Microsoft at PASS Data Community Summit 2025
Microsoft is excited to be back as the Sapphire Sponsor for this year’s PASS Data Community Summit, together with AMD. Together, we’re helping data professionals and DBAs modernize their environments for greater performance, efficiency, and AI readiness. It’ll be a week packed with keynotes, learning pathways, sessions, breakfast, giveaways and more! Our experts and engineers will be there and ready to share all things SQL Server 2025, cover the latest from Azure SQL, Microsoft Fabric and more—delivered on a foundation of AMD-powered innovation. Whether your goals are modernizing for performance and AI readiness or building intelligent apps and agents, we’ll have you covered. We hope you’ll join us to “Connect, Share and Learn” alongside the rest of your peers at the PASS community. CVP of Azure Databases, Shireesh Thota, is back as the keynote speaker, and will be joined by leaders across Microsoft Data including Priya Sathy and Bob Ward—highlighting how Microsoft and AMD are shaping the future of data together. Join us on Day 2, Thursday, November 20 th . Come back and check as new sessions are added: Learning Pathways: Becoming Azure SQL DBA – High Availability and BCDR Dr. Dani Ljepava, Bob Ward, John Morehouse Learn how to evolve your Azure SQL DBA skills in the domain of High Availability (HA), Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) from the perspective of on-premises DBA’s. Becoming Azure SQL DBA – Security, Compliance, Threats, Connectivity Pam Lahoud, Joey Dantoni Evolve your Azure SQL DBA skills in the domain of security, compliance, authentication and connectivity, from the perspective of an on-premises DBA now supporting databases in Azure. Becoming Azure SQL DBA – Performance Monitoring, Tuning, and Alerting Erin Stellato, Pam Lahoud, Monica Morehouse (Rathbun) Extend your Azure SQL DBA skills in the domain of performance monitoring, tuning, and alerting from the perspective of on-premises DBA. Becoming Azure SQL DBA – Copilot and AI Davide Mauri, Erin Stellato Unlock the future of data productivity with a hands-on exploration of AI-powered Copilots! We’ll dive into Copilot in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), Microsoft Copilot in Azure with NL2SQL and SQL, and Copilot for SQL Databases in Microsoft Fabric. Becoming an Azure SQL DBA - New Opportunities for DBAs in Azure Bob Ward, Dr. Dani Ljepava, Erin Stellato, Pam Lahoud Explore new skill development opportunities as an Azure SQL DBA. Many traditional SQL Server DBA tasks have been partially or fully delegated to Microsoft, and this shift in responsibilities provides a great opportunity to invest in developing new cloud skills that will help you excel as an Azure SQL DBA champion. General Sessions Breakfast with the Microsoft Data Leadership Team JUST ADDED! Shireesh Thota, Priya Sathy, Bob Ward, Erin Stellato Get your day started early at PASS Data Community Summit with a free breakfast and a Q&A session with a panel of leaders across Microsoft hosted by Bob Ward. Tell us what is top of mind for you across SQL Server, Azure SQL, Microsoft Fabric and topics like AI. This is always one of the most popular sessions at the PASS Data Community Summit, so you won’t want to miss it! Inside SQL Server 2025 Bob Ward Join Bob Ward and friends to go deep into the next major release of SQL Server, SQL Server 2025, the Enterprise AI-ready database. You will learn the fundamentals and a deep dive of all the new capabilities in the release so you can plan and make key decisions on when and how to upgrade. SQL Database in Fabric: The Unified Database for AI Apps and Analytics JUST ADDED! Amar Digamber Patil, Yo-Lei Chen, Basudep Sarkar Discover how SQL in Fabric brings transactional and analytical workloads together in one cloud-native database. In this session, we’ll show how developers and data teams can simplify AI-driven application development with near real-time insights and built-in AI, seamless OneLake integration, and end-to-end analytics—all in a single, unified experience. Building Scalable, Secure AI Apps with Azure SQL Hyperscale Build AI apps that run securely and scale with your needs with Azure SQL Database Hyperscale. We’ll cover native vector indexes for semantic search, read scale‑out for low‑latency RAG, using the model of your choice, from T‑SQL. We will show how to build modern AI Agents using all the tools you need with databases and MCP Servers. Modernize your AI application using the power of Azure SQL Database Hyperscale Ecosystem sessions Smarter GitHub Copilot + SSMS 22 Erin Stellato Discover how GitHub