SQL Server 2012: all the announcements from SQL PASS Summit 2011

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SQL PASS Summit 2011 is past

From what I’ve heard from my colleagues and friends, the SQL PASS Summit this year in Seattle was one of the greatest conferences on SQL Server, ever. Unfortunately I haven’t had the time to attend in person, but I followed all the public streamings of the keynotes. I definitely recommend you to view the keynotes “on demand” on https://www.sqlpass.org/summit/2011/Live/LiveStreaming.aspx.

In this blog post I’d like to give you a little overview of what has been announced by us enriched with additional comments and lots of recommended resources…

SQL Server Codename “Denali” gets an official name

In short:

  • SQL Server Codename “Denali” is now SQL Server 2012
  • Project Crescent is now Power View
  • Project Juneau is now SQL Server Data Tools

So it’s time now again to change all my slides with the new official logo and to train the names at least 1000 times in front of a mirror Smiley But I’m sure I’ll get caught in talking about the codenames at least a few times.

And one point here to add: You may all know that I am not the BI specialist, I’m focusing more on the RDBMS and relational Data Warehouses, but I am very excited about what we are going to deliver with Power View. And especially now as Amir Netz officially confirmed that Export to PowerPoint (which was cut and not planned to ship) made it back into the plan.

Consolidate Thousands of Databases: Just Add Power

I am also very excited about the announcement and availability of the new Database Consolidation Appliance which we co-engineered together with HP. To get a first idea, watch the cool video on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZNuStftJNo&feature=youtu.be

Key attribute for the appliance is the ability to consolidate 1000’s of databases with no application changes. We use virtualization technology based on Hyper-V to give you the freedom of what you’d like to install on your VMs. It is not a blackbox! You can use your existing tools for backup or management for example. It is not just Hardware and Software plugged together, it is definitely more!

From my experiences as Consultant in various consolidation projects, I can truly say that identifying consolidation candidates and sizing/tuning the platform are the most time consuming tasks. This appliance has baked-in tools and processes for deployment and management based on our Assessment and Planning Toolkit (https://www.microsoft.com/map) aswell as our System Center Family (SCOM/SCCM/SCVMM/SCDPM) in helping you to exactly address these topics. And most important: the Hardware is sized and tuned for handling the database workload!

All these components give you a very fast and flexible way to consolidate your database environment and achieve following goals:

  • Self-Service: baked-in processes and portals based on our System Center Familiy help you build your own Self-Service database deployment or integrate with your existing processes
  • Scalable: The appliance scales from a half rack solution up to ten racks.
  • Elastic: With SCVMM and Hyper-V your VMs get automatically balanced across the appliance. All the VMs get their ressources they need.
  • Multi-tenant/Shared: With Hyper-V you get the flexiblity of dedicate and separate VMs in terms of network and storage. Even VLAN tags get routed through.
  • Metered by use: You’ll be able to calculate individual usage and charge back your internal customers. And you don’t need to build something on your own, it’s already part of the solution.

If you read those goals, you may have heard them already. Yes, these are all attributes for a cloud service! The Database Consolidation Appliance is the platform for your private database cloud.

And the best thing: as soon as SQL Server 2012 is available, you can immediatly start to use it on this appliance and get even more flexibility for high availability or disaster recovery solutions in using the new AlwaysOn Availability Groups. Please also have a look on my previous blog post: https://blogs.technet.com/b/swisssql/archive/2011/08/26/sql-server-alwayson-availability-groups-new-combined-ha-dr-solution-for-sql-server-and-the-path-to-your-own-sql-server-cloud.aspx

The Database Consolidation Appliance is preinstalled and preconfigured with the flexibility to buy a ½ rack up to 10 racks. The Appliance will be available in mid-November. Learn more about it on https://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/en/us/solutions-technologies/Appliances/HP-dca.aspx

News for SQL Azure

Not only the private cloud is evolving, we also announced new features for SQL Azure.

Two new Community Technology Previews (CTPs) are immediately available and enhance BI capabilities and connecting data in the cloud and on-premises:

  • SQL Azure Reporting enables developers to use familiar tools to create and deploy operational reports to the cloud. This new CTP is broadly available to all SQL Azure customers: simply visit the Windows Azure Management Portal and start using the SQL Azure Reporting CTP today!
  • SQL Azure Data Sync enables easier sharing and synchronization between multiple SQL Server and SQL Azure databases. SQL Azure Data Sync is also available now for trial directly within the Windows Azure Management Portal.

The SQL Azure Q4 2011 Service Release will be available by end of 2011 and includes following key features:

  • The maximum database size for individual SQL Azure databases will be expanded 3x from 50 GB to 150 GB.
  • With SQL Azure Federation, databases can be elastically scaled out using the sharding database pattern based on database size and the application workload. This new feature will make it dramatically easier to set up sharding, automate the process of adding new shards, and provide significant new functionality for easily managing database shards.
  • Enhanced management portal with significant new features including the ability to more easily monitor databases, drill-down into schemas, query plans, spatial data, indexes/keys, and query performance statistics.
  • Expanded support for user-controlled collations

Quentin Clark also disclosed a new feature for SQL Server 2012 Management Studio: Snapshot backups directly to SQL Azure or Windows Azure Storage.

Manage “Big Data”

For this topic I really encourage you to enjoy the great keynote by David DeWitt!

We announced the general availability of the Hadoop connector for SQL Server and Hadoop connector for SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse free to licensed SQL Server & PDW customers. These connectors will enable bi-directional data movement across SQL Server and Hadoop enabling you to work effectively with both structured and unstructured data.

We plan to deliver a Hadoop based distribution for Windows Server and Hadoop based service for Windows Azure. You will also be able to integrate and analyze data from Hadoop with PowerPivot and Power View in a very interactive way. Our first set of deliverables here will include a Hive ODBC Driver and Hive Add-in for Excel.

A strategic partnership with Hortonworks enables us to build on the experience and expertise from the Hadoop ecosystem. This helps us enabling Hadoop to run great on Windows Server and Windows Azure. Hortonworks was formed by the key architects and core Hadoop committers from the Yahoo! Hadoop software engineering team in June 2011 and the team is a major driving force behind the next generation of Apache Hadoop.

We also demonstrated a new prototype for connecting structured and unstructured data, called “Data Explorer”.

More Information on https://www.microsoft.com/bigdata

Get SQL Server 2012 CTP3 now!

Try out SQL Server 2012 CTP3. Download it on https://www.microsoft.com/betaexperience/pd/SQLDCTP3CTA/enus/

And as always my call to use https://connect.microsoft.com, file your feedback and your suggestions.