Product: SQL Server 2016

Published 
4 min read

Technical Overview: SQL Server 2016 Community Technology Preview 3.3 

The SQL Server engineering team is pleased to announce the immediate availability of SQL Server 2016 public preview release CTP 3.3. This release advances the “Cloud First” tenet; the build has already been deployed to SQL Azure Database worldwide. To learn more about the release, visit the SQL Server 2016 preview page.
Published 
3 min read

Limiting access to data using Row-Level Security 

To satisfy compliance standards, internal regulations or basic security principles, applications often need to limit a user’s access to only certain rows of data in a database. For example: An oil and gas exploration application might restrict an analyst’s access to well production data based on the analyst’s region and role.
Published 
4 min read

Data security, SQL Server 2016, and your business 

Security is unquestionably a major priority for Microsoft. A recent news story reported that the company “is spending $1 billion a year to make Microsoft products more secure.” The Microsoft data platform, including SQL Server and Azure SQL Database, is at the top of the list of products investing in security. But, be aware that a commitment to data security is actually nothing new.
Published 
2 min read

JSON in SQL Server 2016: Part 4 of 4 

Exporting Data as JSON – FOR JSON In this final post of our four-part JSON series, we showcase the ability to format query results as JSON text using the FOR JSON clause. If you are familiar with the FOR XML clause, you will easily understand FOR JSON.
Published 
3 min read

JSON in SQL Server 2016: Part 3 of 4 

Transform JSON Text to Relational Table – OPENJSON OPENJSON is a table-value function (TVF) that looks into JSON text, locates an array of JSON objects, iterates through the elements of the array, and for each element returns one row in the output result. In the example above, we can specify where to locate the JSON array that should be opened (i.e. in the $.
Published 
2 min read

JSON in SQL Server 2016: Part 1 of 4 

JSON is currently one of the most commonly used data exchange formats. Most modern services return information formatted as JSON text; web browsers use information formatted as JSON. JSON is the common format when semi-structured information needs to be stored, such as in files.
Published 
3 min read

SQL Server 2016 CTP 3.2: Introducing end-to-end mobile BI 

The SQL Server 2016 Community Technology Preview (CTP) 3.2 is now available for download! In SQL Server 2016 CTP 3.2, part of our new rapid preview model, we made enhancements to several features which you can try in your development and test environments. Additionally, a number of Mobile BI additions and enhancements will be available in CTP 3.2 and by the end of December.
Published 
8 min read

Enhanced Always On Availability Groups in SQL Server 2016 

Always On Availability Groups Always On Availability Groups are a fundamental component of the availability story for SQL Server, and provide a robust disaster recovery solution as well. Availability Groups were first introduced in SQL Server 2012, replacing the prior Database Mirroring technologies.
Published 
5 min read

Speeding up Transactions with In-Memory OLTP in SQL Server 2016 and Azure SQL Database 

In-Memory OLTP, a performance feature in SQL Server since 2014, allows you to speed up transactional workloads up to 30X. SQL Server 2016 and Azure SQL DB have In-Memory OLTP in public preview, and contain many improvements to In-Memory OLTP, making it drastically easier to adopt in an existing application, and allowing many other applications to benefit from the performance improvements.
Published 
3 min read

Speeding up Business Analytics Using In-Memory Technology 

New challenges Businesses have always used data and analytics for improved business decisions. As the new age of the IOT (Internet of Things) approaches, businesses are experiencing exponential data growth and the challenges that come along with managing large data sets. At the same time, tools like Power Pivot democratize data access to these large data sets across the whole business.