Copilot is transforming the way you write T-SQL and optimize your SQL databases inside SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) 22. In this session, we’ll showcase the newest SSMS 22 features alongside real-world demos of GitHub Copilot, highlighting how AI assistance can speed up query writing, reduce errors, and boost productivity. You’ll learn best practices for getting the most out of Copilot in your daily workflow and see firsthand how SSMS 22 + GitHub Copilot can take your efficiency to the next level. Can’t wait until the event? Get an early preview of the sessions at PASS Summit! Watch this free webinar hosted by Redgate’s Kellyn Gorman and Bob Ward, happening October 28 th at 9am PT. Don’t miss this opportunity for a first look into the topics we’ll be covering, register today! --Exclusive Offer for PASS Attendees-- As a special offer from Microsoft, use the code AZURE150 to receive $150 off your 3-day conference pass. Don’t miss this opportunity to connect, grow, and learn with the community. Register todaySQL Server enabled by Azure Arc, now assists in selecting the best Azure SQL target
To make the SQL Server migration journey more efficient, the SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc can now help our customers assess the readiness of their SQL Server workloads for Azure SQL migration and assist them in choosing the most suitable Azure SQL configuration.
Arc enabled Azure migration & modernization journey
This blog explains how SQL Servers connected to Azure Arc can make the migration and modernization process to Azure SQL easier and faster. SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc allows SQL Server instances hosted outside of Azure to access Azure services. This results in operational efficiencies and cost reductions. Moreover, it also offers a simple migration path to Azure with minimal or no downtime.
The Bridge - How Azure Arc brings cloud innovation to SQL Server anywhere
The ability to effectively manage data is more critical than ever and increasingly complex — with organizations hosting data on-premises, at the edge, and across multiple clouds. With the increasing need for businesses to maximize existing resources, one thing is clear: Today’s organizations need a bridge to bring cloud innovation to data estate across all environments – a consistent and efficient experience for managing, governing and security data. That bridge is Microsoft’s Azure Arc.
Modernize your data estate on SQL from cloud to edge
Experience SQL innovation with consistency and rich Azure integration At this year’s Microsoft Ignite 2022 event, we talked about doing more with less and unlocking the value of your data. Leveraging the cloud to reduce costs, drive productivity and accelerate insights and decision-making can make a measurable impact on an organization’s competitiveness, particularly in uncertain times. This is true for your SQL Server data. At Ignite, we made several announcements that will help you modernize your SQL Server data by tapping into the power of Azure. These announcements (and a few sneak peeks) represent the ongoing investment we’re making in our family of SQL databases to deliver what you need for your business. Whether you’re currently on-premises, in the cloud, or somewhere in-between with a hybrid strategy, what really sets Microsoft SQL Server and the Azure SQL family of databases apart is the underlying SQL engine, language, and tools consistency that extends from cloud to edge, and the level of integration it has with other Azure services. Take SQL Server 2022, for example, currently in preview. It is truly a hybrid data platform that now connects to Azure in ways never seen before. In fact, it’s the most cloud-connected SQL Server yet. It uses Azure SQL Managed Instance for managed disaster recovery and Azure Synapse Link for SQL for near-real-time analytics. It also integrates with Microsoft Purview for insights, lineage, and centralized policy management, a true hub for security. Part of the enabling technology behind SQL Server 2022’s cloud connection comes from Azure Arc. Azure Arc-enabled SQL Server, which is our new branding for an existing member of the Arc-enabled family, connects your existing SQL Server to the cloud, allowing you to leverage some great Azure benefits, like Single Sign-on with Azure Active Directory with multi-factor authentication and Microsoft Defender for Cloud, as well as the Microsoft governance solution, Purview Access Policies. Coming soon, you can take advantage of Pay-As-You-Go licensing for Azure Arc-enabled SQL Server. This means that you can connect