Hisham Sarwar
Microsoft has recently announced its SQL Server database software for Linux. The company first made the announcement in March to introduce this software. Now anyone who is interested in trying it can download the bits.
The public preview clues the next version of SQL server which will be provided not only for Linux but also for Windows. The new server will be supported for Docker Containers so that macOS users will also be able to use it. For preview, Microsoft is betting on containers as one of the major distribution. This will soon be available on the Docker Hub and Azure Virtual Machines.
According to the company’s statement, this is a major leap for making SQL Server a platform that can be run on multiple operating systems, development languages, on-premises and the cloud, and data types. All of the regular SQL Server Management Features that come with Windows version will be included for Linux. The advanced features such as row-level security and always-encrypted and in-memory column stores will also be included for Linux.
But the company has not included the business intelligence stack however it will be incorporated after some time. The users are given more choice as they will be able to run SQL Server on Linux and in Linux-based Docker containers. This will help the users with more options for deploying their databases. The new version will also have enhanced support for R services along with multiple machine learning and deep neural networking features.
By incorporating SQL Server for Linux, Microsoft has shown how much it has matured in his ideas for competing in the race. The company’s CEO Steve Ballmer is behind all the success and this release would have been impossible without him. The Microsoft has also announced the preview of Linux support for Azure App Service and the company is also going to join the Linux Foundation. The first service pack for SQL Server 2016 and changes to its programmability features has been announced by Microsoft for SQL Server users on Windows. People will now gain access to a lot of developer features that were previously limited to for Enterprise edition. Which means users using free “Express” edition can also benefit from this option.
Via: Tech Crunch
