Announcing SQL Server on Linux

Microsoft have announced SQL Server on Linux to make their data solutions more flexible. The target date for availability is mid-2017.

More details
https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2016/03/07/announcing-sql-server-on-linux/

SQL Server 2016 release candidate

The rapid release model for SQL Server 2016 means Microsoft will be publishing multiple release candidates.

Product enhacements include

• Stretch Database service
• Enhancements to In-Memory OLTP
• Enhancements to SQL Server Analysis Services
• Enhancements to SQL Server Reporting Services

The SQL Server evaluation can be downloaded from https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/evalcenter/evaluate-sql-server-2016

SQL Server 2016 Live Event

The SQL Server 2016 Data Driven Event is here http://bit.ly/1KVY3PC

The event will discuss data transformation 

• how data insights are driving business transformation
• how customers are embracing data to drive innovation
• why SQL Server 2016 has become the industry leader

The SQL Server 2016 Datasheet details the new features.

Useful papers to read: 

Mission Critical white paper
In-memory OLTP technical paper
In-memory OLTP and ColumnstoreFeature Comparision
Deeper data insights
 

RStudio Cheat Sheets

Some great cheat sheets to help you navigate and use RStudio from https://www.rstudio.com/resources/cheatsheets/

RStudio IDE is the most popular integrated development environment for R.

Data Visualization using the ggplot2 package lets you make beautiful and customizable plots of your data

 

There are many more cheat sheets.

Free ebook: Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2016

There is a new free ebook Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2016: Mission-Critical Applications, Deeper Insights, Hyperscale Cloud, Preview Edition.

The chapters released so far are

Better Security
Improved database engine
Better reporting

What is DevOps

Came across this article and great graphic on DevOps.

http://ed-baker.com/demystifying-devops-behaviours/

Culture and continuous delivery with the DevOps Fundamentals Series

DevOps is a culture shift for businesses and enables them to achieve faster and higher quality software with increased customer satisfactions. The DevOps culture at a high level involves people, processes, and products (in this order). It requires development, testing, operations, business, and other teams to work together, efficiently, to deliver better and faster results to customers

There are a set of videos available as an Introductions to DevOps at  bit.ly/1LMHkPc

 

SQL Server in the Cloud Options

There are many SQL Server choices available to us as database architects. This diagram shows the Microsoft database stack available choices and the business drivers that affect the choice of cost versus administrative overhead.

An article SQL Server in Azure: Compare PaaS (SQLDB) andIaaS (Virtual Machine)

explains in more depth about the cloud options of SQL Server in Azure (IaaS) and Azure SQL Database. Igor Pagliai included this useful table.

Topic	Azure   SQLDB (PaaS)	SQL   Server VM (IaaS)
Features	Less features than box	Full box product features
Performances	Max 1750 DTU in Premium Tier	Depends on VM SKU/Storage
DB Size	Max 1TB in Premium Tier (P11)	64TB on G-SERIES
Workload	Sizing by average usage	Sizing based on peaks
High-Availability	Built-in by platform	Manual configuration by AlwaysOn AG
Fault-Handling	Necessary fault-handling &   retry	Recommended fault-handling &   retry
Locality	No co-location with application	Co-located by VMs and VNETs
Segregation	Internet exposed endpoint	Internal private endpoint
Versioning	No control on upgrades	Full control over DB upgrade
TCO	Very low, almost self-managed	High (as on-premise)
Administration	No full-time DBA required	Full staffed DBA required
Management	Easy to manage many DBs	Complex to manage many DBs/VMs
Scale-Out	Tools & Frameworks available	No easy scale-out
Configuration	No setup customization	Full access to OS and SQL
Authentication	Only SQL standard authentication	SQL standard and integrated
Security	No Fixed IP available	Fixed IP possible at VM level
Backup	Backup files not accessible	Full control of backup files