Microsoft SQL Server’s newest release adds in-memory OLTP (online transaction processing) and Azure cloud deployment options to the favored database management system. Here’s why that’s important.
Microsoft SQL Server 2014 have been released to manufacturing, the corporate announced on Tuesday, promising general availability of the product on April 1. The corporate also announced the overall availability of Hadoop 2.2 support in its Windows Azure HDInsight service, bringing support for YARN and Stinger (Hive SQL Query) improvements to the vendor’s cloud-based Hadoop service.
Any release of Microsoft SQL Server is crucial, as it is the world’s top database management system (DBMS) when it comes to unit sales. However the 2014 update is especially important because it introduces an In-Memory OLTP (online transaction processing) option that promises breakthroughs in performance.
“In-memory transaction processing hastens an already very fast experience by delivering speed improvement of as much as 30x,” wrote Quentin Clark, corporate VP of Microsoft’s Data Platform Group, in a blog announcing the discharge.
[Want more in this performance enhancement? Read In-Memory Databases: Do you want The velocity?]
As InformationWeek recently detailed in an in-depth cover story on in-memory databases, Microsoft beta customers have utilized in -Memory OLTP to get around disk I/O-throughput bottlenecks and browse-write contention without rewriting applications designed to run on SQL Server. Gaming company Bwin.party, as an instance, used the feature to scale up a web sports-betting app to deal with 150,000 bets per second that was previously limited to twelve,000 bets per second. The sole change required was moving selected database tables to run in memory.
Announced three years ago as project Hekaton, the In-Memory OLTP feature was tested by dozens of businesses working directly with Microsoft as portion of its Technology Adoption Program. Further, some 200,000 customers have downloaded or tested virtual instances of the DBMS as component to two Community Technology Previews that began last June, in step with Microsoft.
The In-Memory OLTP option is way from the sole enhancement delivered within the 2014 release. A hybrid deployment option gives customers the selection of running SQL Server 2014 on premises or on Windows Azure. a regular scenario envisioned is running production instances on premises while syncing with backup-and-recovery instances within the cloud.
Other new Microsoft SQL Server 2014 improvements include:
- Cardinality-estimation enhancements automatically improve the efficiency of internal query planning, in keeping with Microsoft, thereby speeding new and existing queries. When complex queries require customized tuning, the feature could be turned off to make sure consistent query execution.
- AlwaysOn high-availability features now support more database replicas and feature been extended into Windows Azure. Virtual instances on Azure can easily be configured as a part of an AlwaysOn availability group.
- An in-memory column store feature is now updatable. This analytic feature was once an index, with querying against a separate row-store table; it’s now a real column that’s updatable and the best place the info is stored. Benefits include reduced storage costs, improved data compression, and, most significantly, faster query performance, based on Microsoft.
Faster transaction processing is obviously the most important promise of Microsoft SQL Server 2014, and it’s available to an immense installed base that will not need to make changes in applications or maybe in hardware, in line with Microsoft. It is a claim that Microsoft customers including Bwin.party and Edgenet have validated in interviews with InformationWeek. Both customers took good thing about the In-Memory OLTP feature on existing servers, though Microsoft has said that extensive use of the feature might require upgrades in available memory.
SAP Hana have been the poster child of the in-memory movement in recent times, but that platform runs entirely in memory, so it demands all new servers in addition to modifications to applications that were designed to run on other databases. Where Hana needed to start from scratch with no legacy installed base (and now has around 1,000 customers), Microsoft has a built-in head start on in-memory adoption with tens of millions of current SQL Server customers.
Microsoft’s announcement of Hadoop 2.2 support in its Windows Azure HDInsight service comes as little surprise, because the Apache open source improvements were released last fall. Hortonworks and Cloudera announced their releases built on 2.2 in October and February, respectively, and Pivotal jointed the club with its Pivotal HD 2.0 release on Monday. Microsoft and its partner Hortonworks, the developer of HDInsight, will undoubtedly follow up with an updated on-premises software distribution within an issue of days or even weeks.
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Doug Henschen is Executive Editor of InformationWeek, where he covers the intersection of enterprise applications with information management, business intelligence, big data and analytics. He previously served as editor in chief of Intelligent Enterprise, editor in chief of … View Full Bio
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