Microsoft recently announced the shipping of SQL Server 2012, the latest of it’s database platform which it says has already been deployed for hundreds of industry-leading customers, such as Volvo Car Corp., Revlon, the HSN, Klout and LG Chemical. The new server release promises a new set of capabilities which will be most appreciated in mission-critical deployments, business intelligence and hybrid IT across traditional datacenters and public and private clouds.
The features included in the recent release include:
- SQL Server AlwaysOn, a new high availability solution delivering increased application availability, lower TCO and ease of use.
- xVelocity, in-memory technologies significantly boost data warehouse and analytics performance by up to 100x.
- Power View, a web-based, highly interactive, data visualization and presentation solution designed to enable business users and decision makers to quickly discover meaningful insights from their data.
- Data integration and management, new and enhanced tools to deliver credible, consistent data to the right users at the right time, including new SQL Server Data Quality Services and enhanced Master Data Services.
- Enhanced PowerPivot functionalities enable customers to leverage new advanced analytic capabilities and further ease of use while still working within the familiar tools provided by Excel.
- The new Business Intelligence (BI) Semantic Model provides a single, scalable model for BI applications, from reporting and analysis to dashboards and scorecards.
- SQL Server Data Tools, a new tool that unifies SQL Server and cloud SQL Azure development for both professional database and application developers.
Many of SQL Server 2012’s new features serve the high end of Microsoft’s customer base. They focus on supporting hybrid IT environments that blend more traditional data center deployments with those in private and public cloud computing environments. These features include SQL Server Data Tools, a new common set of tools for SQL Server and cloud SQL Azure application and database development. The release also contains the Power View web-based ad-hoc data visualization tool, which allows users to generate presentations and reports by pulling data from published SQL Server datasets and other data sources published through Microsoft’s Windows Azure Marketplace.
