{"id":14601,"date":"2015-11-30T15:18:00","date_gmt":"2015-11-30T23:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.technet.microsoft.com\/dataplatforminsider\/2015\/11\/30\/introducing-sql-server-2016-community-technology-preview-3-1\/"},"modified":"2024-01-22T22:50:23","modified_gmt":"2024-01-23T06:50:23","slug":"introducing-sql-server-2016-community-technology-preview-3-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/2015\/11\/30\/introducing-sql-server-2016-community-technology-preview-3-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Introducing:  SQL Server 2016 Community Technology Preview 3.1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/evalcenter\/evaluate-sql-server-2016\">SQL Server 2016 Community Technology Preview (CTP) 3.1<\/a> is now available for download! This release fully embraced the \u201cCloud First\u201d tenet, as this release build was deployed to SQL Azure Database service first, running in production prior to the release build.<\/p>\n<p>In SQL Server 2016 CTP 3.1, part of our new rapid preview model, we made enhancements to several features.\u00a0You can try them now in your SQL Server 2016 development and test environments.<\/p>\n<p>As part of our new rapid release model, you don\u2019t have to wait several months for responses to feedback or to test new capabilities. This means you can accelerate testing and time to production. The frequent updates are also engineered to be of the same quality as major CTPs, so you don\u2019t have to be concerned about build quality. You also have the flexibility to choose which CTPs you will deploy for development and test environments and won\u2019t be forced to upgrade to the most recent preview release.<\/p>\n<p>In SQL Server 2016 CTP 3.1, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/evalcenter\/evaluate-sql-server-2016\">available for download<\/a>\u00a0today, you will see enhancements in several areas, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>New In-Memory OLTP improvements, including Unique indexes, LOB data types, and Indexes with NULLable key columns<\/li>\n<li>Programmability improvement for the AT TIME ZONE clause<\/li>\n<li>Enhancements to SQL Server Analysis Services<\/li>\n<li>PowerPivot and SSRS\/Power View are now available for SharePoint Server 2016 Beta 2<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For additional details,\u00a0check out\u00a0the detailed <a href=\"\/sqlserver\/2015\/11\/30\/sql-server-2016-community-technology-preview-3-1-is-available\/\">SQL Server 2016 CTP 3.1 Engineering blog post<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h1>Download SQL Server 2016 CTP 3.1 today!<\/h1>\n<p>As the foundation of our end-to-end data platform, SQL Server 2016 is the biggest leap forward in Microsoft&#8217;s data platform history with real-time operational analytics, rich visualizations on mobile devices, built-in advanced analytics, new advanced security technology, and both on-premises and in the cloud.<\/p>\n<p>To learn more about SQL Server 2016, visit the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/server-cloud\/products\/sql-server-2016\/default.aspx\">SQL Server 2016 preview page<\/a>. To experience the new, exciting features in SQL Server 2016 and the new rapid release model, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/evalcenter\/evaluate-sql-server-2016\">download the preview<\/a>\u00a0and start evaluating the impact these new innovations can have for your business.<\/p>\n<p>Have questions?\u00a0Join the discussion of the new SQL Server 2016 capabilities at <a href=\"https:\/\/social.msdn.microsoft.com\/Forums\/sqlserver\/en-US\/home?forum=SQLServer2016Preview\">MSDN<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/nocaptcha?s=c8c2dca3-ed9f-486a-882b-7e4f66e419e4\">StackOverflow<\/a>. If you run into an issue or would like to make a suggestion, you can let us know at <a href=\"https:\/\/connect.microsoft.com\/SQLServer\">Connect<\/a>. We look forward to hearing from you!<\/p>\n<p>For additional information about CTP 3.1, see <a href=\"https:\/\/msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/bb500435.aspx\">What\u2019s New in SQL Server 2016<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/dn876712.aspx\">SQL Server 2016 Release Notes<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The SQL Server 2016 Community Technology Preview (CTP) 3.1 is now available for download! This release fully embraced the \u201cCloud First\u201d tenet, as this release build was deployed to SQL Azure Database service first, running in production prior to the release build. In SQL Server 2016 CTP 3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1457,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_classifai_error":"","_classifai_text_to_speech_error":"","footnotes":""},"post_tag":[],"product":[5227,2403],"content-type":[2448],"topic":[],"coauthors":[2487],"class_list":["post-14601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","product-sql","product-sql-server-2016","content-type-updates","review-flag-1593580427-503","review-flag-1-1593580431-15","review-flag-2-1593580436-981","review-flag-3-1593580441-293","review-flag-new-1593580247-437"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Introducing: SQL Server 2016 Community Technology Preview 3.1 - Microsoft SQL Server Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/2015\/11\/30\/introducing-sql-server-2016-community-technology-preview-3-1\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Introducing: SQL Server 2016 Community Technology Preview 3.1 - Microsoft SQL Server Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The SQL Server 2016 Community Technology Preview (CTP) 3.1 is now available for download! This release fully embraced the \u201cCloud First\u201d tenet, as this release build was deployed to SQL Azure Database service first, running in production prior to the release build. In SQL Server 2016 CTP 3.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/2015\/11\/30\/introducing-sql-server-2016-community-technology-preview-3-1\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Microsoft SQL Server Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sqlserver\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-11-30T23:18:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-01-23T06:50:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/cropped-microsoft_logo_element.