Microsoft announced this month what features/improvements will be in the next version of SQL Server, SQL Server 2016. You can download the datasheet they’ve posted from here.
The features that have caught my attention are:-
- Enhancements to In-Memory OLTP
- The Query Data Store
- Temporal Database
- Stretch Database
- Automatic failover based on database health
- Enhanced Data Caching
Enhancements to In-Memory OLTP – I’ve said in previous posts that In-Memory OLTP in SQL 2014 is pretty much version 1.0, good start but it needs work (try dropping a memory optimised filegroup from a database, go on, try it!). It’ll be interesting to see exactly what they’ve changed.
The Query Data Store – This sounds great, being able to track how a query’s execution plan changes over time will be fantastic.
Temporal Database – The datasheet says “Track Historical Changes”. Does this mean the database will track DDL statements executed against it?
Stretch Database – Like it or not, Azure is getting bigger and bigger. I’m interested in this as I’d love to see what impact there would be on queries that span data held locally and in the cloud. I know, I know, One could argue that those queries shouldn’t be hitting your OLTP database but in my experience it will happen.
Automatic failover based on database health – This sounds like a recipe for diaster IMHO, wonder how this would actually determine a database’s health. Will the settings be configurable?
Enhanced Data Caching – Direct quote from the datasheet – “Cache data with automatic, multiple TempDB files per instance in multi-core environments” – Not exactly sure what this means, sounds exciting though, eh?
The datasheet is very brief on details, more of a marketing document than anything else so I’ll be keeping a close eye on the Microsoft blog for more details.
P.S. – Anyone not looking forward to native JSON support???
UPDATE (2015-05-28):- It’s out for CTP, details on what’s new can be found here
