema to a provided destination such as Azure Event Hubs and Kafka in near real-time.

Microsoft Fabric and Azure Arc connected

In traditional data warehouse and data lake scenarios, integrating all your data involves designing, monitoring, and managing complex ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) processes to transfer operational data from SQL Server. These traditional methods do not support real-time data transfer, resulting in latency that prevents the creation of real-time analytics. Microsoft Fabric offers comprehensive, integrated, and AI-enhanced data analytics services designed to meet modern requirements of analytical workloads. Mirrored SQL Server Database in Fabric is a fully managed, resilient process that simplifies SQL Server data replication to Microsoft OneLake in near real-time. Mirroring will enable customers to continuously replicate data from SQL Server databases running on Azure virtual machines or outside of Azure, serving online transaction processing (OLTP) or operational store workloads directly into OneLake in order to facilitate analytics and insights on the unified Fabric data platform.

Azure continues to be a critical component of SQL Server. With Azure Arc, SQL Server 2025 will continue to offer cloud capabilities to enable customers better manage, secure, and govern their SQL estate at scale across on-premises and cloud. Capabilities like automatic patching, automatic backups, monitoring, and Best Practices Assessment offer customers more ways to streamline routine tasks and further enhance their business continuity. In addition, Azure Arc simplifies SQL Server licensing by offering a pay-as-you-go option, bringing flexibility and licensing visibility to our customers.

Sign up for the preview today

We’re currently onboarding customers and partners to SQL Server 2025 preview, in advance of general availability in the coming year. 

Register today to apply for the SQL Server 2025 Community Technology Preview (CTP)¹ and stay informed about SQL Server 2025 updates.

Microsoft just announced the upcoming release of SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) 21 Preview 1. This release integrates Microsoft Copilot capabilities into SSMS. The Copilot experience streamlines SQL development by offering real-time suggestions, code completions, and best practice recommendations. If you would like to take part and have an early hands-on experience with this new capability, please use this link to indicate your interest.

¹Some of the new capabilities covered in this blog may not be available in the first CTP version.

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

During recent years, Azure has undergone significant evolution, marked by groundbreaking innovations like Microsoft Fabric and Azure Data Lake Storage. As we continue this journey, it remains imperative to keep evolving our approach on hybrid data storage, ensuring optimal empowerment for our SQL Server customers in leveraging the best from Azure.

Retirement of SQL Server Stretch Database 

On November 16, 2022, the SQL Server Stretch Database feature was deprecated from SQL Server 2022. For in-market versions of SQL Server 2019 and 2017, we had added an improvement that allowed the Stretch Database feature to stretch a table to an Azure SQL Database. Effective July 9, 2024, the supporting Azure service, known as SQL Server Stretch Database edition, is retired. Impacted versions of SQL Server include SQL Server 2022, 2019, 2017, and 2016.  

In July 2024, SQL Server Stretch Database will be discontinued for SQL Server 2022, 2019, 2017, and 2016. We understand that retiring an Azure service may impact your current workload and use of Stretch Database. Therefore, we kindly request that you either migrate to Azure or bring their data back from Azure to your on-premises version of SQL Server. Additionally, if you’re exploring alternatives for archiving data to cold and warm storage in the cloud, we’ve introduced significant new capabilities in SQL Server 2022, leveraging its data virtualization suite. 

The path forward 

SQL Server 2022 supports a concept named CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE AS SELECT (CETaS). It can help customers archive and store cold data to Azure Storage. The data will be stored in an open source file format named Parquet. It operates well with complex data in large volumes. With its performant data compression, it turns out to be one of the most cost-effective data storage solutions. Using OneLake shortcuts, customers then can leverage Microsoft Fabric to realize cloud-scale analytics on archived data.  

Our priority is to empower our SQL Server customers with the tools and services that leverage the latest and greatest from Azure. If you need assistance in exploring how Microsoft can best empower your hybrid data archiving needs, please contact us.

New solution FAQs

What’s CETaS? 

Creates an external table and then exports, in parallel, the results of a Transact-SQL SELECT statement. 

