Microsoft has announced new cloud-hosted versions of its SQL Server database service. Support for two older on premise variants was discontinued today.
The new versions replace SQL Server 2008 and 2008R2, and are hosted on the cloud platform Azure, writes Silicon Angle. The Azure SQL Database is a cloud implementation of the service and comes in various flavors.
Three flavours
For example, users can opt for Azure SQL Database managed instance, which offers evergreen SQL. In addition, the software and infrastructure are constantly updated and the whole is fully managed.
The service continues to run on an isolated virtual network and uses machine learning algorithms to help with infrastructure tuning, system threat detection, and other management tasks.
Microsoft has also made the Azure SQL Database Hyperscale option available. This option is for users who want to migrate on premise databases that store large amounts of data to the cloud. A third version is SQL Server Azure Virtual Machines, with more flexible configuration options.
Microsoft states that Azure SQL Database will soon be available as a preview. An exact date has yet to be announced.
Azure SQL
In addition to the Azure SQL Database, Microsoft also wants to launch a new portal experience called Azure SQL. Azure SQL should enable users to manage the Azure SQL Database and SQL Server on Azure VM deployments in a single environment.
Azure SQL gives users access to new license management options and automated backup and patching features.
In addition, there will be a new on-premium version of the database, which Microsoft SQL Server 2019 calls Big Data Clusters. This new version will be integrated with big data services such as Apache Spark and Apache Hadoop. On July 24th SQL Server 2019 Big Data Clusters will be made available as a public preview.
Extended support
As mentioned before, the support of SQL Server 2008 and 2008R2 will be discontinued today. However, Microsoft announced last year that it would provide three years of additional support free of charge if the workloads were to be moved to Azure. Users who already have their workloads running on Azure are automatically eligible for this.
This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.
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