Microsoft’s SQL Server 2017 is generally available, and it brings to clients more options, including the ability to use SQL Server with Linux and Docker

Among the many exciting updates announced at Microsoft Ignite, the company announced the general availability of SQL Server 2017. The new server, released on October 2, includes some huge strides and innovations. Here’s more about the news from Microsoft.

SQL Server 2017 on Linux and Docker

With SQL Server 2017, customers have more options than they had in the past. More specifically, users can bring the performance and security of SQL Server to Linux and Docker Enterprise Edition containers for production workloads. There are also plenty of new features in the upgrade, like built-in AI and graph data management and analysis.

Additionally, Microsoft announced a new SQL Server on Red Hat Enterprise Linux offer to help users with upgrades and migrations. The offer gives you 30 percent off SQL Server 2017 through an annual subscription program.

Azure SQL Database Managed Instance

Microsoft also announced an upcoming public preview for Azure SQL Database Managed Instance. This represents the expansion of SQL Database, the database-as-a-service that lets users enjoy a cloud version of the performance and security offered by SQL Server. This expansion will offer close to full compatibility with SQL Server, meaning you can easily migrate database estates to Azure.

Azure Data Factory and Azure SQL Data Warehouse

Another new offering is the Azure Data Factory, which is a data integration service that lets users create, schedule, and orchestrate data integration pipelines at scale, either in the cloud or on premises.

And another upcoming addition is a new performance tier for Azure SQL Data Warehouse, which is a fully managed, petabyte-scale cloud data warehouse based on SQL Server. The preview for the new performance tier will be available soon, offering two times the performance and five times the scale of the current performance tier.

Support for Azure Functions in Azure Cosmos DB

Lastly, Microsoft announced new support for Azure Functions in Azure Cosmos DB, which is meant to dramatically streamline users’ ability to build globally distributed apps in a serverless architecture.

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