your SQL Server to Azure and have flexible licensing options from traditional SQL Server licensing to Pay-As-You-Go pricing. Pay for what you use, whether your SQL Server is on-premises, hybrid, or multi-cloud. Data permeates all aspects of a business, so faster actionable insights from that data can make all the difference. Azure Synapse Link for SQL enables near real-time analytics over your data in Azure SQL Database or SQL Server 2022, without having to create or maintain ETL pipelines. We’ve had some exciting new capabilities launch during its public preview, including a new Schedule Mode to control data ingestion timing, support for smaller-scale workloads, and full precision support for datetime data types in SQL Server. We’re looking forward to the general availability of Azure Synapse Link for SQL coming soon. Migrate and modernize your SQL to Azure Azure SQL Managed Instance combines the broadest SQL Server compatibility with all the benefits of a fully managed cloud database service. Not only does it provide industry-leading price performance using our latest premium-series hardware, but the latest generally available innovations help you further modernize your data for the cloud. Windows authentication for Azure Active Directory, for example, enables you to migrate legacy applications that cannot use Azure Active Directory authentication, with minimal to no changes in the application stack. Or, new data virtualization capabilities let you access external data while keeping it in its original format and location, eliminating the need for ETL processes and getting you faster insights from your data. If you’re interested in migrating your Oracle data to Azure SQL, we have some exciting news for you. Migration planning just got easier for Oracle customers wanting to modernize on Azure SQL, including Azure SQL Database Hyperscale, with two public preview announcements: the Database Migration Assessment for Oracle and the Database Schema Conversion Toolkit for Oracle, both of which are extensions in Azure Data Studio. With these announcements, customers can receive migration recommendations and an evaluation of code complexity as well as target sizing recommendations – all from the same tool. Schema migration between the different database platforms is also automated, and it runs on Linux environments, too! Today we also announced a comprehensive migration and modernization assessment for SQL Server on Azure Migrate, our free self-service migration tool. This new capability helps you easily discover and assess your entire SQL estate at scale, now including Hyper-V and bare-metal, helping identify ideal migration and modernization targets for Azure SQL, with cost optimization guidance built-in. A modern data platform for your next app on Azure We also provided an early view of innovations in Azure SQL Database to help developers build apps faster and with less “plumbing code.” Coming soon to SQL Database are new ways to integrate data with other services by invoking REST endpoints, boost price-performance with memory-optimized premium-series hardware and access data using modern REST and GraphQL endpoints. We’re very excited about the investments we’re making, like the offline SQL Database emulator and CI/CD integration, to help developers do even more with their SQL data. We invite you to watch our new Microsoft Mechanics video that double-clicks into some of the upcoming features that make Azure SQL Database great for modern, cloud-based apps. Enable comprehensive data governance at scale Finally, getting holistic and actionable insights from data, particularly in light of constantly evolving regulations, has become a real challenge. Microsoft Purview provides a unified hybrid data governance platform that creates a map of your data estate comprising Azure data sources, multi-cloud, and SaaS data systems. It’s truly the one-stop shop for technical, governance, and business stakeholders to map and curate their metadata and govern their hybrid data estate. This year’s Ignite saw a lot of new features rolling out to Microsoft Purview, with public previews for ML-based classifications, manual data lineage, metamodels, and self-service data access on Azure SQL. We also announced the general availability of dynamic lineage for Azure SQL Database. You can learn about all these announcements and more here. Your next steps If you like what you’ve read so far, we’d invite you to dive deeper into related topics by Watching the Ignite breakout sessions Getting started with Microsoft Learn to build your skills Exploring other Azure announcements at Microsoft Ignite
