Azure SQL News Update: July 2022
Published Jul 13 2022 09:00 AM 2,893 Views
Microsoft

Today Data Exposed goes live at 12PM PT on LearnTV. Every 4 weeks, we’ll do a News Update. We’ll include product updates, videos, blogs, etc. as well as upcoming events and things to look out for. If you missed the episode, you can find them all at https://aka.ms/AzureSQLYT. This month we’ll recap all the updates and announcements in the database space for June and July so far.

 

You can read this blog to get all the updates and references mentioned in the show. Here’s the June 2022 update:

 

Product updates

You might think that the month after Microsoft Build would be a slow month for releases, but this year that is certainly not the case!

Let’s start with Azure SQL Database. In public preview, we announced the ability to enable new built-in server-level roles in Azure SQL Database for permission management. These built-in server level roles are fixed, meaning they have a set of certain permissions assigned to it that cannot be changed. This is great because the server is a logical concept that previously was complex to manage permissions over the whole server. These roles will also come to SQL Server 2022!

 

Earlier in June, we also announced Microsoft Purview access policies for Azure SQL Database in public preview. The new access policies feature provides data owners capability to author access policies through Microsoft Purview and then apply them to Azure SQL Database data sources individually or at scale.

 

In general availability (GA) for Azure SQL Database, we announced Named Replicas for Hyperscale. This is an exciting one that allows you to have read scale on the fly with up to 30 read replicas that spin up in minutes. Earlier in the month, we also announced the GA of geo-replication and auto-failover groups for Hyperscale, which enables transparent cross-region failover of Hyperscale databases.

 

We also have an interesting update for SQL Server 2016 (yes, you read that correctly). The Azure SQL Managed Instance team has released the public preview of the Link feature you’ve probably been hearing so much about in SQL Server 2022, but now supporting SQL Server 2016 so you can connect your instance to Azure SQL Managed Instance. This enables you to offload workloads to a read-only secondary hosted in Azure or migrate to Azure SQL Managed Instance altogether.

 

Finally, and this is more of an in-case-you-missed-it than a true update, we recently released a customer story (and neat video) on Lenovo’s use of Azure SQL Database ledger capabilities. Ledger for Azure SQL Database allows you to take advantage of managed centralized blockchain capabilities very easily. Check out the customer story and video.

 

On the SQL Server front, there was an important announcement and that is SQL Server 2012 has reached end of support. Please see the blog to see the four options you have if you find yourself with SQL Server 2012 instances.

 

One more announcement on the governance front includes Microsoft Purview which announced the general availability of Microsoft Purview Data Estate Insights at the beginning of July. Sunetra Virdi from the Purview team came on to tell us about the announcement and how to learn more.

 

Other database updates

Starting in 2022 we’re trying to keep you updated on what’s going on with other database services at Microsoft, as we understand that oftentimes you’re using more than one service. Here are the updates I gathered from May 2022.

 

Azure Cosmos DB

 

Azure Database for PostgreSQL-Hyperscale (Citus)

Azure Database for MySQL – Flexible Server

Generally available: Improved Try Azure Cosmos DB for free experience

 

Public preview: Azure Cosmos DB serverless container storage limit increase to 1TB

 

Public preview: Continuous backup enhancements in Azure Cosmos DB

 

 

SQL API

Generally available: Azure Cosmos DB Core (SQL) API Query Engine improvements

 

Public preview: Azure Cosmos DB SQL API Go SDK improvements

 

 

MongoDB API

Public preview: Linux emulator with Azure Cosmos DB API for MongoDB 

 

Public preview: 16MB limit per document in API for MongoDB 

 

Public preview: Azure Data Studio MongoDB extension for Azure Cosmos DB

 

General availability: Azure Database for PostgreSQL—Hyperscale (Citus) supports PostgreSQL minor ver... (11.16, 12.11, 13.7, 14.3)

 

General availability: Azure Advisor support for Azure Database for MySQL - Flexible Server

 

Meredith Moore from the Cosmos DB team came on the show to tell us more about the new and improved free experience.

 

Videos

We continued to release new and exciting episodes this month. Here is the list, or you can just see the playlist we created with all the episodes!

  • [SQL Insider Series] Stephen Giles: Azure SQL DB – Automating scale up and down
  • [Azure SQL Security] Ido Keshet: Database Protection with Defender for Cloud (Ep. 5)
  • [MVP Edition] Ike Ellis: Seven tips in seven minutes for the SQL Developer
  • Lior Kamrat: Azure Arc-enabled data services Jumpstart scenarios updates
  • [SQL Insider Series] Nadia Ben El Kadi: SQL Migration tools, which one and when?
  • [SQL Insider Series] Mike Bhatt: Exporting Azure SQL DB BACPAC file to Azure with Azure Automation
  • [MVP Edition] Bjoern Peters: Migrating your database to Azure SQL - Preparation is everything

We’ve also had some great Data Exposed Live sessions. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see them all and get notified when we stream. Here are some of the recent live streams.

  • May the 4th be with Azure SQL (News Updates): this was a Star Wars-themed episode and it was so fun! Check it out for costumes, themed demos and slides, and fun!
  • Azure SQL & SQL Server 2022: Intelligent Database Futures
  • Azure SQL News Update: 2021 Year in Review
  • Welcome to SQL Server 2022 Live!

 

Blogs

As always, our team is busy writing blogs to share with you all. Blogs contain announcements, tips and tricks, deep dives, and more. Here’s the list I have of SQL-related topics you might want to check out.

 

Events

We have several in-person and virtual events coming this month. Here are a few to put on your calendar and register for from the Azure Data team:

July 19: Microsoft Inspire, Virtual
August 8-12: Visual Studio Live!, Microsoft HQ
September 19-22: Data Platform Summit, Virtual

And, if you can’t make it to our events, find new, on-demand Data Exposed episodes released every Thursday at https://aka.ms/dataexposedyt

 

Microsoft Learn module of the month

For this month, since Meredith came on to tell us how to get started with Cosmos DB, I wanted to highlight a module Explore fundamentals of Azure Cosmos DB. In this module, you’ll learn how Azure Cosmos DB provides a highly scalable store for non-relational data. After the module, you’ll be able to describe key features and capabilities, identify the APIs supported, and provision and use an Azure Cosmos DB instance. Check it out.

 

Anna’s pick of the month!

My pick of the month is a special episode of MVP Edition with Ike Ellis, Seven tips in seven minutes for the SQL Developer. If you use SSMS at all for anything, you do not want to miss this episode. Ike showed us so many tips and tricks that I had never seen before, leaving my jaw dropped and I had to watch it back a couple of times after. Don’t miss the free tips.

 

Until next time…

That’s it for now! Be sure to check back next month for the latest updates on LearnTV. We also release new episodes on Thursdays at 9AM PT and new #MVPTuesday episodes on the last Tuesday of every month at 9AM PT at aka.ms/DataExposedyt.

 

Having trouble keeping up? Be sure to follow us on twitter to get the latest updates on everything, @AzureSQL.

 

We hope to see you next time, on Data Exposed :)

--Anna and Marisa

 

 

 

 

 

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‎Jul 19 2022 10:44 AM
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