• Azure Synapse Analytics and Analytics Platform System support Hadoop or Azure Blob Storage.
• SQL Server 2022 (16.x) and later versions support CETaS to create an external table and then export, in parallel, the result of a Transact-SQL SELECT statement to Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2, Azure Storage Account v2, and S3-compatible object storage. 

What is Fabric? 

Fabric is an end-to-end analytics and data platform designed for enterprises that require a unified solution. It encompasses data movement, processing, ingestion, transformation, real-time event routing, and report building. Fabric offers a comprehensive suite of services including Data engineering, Data Factory, Data Science, Real-Time Analytics, Data Warehouse, and Databases. 

With Fabric, you don’t need to assemble different services from multiple vendors. Instead, it offers a seamlessly integrated, user-friendly platform that simplifies your analytics requirements. Operating on a software as a service (SaaS) model, Fabric brings simplicity and integration to your solutions. 

Fabric integrates separate components into a cohesive stack. Instead of relying on different databases or data warehouses, you can centralize data storage with Microsoft OneLake. AI capabilities are seamlessly embedded within Fabric, eliminating the need for manual integration. With Fabric, you can easily transition your raw data into actionable insights for business users. 

What is OneLake shortcuts?  

Shortcuts in OneLake allow you to unify your data across domains, clouds, and accounts by creating a single virtual data lake for your entire enterprise. All Fabric experiences and analytical engines can directly connect to your existing data sources such as Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and OneLake through a unified namespace. OneLake manages all permissions and credentials, so you don’t need to separately configure each Fabric workload to connect to each data source. Additionally, you can use shortcuts to eliminate edge copies of data and reduce process latency associated with data copies and staging. 

Shortcuts are objects in OneLake that point to other storage locations. The location can be internal or external to OneLake. The location that a shortcut points to is known as the target path of the shortcut. The location where the shortcut appears is known as the shortcut path. Shortcuts appear as folders in OneLake and any workload or service that has access to OneLake can use them. Shortcuts behave like symbolic links. They’re an independent object from the target. If you delete a shortcut, the target remains unaffected. If you move, rename, or delete a target path, the shortcut can break. 

Learn more 

• Stretch Database
• Deprecated database engine features in SQL Server 2022
• Install an on-premises data gateway
• SQL Server in Microsoft Fabric? Use CETaS to move data!
• OneLake shortcuts
• CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE AS SELECT (CETaS)

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The post Announcing the retirement of SQL Server Stretch Database appeared first on Microsoft SQL Server Blog.

• Change Data Capture (CDC) components by Attunity. This is an integrated extract, transform and load (ETL) feature in Enterprise editions of SQL Server 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2022. As an integrated feature, while such functionality will remain for the lifecycle of the SQL Server product, support for this feature will cease on December 13, 2025.
• Change Data Capture (CDC) service for Oracle by Attunity. This is a stand-alone feature in SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) feature pack for SQL Server 2016, 2017 and 2019.   The support for CDC service for Oracle by Attunity will cease after December 13, 2025.

Customers using these two features are encouraged to modernize to Data Factory in Microsoft Fabric or Azure Data Factory. Customers can use incremental data loading capability from Azure Data Factory. Azure Data Factory can be used for on-premises data sources with a self-hosted integration runtime and is fully compatible with all impacted versions of SQL Server.

Data Factory in Microsoft Fabric enables you to move and transform data from various sources to various destinations. It’s a managed cloud service designed specifically for handling complex hybrid extract-transform-load (ETL), extract-load-transform (ELT), and data integration projects.

If you need any assistance as you plan your CDC modernization please contact Microsoft Support.

Learn more about Data Factory in Microsoft Fabric and Azure Data Factory:

• Incrementally copy data from a source data store to a destination data store—Azure Data Factory | Microsoft Learn
• Incrementally load data from Data Warehouse to Lakehouse—Microsoft Fabric | Microsoft Learn
• Data Pipeline Pricing and FAQ—Data Factory | Microsoft Azure
• Data Factory in Microsoft Fabric documentation—Microsoft Fabric | Microsoft Learn

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s Data Factory in Microsoft Fabric?