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"SQL Server Team\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SQLServer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@SQLServer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"SQL Server Team\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 min read\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/2015\/11\/30\/introducing-sql-server-2016-community-technology-preview-3-1\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/2015\/11\/30\/introducing-sql-server-2016-community-technology-preview-3-1\/\"},\"author\":[{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/author\/sql-server-team\/\",\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@name\":\"SQL Server Team\"}],\"headline\":\"Introducing: SQL Server 2016 Community Technology Preview 3.1\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-11-30T23:18:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-01-23T06:50:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/2015\/11\/30\/introducing-sql-server-2016-community-technology-preview-3-1\/\"},\"wordCount\":389,\"commentCount\":2,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/2015\/11\/30\/introducing-sql-server-2016-community-technology-preview-3-1\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/2015\/11\/30\/introducing-sql-server-2016-community-technology-preview-3-1\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/2015\/11\/30\/introducing-sql-server-2016-community-technology-preview-3-1\/\",\"name\":\"Introducing: SQL Server 2016 Community Technology Preview 3.1 - Microsoft SQL Server Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-11-30T23:18:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-01-23T06:50:23+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/2015\/11\/30\/introducing-sql-server-2016-community-technology-preview-3-1\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/2015\/11\/30\/introducing-sql-server-2016-community-technology-preview-3-1\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/2015\/11\/30\/introducing-sql-server-2016-community-technology-preview-3-1\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Introducing: SQL Server 2016 Community Technology Preview 3.1\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Microsoft SQL Server Blog\",\"description\":\"Official News from Microsoft\u2019s Information Platform\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Microsoft SQL Server Blog\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Microsoft-Logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Microsoft-Logo.png\",\"width\":259,\"height\":194,\"caption\":\"Microsoft SQL Server Blog\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sqlserver\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/SQLServer\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/MSCloudOS\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Introducing: SQL Server 2016 Community Technology Preview 3.1 - Microsoft SQL Server Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/2015\/11\/30\/introducing-sql-server-2016-community-technology-preview-3-1\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Introducing: SQL Server 2016 Community Technology Preview 3.1 - Microsoft SQL Server Blog","og_description":"The SQL Server 2016 Community Technology Preview (CTP) 3.1 is now available for download! This release fully embraced the \u201cCloud First\u201d tenet, as this release build was deployed to SQL Azure Database service first, running in production prior to the release build. In SQL Server 2016 CTP 3.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/2015\/11\/30\/introducing-sql-server-2016-community-technology-preview-3-1\/","og_site_name":"Microsoft SQL Server Blog","article_publisher":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sqlserver","article_published_time":"2015-11-30T23:18:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-01-23T06:50:23+00:00","og_image":[{"width":512,"height":512,"url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/cropped-microsoft_logo_element.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"SQL Server Team","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@SQLServer","twitter_site":"@SQLServer","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"SQL Server Team","Est. reading time":"2 min read"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/2015\/11\/30\/introducing-sql-server-2016-community-technology-preview-3-1\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/2015\/11\/30\/introducing-sql-server-2016-community-technology-preview-3-1\/"},"author":[{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/author\/sql-server-team\/","@type":"Person","@name":"SQL Server Team"}],"headline":"Introducing: SQL Server 2016 Community Technology Preview 3.1","datePublished":"2015-11-30T23:18:00+00:00","dateModified":"2024-01-23T06:50:23+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/2015\/11\/30\/introducing-sql-server-2016-community-technology-preview-3-1\/"},"wordCount":389,"commentCount":2,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/#organization"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/2015\/11\/30\/introducing-sql-server-2016-community-technology-preview-3-1\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/2015\/11\/30\/introducing-sql-server-2016-community-technology-preview-3-1\/","url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/2015\/11\/30\/introducing-sql-server-2016-community-technology-preview-3-1\/","name":"Introducing: SQL Server 2016 Community Technology Preview 3.1 - Microsoft SQL Server Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-11-30T23:18:00+00:00","dateModified":"2024-01-23T06:50:23+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/2015\/11\/30\/introducing-sql-server-2016-community-technology-preview-3-1\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/2015\/11\/30\/introducing-sql-server-2016-community-technology-preview-3-1\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/2015\/11\/30\/introducing-sql-server-2016-community-technology-preview-3-1\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Introducing: SQL Server 2016 Community Technology Preview 3.1"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/","name":"Microsoft SQL Server Blog","description":"Official News from Microsoft\u2019s Information Platform","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/#organization","name":"Microsoft SQL Server Blog","url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Microsoft-Logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Microsoft-Logo.png","width":259,"height":194,"caption":"Microsoft SQL Server Blog"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sqlserver","https:\/\/x.com\/SQLServer","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/MSCloudOS"]}]}},"msxcm_display_generated_audio":false,"msxcm_animated_featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14601\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_tag?post=14601"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=14601"},{"taxonomy":"content-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-type?post=14601"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=14601"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sql-server\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=14601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}