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SQL Server Team
Published 
4 min read

AlwaysOn Availability Groups Fully Supported on Windows Azure Infrastructure Services 

We’re excited to announce that AlwaysOn Availability Groups are now fully supported on Windows Azure Infrastructure Services. Today we updated our official documentation indicating that we now support Availability Group Listeners for SQL Server 2012 on Windows Server 2012. Availability Groups and Listeners on Windows Azure Infrastructure Services Availability Groups, released in SQL Server 2012, is our flagship solution for high availability and disaster recovery.
Published 
4 min read

How Memory-Optimized Database Technology is Integrated into SQL Server 2014 

SQL Server 2014 takes an integrated approach to in-memory database technology. In-Memory OLTP, which optimizes performance of OLTP workloads, is fully integrated in the core SQL Server relational database management system. Now, what do we mean by “fully integrated”? In this post we highlight some of the aspects that demonstrate: Installation No special steps are needed to install In-Memory OLTP.
Published 
3 min read

Hardware Considerations for In-Memory OLTP in SQL Server 2014 

In-Memory OLTP uses memory and disk in different ways than traditional disk-based tables. The  performance improvement you will see with In-Memory OLTP depends the hardware you use. In this blog post we discuss a number of general hardware considerations, and provide generic guidelines for hardware to use with In-Memory OLTP. CPU In-Memory OLTP does not require a high-end server to support a high-throughput OLTP workload.
Published 
4 min read

Buffer Pool Extension to SSDs in SQL Server 2014 

How many of you have been looking into ways of cost effectively improving the performance of your OLTP workloads, without having to buy new more expensive hardware? Most of you know already that memory is one of the key assets available for the SQL Server and especially buffer pool memory, which plays key role in storing data pages and in turn reducing the I/O demand.
Published 
3 min read

Premium Preview for Windows Azure SQL Database Now Live! 

On July 8, 2013, at the Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) in Houston, Texas, Satya Nadella, Server and Tools President announced a new Premium service for Windows Azure SQL Database that delivers more predictable performance for business-critical applications. This new Premium service further strengthens the data platform vision by giving you more flexibility and choice across on-premises and cloud for your business-class applications.
Published 
2 min read

What’s New for Columnstore Indexes in SQL Server 2014 

In SQL Server 2012, we introduced the memory optimized columnstore index. This resulted in huge query performance improvements but columnstore indexes had one significant disadvantage – they couldn’t be updated directly but had to be rebuilt on a base table.
Published 
3 min read

In-Memory OLTP Q & A: Myths and Realities 

Since SQL Server In-Memory OLTP (formerly known as project code-named “Hekaton”) was unveiled at PASS last November, there has been a lot of conversation and buzz about it. Some of the discussion was well informed and accurate, and some… not so much. With this series, and with online documentation at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn133186(v=sql.120).
Published 
1 min read

Microsoft CityNext Initiative Puts People First 

Today, at the Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston, Microsoft announced CityNext, a global initiative empowering cities, businesses and citizens to re-imagine their futures and cultivate vibrant communities. CityNext takes the long view, addressing citizen needs with citywide solutions for mobility, social, big data, and cloud. CityNext enables cities to fully harness this new era of innovation with a people-first strategy.
Published 
2 min read

A Closer Look at the Premium Offer for Windows Azure SQL Database 

As part of the main keynote yesterday at the Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) in Houston, Texas, Satya Nadella, Server and Tools President, discussed partner and customer innovations around modern business applications built with the Windows Azure platform. As part of this cloud momentum, Satya announced a new Premium offer for Windows Azure SQL Database that delivers more predictable performance.