Data Factory in Microsoft Fabric is the next generation of Azure Data Factory which provides cloud-scale data movement and data transformation services that allow you to solve the most complex ETL scenarios. It’s intended to make your experience easy to use, powerful, and truly enterprise-grade.  Data Factory empowers you with a modern data integration experience to ingest, prepare and transform data from a rich set of data sources (for example, databases, data warehouse, Lakehouse, real-time data, and more). Whether you are a citizen or professional developer, you will be able to transform the data with intelligent transformations and leverage a rich set of activities. With Data Factory in Microsoft Fabric, we are bringing fast copy (data movement) capabilities to both dataflows and data pipelines. With Fast Copy, you can move data between your favorite data stores blazing fast. Most importantly, Fast Copy enables you to bring data to your Lakehouse and Data Warehouse in Microsoft Fabric for analytics.

What’s Azure Data Factory?

Azure Data Factory is a cloud-based data integration service that allows you to create data-driven workflows in the cloud for orchestrating and automating data movement and data transformation. It is a fully managed, serverless data integration solution for ingesting, preparing, and transforming all your data at scale. With Azure Data Factory, you can visually integrate data sources using more than 90 built-in, maintenance-free connectors. The service enables you to create and schedule data-driven workflows, called pipelines, that can ingest data from disparate data stores. You can build complex ETL processes that transform data visually with data flows or by using compute services such as Azure HDInsight Hadoop, Azure Databricks, and Azure SQL Database.

You can use Azure Data Factory to access and integrate data from on-premises data sources. One way to do this is by using a self-hosted integration runtime, which acts as a bridge between your on-premises data sources and the cloud-based Azure Data Factory service. This allows you to create data-driven workflows that can ingest data from your on-premises data stores and move it to the cloud for further processing and transformation.

How fast can I ingest data in Fabric data pipelines?

Fabric Data Factory allows you to develop pipelines that maximize data movement throughput for your environment. These pipelines fully utilize the following resources:

• Network bandwidth between the source and destination data stores.
• Source or destination data store input/output operations per second (IOPS) and bandwidth This full utilization means you can estimate the overall throughput by measuring the minimum throughput available with the following resources:
  • Source data store
  • Destination data store
• Network bandwidth in between the source and destination data stores Meanwhile, we continuously work on innovations to boost the best possible throughput you can achieve. Today, the service can move 1 TB TPC-DI dataset (parquet files) into both Fabric Lakehouse table and Data Warehouse within five minutes—moving 1 billion rows under one minute; Please note that this performance is only a reference by running the above testing dataset. The actual throughput still depends on the factors listed previously. In addition, you can always multiply your throughput by running multiple copy activities in parallel. For example, using ForEach loop.

Where can I find more training resources to get started?

• Introduction to Azure Data Factory—Training | Microsoft Learn.
• Get started with Microsoft Fabric—Training | Microsoft Learn.
• Create your first Microsoft Fabric dataflow—Microsoft Fabric | Microsoft Learn.
• Create your first data pipeline to copy data—Microsoft Fabric | Microsoft Learn.

The post SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) Change Data Capture Attunity feature deprecations appeared first on Microsoft SQL Server Blog.

Azure Data Studio

A modern open-source, cross-platform hybrid data analytics tool designed to simplify the data landscape.

Learn more

Connectivity

The migration from the Active Directory Authentication Library (ADAL) to Microsoft Authentication Library (MSAL) was a significant undertaking by the team. This was necessary as ADAL support ends in June of this year, and it provides multiple benefits for those environments using Azure Activity Directory (AAD). AAD users should notice an improved and more reliable experience, particularly around token refresh and connection stability. This also helped us fix an issue in the MySQL extension for AAD. 

Additional changes include improved loading of Azure resources and new Dedicated SQL Pools and Azure Synapse Analytics nodes in the Azure tree. Azure Data Studio 1.41 also provides the ability to customize the name of firewall rules for Azure SQL and adds support for connecting to a server alias (versus a server name).

