What Is New in SQL Server 2022?

Microsoft announced the introduction of SQL Server 2022 in Ignite 2021 on 2 November 2021. The latest version of the SQL Server includes several enhancements for performance, security, and availability. In addition to improvements to the core performance of the database engine, SQL Server 2022 is better integrated with Azure services to help companies break information siloes and generate predictive insights on current data on-premises, in the cloud, at the edge, and in hybrid environments. In this article, we will focus on the most important upgrades Microsoft has introduced in SQL Server 2022.

What Azure-Enabled Capabilities Are Included in SQL Server 2022?

SQL Server 2022 is designed to be a part of Microsoft’s end-to-end platform of products and services, which also include Azure Arc-enabled data services, Azure SQL fully managed cloud databases, and Azure SQL Edge for IoT devices. Here is a summary of the Azure-enabled capabilities in SQL Server 2022.

• Connected Azure SQL Managed Instance

  SQL Server 2022 is integrated with Azure SQL Managed Instance to provide bi-directional high availability and disaster recovery capabilities. This minimizes the time required for setup and management and is an ideal solution for scale-out scenarios to offload heavy requests that affect database performance.

• Azure Synapse Linking

  With the previous versions of SQL Server, admins had to use extract, transform, and load (ETL) to move data from on-premises to the cloud. However, with Azure Synapse Link for SQL Server 2022, changes are automatically captured, and data is transferred much faster allowing for near real-time insights, with minimal impact on source database performance in SQL Server 2022.

• Integration with Azure Purview

  Microsoft announced the general availability of Azure Purview recently. This can be used as the unified data governance and management service which integrates with SQL Server 2022 for better data discovery. With the Azure Purview integration for SQL Server 2022, the on-premises SQL Server can be scanned automatically for capturing metadata, custom classifiers and Microsoft Information Protection sensitivity labels can be used to classify data, and control specific access rights to SQL Server can be set up.

What Are the Enhancements in SQL Server 2022?

There are several enhancements in terms of security, availability, and performance in SQL Server 2022. Here are some of the improvements made in SQL Server 2022.

• Performance Enhancement in SQL Server 2022

  SQL Server 2022 delivers among the best OLTP (Online Transaction Processing) and Non-Clustered data warehousing performance. The built-in query intelligence now includes support for reading replicas and enabling query hints in the Query Store for improving performance and mitigating issues quickly without changing the source T-SQL. More scenarios have been covered in Intelligent Query Processing to address common customer problems.

• Security Improvements in SQL Server 2022

  SQL Server 2022 includes a new ledger feature that generates an immutable track record of data modifications. This helps prevent data tampering and is beneficial for audits.

• Improved Availability of SQL Server 2022

  SQL Server 2022 introduces the last writer wins rule, which ensures that organizations can keep their multi-write scenarios running smoothly. Unlike the previous version in which operations could be stalled when several people made changes in the same row in the database, the most recent modification time persists on all replicas in SQL Server 2022, thus eliminating errors due to peer-to-peer replica conflicts.

Apps4Rent Can Help with SQL Server 2022 Deployment

With the introduction of blockchain technology, deeper integration with Azure cloud services, and the elimination of the need for ETL, SQL Server 2022 is a dramatic evolution over the existing version of the solution. As a Microsoft Gold Partner in several cloud competencies and a Tier 1 CSP, Apps4Rent can help enterprises upgrade to SQL Server 2022 when it is generally available and provide managed Azure services to take full advantage of the latest version of the SQL Server. Contact our SQL experts offering 24/7/365 phone, chat, and email assistance.