News

SQL Server 2017 Debut Highlights Ignite Conference

• By David Ramel
• 09/25/2017

SQL Server 2017 will officially hit general availability on Oct. 2, Microsoft announced today at its Ignite conference in Orlando, Fla.

"This is an incredible milestone representing the first version of SQL Server to run on Windows Server, Linux, and Docker," said Microsoft exec Scott Guthrie in a cloud-oriented blog post complementing the official announcement. "In fact, there have been 2,000,000 pulls of the SQL Server on Linux image on Docker Hub! In addition, SQL Server 2017 enables in-database advanced machine learning with support for scalable Python and R-based analytics. This means you can train advanced models easily with data inside SQL Server without having to move data.

"The bottom line is that SQL Server 2017 delivers industry-leading, mission critical performance and security with everything built in, including AI, now on the platform of your choice. These are just some of the reasons that dV01 moved onto SQL Server 2017 on Linux and is experiencing unmatched performance and value."

Microsoft also announced the new edition of its flagship RDBMS will be available on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

"As Microsoft's reference Linux platform for SQL Server, Red Hat Enterprise Linux extends the enterprise database and analytics capabilities of SQL Server by delivering it on the industry-leading platform for performance, security features, stability, reliability, and manageability," the company said.

More on SQL Server 2017 can be found in today's article on sister site Redmond Magazine, titled, "Microsoft Launches SQL Server 2017."

Other announcements at the show concerned:

• Office 365, which provides free online versions of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote. Among other enhancements, Microsoft introduced two new solutions:
• "Microsoft 365 F1 brings together Office 365, Windows 10 and Enterprise Mobility + Security to empower the more than 2 billion firstline workers worldwide who serve as the first point of contact between a company and its customers or who are directly involved in making products," the company said.
• "Microsoft 365 Education includes Office 365 for Education, Windows 10, Enterprise Mobility + Security and Minecraft: Education Edition. It gives students, faculty and staff everything they need to create and collaborate, securely," the company said.



• Dynamics 365, Microsoft's enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) software. The company infused the product "with new AI solutions that transform critical enterprise scenarios and apps and services to help business users reinvent the processes they use every day."



• Microsoft Azure, the company's cloud computing platform. Microsoft announced its Azure Stack offering would be shipping via OEM partners. Azure Stack "is an extension of Azure, bringing the agility and fast-paced innovation of cloud computing to on-premises environments."
  
  Other enhancements to the cloud include: availability of a fully automated Database Migration Service and SQL DB Managed Instance; a new optimized-for-compute performance tier for SQL Data Warehouse; Azure Cost Management services from Cloudyn; a preview of new updates to Azure Machine Learning; integration of Azure CosmosDB -- a "globally distributed, first-of-its-kind modern database service" -- and Azure Functions, for serverless computing; and many more.



• Quantum computing. The company reported progress it has made toward this next-age, theoretical computation system, specifically progress "toward developing both a topological qubit and the ecosystem of hardware and software that will eventually allow a wide range of developers to take advantage of quantum computing's power.
  
  "That progress includes a new programming language, which is deeply integrated with Visual Studio and designed to work on both a quantum simulator and a quantum computer."

Much more news is expected from the show, which runs through Friday, and most if not all of it will certainly relate to the Azure cloud.

"Today's announcements, and the entire Azure team's work over the past year, focus on ensuring Azure is the cloud that can meet the most rigorous and mission critical requirements of governments and enterprise customers, with the cost efficiency and productivity necessary for every startup and small business," Guthrie concluded. "That's because we believe that the success made possible by the cloud must be accessible to every business and every organization."