If you have applications that use ADAL, please see the Migrate applications to the Microsoft Authentication Library (MSAL) page for more information.

Object explorer

A new area of focus in this release is Object Explorer (OE), and this will continue to be an area we improve upon in the next few releases. Those with serverless Azure SQL previously reported issues with folders not expanding correctly, and with databases being brought online (thus incurring costs) when it was not expected. Other users noted that expanding OE timed out after 45 seconds. We have addressed all these issues in this release, in addition to adding support for Ledger Views.

Query results

The query results window got a fair bit of attention this release as we work through the backlog of open issues. First, we introduced a new configuration option to show or hide the action bar in the query results view. The Query Editor > Results: Show Action Bar option can be found in the command palette (CTRL + , ) if you type Show Action Bar. By default, the action bar is shown in the query results pane, as seen in the screenshot below:

There are also improvements around opening JSON files and the visibility of the horizontal scroll bar in the query results pane. Azure Data Studio 1.41 now correctly handles line breaks in cells when copying from the results grid and pasting to an editor, and the auto-resizing of columns in the output pane has been updated to better display column contents. Finally, cell selection and navigation in the results grid have been enhanced, and we introduced additional summary details when selecting multiple cells in the results window:

Extensions

Multiple teams have been working on updates to various extensions available from Azure Data Studio.  For SQL Projects, we have improved the experience of finding projects by providing a dropdown that lists saved projects, rather than requiring users to browse to their location. We had reports that differences in schema compare were not highlighted correctly, and that problem has been fixed.

Users of the SQL Migration extension will see an improvement in the migration process as we better support migrations to specific subscriptions (such as government), and the extension now includes the Premium Series Memory Optimized SQL MI SKU as a recommendation where appropriate.

MongoDB and Microsoft Azure continue to build on their partnership by introducing an extension for MongoDB Atlas and Azure Data Studio on the Azure Marketplace. This Extension is available in Public Preview as of today, Wednesday, January 25, 2023.  You already know that Azure Data Studio is a modern open-source, cross-platform hybrid data analytics tool designed to simplify your data landscape, and customers can use Azure Data Studio to work with their data sitting in one or more Azure data services. MongoDB Atlas on Azure provides a fully managed solution for MongoDB in the cloud, and you can now seamlessly connect to and query data on MongoDB Atlas right from Azure Data Studio. This allows you to interact with data on MongoDB Atlas alongside other data services and provides a unified view of your data estate.  If you are an Azure customer that is curious about building applications with MongoDB Atlas and want to amplify your integrated experience inside Azure Data Studio, try Pay-As-You-Go Atlas on the Azure Marketplace today!

With this 1.41 release, the Polyglot Notebooks extension will be removed from the Azure Data Studio Extension Marketplace. For a polyglot notebooks experience, we recommend folks use the Polyglot Notebooks in Visual Studio Code.

Odds and ends

Continuing on our path of adding support for arm64, we now include support for arm64 on Windows.  Whether you run iOS or Windows, Azure Data Studio 1.41 now provides the capability to leverage arm64, resulting in improved performance.

We are pleased to see users embracing Table Designer and Query Plan Viewer, two features that became generally available (GA) in the November release. In 1.41 we fixed an issue related to opening Table Designer for Ledger tables, and one related to creating a table when another table with the same name already exists.

There were also two requests specific to Query Plan Viewer that got attention in this release. When saving query plan files from Azure Data Studio, we now incrementally append a number to the end of the file for unique naming, and we’ve altered the default folder location when saving plans for a more consistent experience.

Lastly, we had previously announced that we were removing Big Data Cluster functionality from Azure Data Studio. This removal has been delayed until a later release.

Looking forward

We are already at work on the next release of Azure Data Studio and are making plans for what we want to accomplish in 2023. You can expect that we will continue to review backlog issues and address them as they relate to an existing area of focus. We have more changes coming related to the connection dialog and object explorer, and you will also see improvements in user management. Finally, if you see a comment on an issue you opened–whether recent or ages ago–please feel free to respond and provide more information if you are able. 

