SQL Server 2012 was
released on April 2012 and it has started becoming favorite among
professionals. Any new product comes from Microsoft the first thing I
personally ask myself, is it worth to jump in?. Is it worth to spend customer’s
hard earned money to get in to that product?. The way to assess the same is
dividing the product features in to “revolution” and “evolution”.
“Revolution” means it’s completely a new thing while “evolution” means there
was something already and it has been improvised.
1. AlwaysOn Availability Groups -- This feature takes database mirroring
to a whole new level. With AlwaysOn, users will be able to fail over multiple
databases in groups instead of individually. Also, secondary copies will be
readable, and can be used for database backups. The big win is that your DR
environment no longer needs to sit idle.
2.
Windows Server Core Support -- If you don't know what Windows Server
Core is, you may want to come up to speed before Windows 8 (MS is making a push
back to the command line for server products). Core is the GUI-less version of
Windows that uses DOS and PowerShell for user interaction. It has a much lower
footprint (50% less memory and disk space utilization), requires fewer patches,
and is more secure than the full install. Starting with SQL 2012, it is
supported for SQL Server.
3. BI Semantic Model -- This is replacing
the Analysis Services Unified Dimensional Model (or cubes most people referred
to them). It's a hybrid model that allows one data model will support all BI
experiences in SQL Server. Additionally, this will allow for some really neat text
infographics.
4. BI Semantic Model -- This is replacing the Analysis
Services Unified Dimensional Model (or cubes most people referred to them).
It's a hybrid model that allows one data model will support all BI experiences
in SQL Server. Additionally, this will allow for some really neat text
infographics
5.
Sequence Objects -- For those folks who have worked with
Oracle, this has been a long requested feature. A sequence is just an object
that is a counter -- a good example of it's use would be to increment values in
a table, based a trigger. SQL has always had similar functionality with
identity columns, but now this is a discrete object.
6.
Enhanced PowerShell Support -- Windows and SQL Server admins should definitely start
brushing up on their PowerShell scripting skills. Microsoft is driving a lot of
development effort into instrumenting all of their server-based products with
PowerShell. SQL 2008 gave DBAs some exposure to it, but there are many more in
cmdlets in SQL 2012.
7.
Distributed Replay -- Once again this is answer to a feature that Oracle
released (Real Application Testing). However, and in my opinion where the real
value proposition of SQL Server is, in Oracle it is a (very expensive) cost
option to Enterprise Edition. With SQL, when you buy your licenses for
Enterprise Edition, you get everything. Distributed replay allows you to
capture a workload on a production server, and replay it on another machine.
This way changes in underlying schemas, support packs, or hardware changes can
be tested under production conditions.
8.
PowerView -- You may have heard of this under the
name "Project Crescent" it is a fairly powerful self-service BI
toolkit that allows users to create mash ups of BI reports from all over the
Enterprise.
9.
SQL Azure Enhancements -- These don't really go directly with the release of SQL
2012, but Microsoft is making some key enhancements to SQL Azure. Reporting
Services for Azure will be available, along with backup to the Windows Azure
data store, which is a huge enhancement. The maximum size of an Azure database
is now up to 150G. Also Azure data sync allows a better hybrid model of cloud
and on-premise solutions
10. Big Data Support -- I saved the biggest
for last, introduced at the PASS (Professional Association for SQL Server)
conference last year, Microsoft announced a partnership with Hadoop provider
Cloudera. One part of this involves MS releasing a ODBC driver for SQL Server
that will run on a Linux platform. Additionally, Microsoft is building
connectors for Hadoop, which is an extremely popular NoSQL platform. With this
announcement, Microsoft has made a clear move into this very rapidly growing
space.
11. Column
store Indexes -- This a cool new feature that is completely unique to SQL
Server. They are special type of read-only index designed to be use with Data
Warehouse queries. Basically, data is grouped and stored in a flat, compressed
column index, greatly reducing I/O and memory utilization on large queries.
12.
User-Defined
Server Roles -- DBAs have always had the ability to create custom
database role, but never server wide. For example, if the DBA wanted to give a
development team read/write access to every database on a shared server,
traditionally the only ways to do it were either manually, or using undocumented
procedures. Neither of which were good solutions. Now, the DBA can create a
role, which has read/write access on every DB on the server, or any other
custom server wide role
13. Contained
Database In simple terms it is
a database that is isolated from other databases, and isolated from the
instance of SQL Server that is hosting the database.
·
There
are four ways that SQL Server 2012 helps to isolate databases from the
instance:
·
Much
of the metadata that describes a database is maintained in the database and not
in the master database
·
All
metadata is defined using the same collation
·
User
authentication can be performed by the database, reducing the database’s
dependency on the logins of the instance of SQL Server
·
The
SQL Server environment reports, DMVs and xEvents can act upon containment
information.