The post Azure Data Studio 1.41 release appeared first on Microsoft SQL Server Blog.

• Customer feedback
• Retirement of SQL Server 2019 Big Data Clusters
• Retirement of PolyBase scale-out groups
• Path forward

Customer feedback

We continue to see increased migration to the cloud, with analytical workloads leading that charge.

Customers have indicated that analytics in the cloud best aligns to employee skillsets, deployment simplicity and manageability, and cloud flexibility and scalability.

When we first introduced cloud analytics in 2017, many were still investing in on-premises analytical workloads. Today, we offer a wealth of cloud-based services that provide users with similar functionality, including Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS), Azure Synapse Analytics, Azure SQL, and Azure Machine Learning.

According to the Gartner® 2020 Data and Analytics survey:

• Analytics, BI, and data science are the most common use cases being accelerated to the cloud due to COVID-19. The organization needs faster delivery of analytics insights to take action. Cloud, with its fast provision and prototyping ability, is an ideal place to start analytics and data science initiatives to nimbly react to the fast pace of changes.¹
• In the 2020 Gartner Data and Analytics Cloud survey, 74 percent of organizations use or plan to use cloud for analytics, BI and data science.¹

Retirement of SQL Server Big Data Clusters

Today, we are announcing the retirement of SQL Server 2019 Big Data Clusters. All existing users of SQL Server 2019 with Software Assurance will be fully supported on the platform for the next three years, through February 28, 2025. This software will continue to be maintained through SQL Server cumulative updates until that time. In the latest version of SQL Server, we are engineering the best mix of on-premises and in-cloud relational workloads and connectivity to Azure Synapse Analytics for advanced analytics in a flexible, scalable, and integrated environment. Please see below and read our documentation on SQL Server Big Data Clusters to learn more.

Changes to PolyBase support in SQL Server

Today, we are announcing the retirement of PolyBase scale-out groups in Microsoft SQL Server. Scale-out group functionality will be removed from the product in SQL Server 2022. In-market SQL Server 2019, 2017, and 2016 will continue to support the functionality to the end of support for those products.

PolyBase data virtualization will continue to be fully supported as a scale-up feature in SQL Server.

Secondly, Cloudera (CDP) and Hortonworks (HDP) external data sources will also be retired for all in-market versions of SQL Server and will not be included in SQL Server 2022. Moving forward, support for external data sources will be limited to product versions in mainstream support by the respective vendor. You are encouraged to use the new object storage integration functionality available in SQL Server 2022.

In SQL Server 2022, users will need to configure their external data sources to use new connectors when connecting to Azure Storage. The table below summarizes the change:

The path forward

If you wish to run analytics on-premises, SQL Server 2022 also provides important new capabilities, building upon its data virtualization suite of connectors by providing object storage integration over REST APIs. We will also continue to invest in the Spark SQL connector to ensure first-class connectivity from Apache Spark to all our SQL products. Additionally, we continue to invest in expanding hybrid capabilities with Azure Arc-enabled data services.

Integrating SQL Server with cloud analytics solutions is a critical capability, which is why we are introducing Azure Synapse Link for SQL Server 2022, the latest release of SQL Server, which will be generally available to purchase later this year. This is a major investment in helping you realize cloud-scale analytics in near real-time on your operational data.

Our priority is to empower you with the tools and services that ensure SQL Server integrates seamlessly into the world of analytic workloads in the cloud by blending operational, analytical, and virtual use cases in our flagship database engine. Please contact your Microsoft account manager if you need assistance in exploring how Microsoft can best empower your analytical needs.

¹Gartner Inc.: Use Cloud to Compose Analytics, BI and Data Science Capabilities for Reusability and Resilience, Julian Sun, Joao Tapadinhas, June 10, 2021.

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved. 

The post The path forward for SQL Server analytics appeared first on Microsoft SQL Server Blog.

As the lead sponsor, we will deliver content including the keynote, five full-day training days, and over fifty general sessions. With so many opportunities to educate, we are bringing the full Azure data team including folks from across the data platform, such as SQL Server, Azure SQL, Cosmos DB, Azure Purview, Azure Synapse Analytics, and Power BI.

Start the week with my team for two day-long training sessions where you will have a unique chance to work directly with Microsoft engineering:

The Hands-on Azure SQL Workshop on March 8 will help you translate your existing SQL Server skills to Azure SQL. Bring your laptop and get ready to learn hands-on. You will gain a foundational knowledge of what to use when, as well as how to configure, monitor, and troubleshoot the “meat and potatoes” of SQL Server in Azure: security, performance, and availability.

Migrate SQL Server to Azure on Wednesday, March 9 will help you migrate your SQL Server environments to Azure. In this session, the Microsoft engineering team will show you everything you need to know, including the tools and knowledge you need to make your migrations seamless, cost-efficient, and optimized for speed.

Other training sessions cover topics such as Azure SQL Database, Synapse Analytics, and Power BI.

All speaker proceeds from these sessions will be given back to a local charity.

The SQLBits event theme this year is Video Games—and in the “Level Up With Azure Data” keynote, Buck Woody has asked me to come talk about SQL Server 2022 and Azure Data. He assures me I will have help with some surprise guests so it should be interesting. It is always a fun keynote when Buck and I are on stage, and this year you really do not want to miss it!

You also have the opportunity to attend the Microsoft general sessions to learn about the entire Azure data platform.

Take a look at some of the learning available SQLBits 2022

See all the opportunities to engage with Microsoft engineering by heading over to our blog on Microsoft Tech Community, Ready for SQLBits 2022. And don’t forget to stop by our booth, where you can get your questions answered by members of the Microsoft team.

SQLBits is a marathon of top-quality training from global specialists, with two days of full-day training sessions and three days of general sessions. As always with SQLBits, Saturday, March 12 is free to attend. Meet with community leaders sharing their real-world experience and Microsoft product teams providing deep insights into innovations that meet your needs.

Register today for SQLBits 2022

Join Microsoft at this hybrid event for the latest on the data platform and a chance to see whether Buck Woody or I have the best arcade game skills!

Register to attend, and we’ll see you there, in-person, or virtually!

The post Meet us at SQLBits 2022 and level up as a data professional appeared first on Microsoft SQL Server Blog.

Deliver faster performance than ever before with SQL Server and Azure

Hear directly from Microsoft’s Rohan Kumar and senior Microsoft engineering leaders during the day one kick-off keynote as they take you on a journey to a new universe shaped by our past—and built to take us into a limitless future. The cloud has created a whole new universe and advancements in Microsoft data products and services are your bridge.

You’ll see how you can use your existing SQL Server and Azure skills, and learn about new tools and platforms available from Microsoft to deliver faster performance than ever before. You’ll see how to shape your data so you can harness its power to find a new galaxy of insights, answers, and predictions. And you will hear about new innovations that continue Microsoft’s rich heritage of data integrity and governance.

Additionally, in the special on-demand keynote, Microsoft Azure Data CTO Raghu Ramakrishnan and team will share a technical keynote and demos showing Azure Purview and SQL.

Register for the PASS Data Community Summit

Don’t miss this opportunity to see how Microsoft is uniquely positioned to provide you with an end-to-end data platform seamlessly integrating limitless database scale and performance, unmatched analytics and intelligence, and unified data governance.

After the keynotes, ground your learning with in-depth training in one of more than two dozen sessions Microsoft will be delivering. Hear the latest from the Engineering teams who develop the tools you use every day. After your sessions, don’t forget to visit the virtual exhibit hall where you can connect with our team across SQL Server 2022, Azure SQL, Azure Synapse Analytics, Microsoft Power BI, Azure Arc, and more.

Register for PASS Data Community Summit today.

The post PASS Data Community Summit keynote: a bridge to a new universe appeared first on Microsoft SQL Server Blog.