SQL Server 2012 Release Candidate RC0

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We've had some great announcements over the past couple of days, with the announcement of the SQL Server 2012 SPECIAL OPS TOUR. #specialopstour

 

Now we have even more updates: SQL SERVER 2012 RC0 is available.

Since this morning SQL Server 2012 RC0 bits are available for download the Microsoft Download Center.

With RC0 we are making another huge milestone towards the release of SQL Server 2012.

 

The following list provides an overview of what we've added to RCO:

 Get Mission Critical Confidence

  • Greater availability. Deliver the required 9s and data protection with AlwaysOn, delivering added functionality over CTP3 that allows customers to experience multiple, readable secondaries for distributed scale of read workloads and support for FileTable and FILESTREAM which brings first-class HA to complex data types.
  • Blazing-fast performance. Experience lightning fast performance gains for Business Intelligence and Data warehousing with SQL Server 2012. The new ColumnStore Index offers 10-100x star join or similar query performance improvements. Additionally, customers can more effectively govern performance in multi-tenancy environments like private cloud. Resource Governor enhancements include support for 64 resource pools, greater CPU usage control, and resource pool affinity for partitioning of physical resources and predictable resource allocation.
  • Security for compliance. Help enable compliance with new security features, User-Defined Server Roles, Default Schema for Windows Groups, Audit filtering and resilience, and Contained Database Authentication.

Unlock Breakthrough Insights

  • Rapid data exploration. Unlock rapid data exploration for deeper insights across the organization through web-based data visualization analytics with Power View and PowerPivot enhancements like support for KPIs, Rank, Perspectives, Hierarchies, and sophisticated business logic.
  • Managed Self-Service BI . PowerPivot enables IT to pro-actively empower end users through familiar Self-service BI capabilities in Excel, while providing IT Dashboards in SharePoint 2010 to gain insight and oversight over end users create content. In RC0 SSAS now includes PowerShell support to help streamline administration tasks. The new BI Semantic Model (BISM) continues to bridging the gap between end user created BI applications and IT managed corporate solutions by introducing the ability to import PowerPivot models into Analysis Services through the SQL Server professional tools (Management Studio and BI Development Studio) so that they can be professionally managed and transformed into massively scaling corporate grade solutions.
  • Credible, consistent data. Provide a consistent view across heterogeneous data sources with the BI Semantic Model (BISM) a single model for Business Intelligence applications, from reporting and analysis to dashboards and scorecards. Make data quality a part of everyday life with the Master Data Services add-in for Excel and new Data Quality Services that is integrated with 3rd party data providers through Windows Azure Marketplace DataMarket. Additionally in RC0, customers can better support heterogeneous data within Data Warehouses through new Change Data Capture (CDC) support for Oracle.

Experience Cloud on Your Terms

  • Optimize productivity. Optimize IT and developer productivity across server and cloud with the new SQL Server Data Tools, a unified dev experience now with a new Server Explorer and user experience enhancements, and Management Studio for snapshot backups to the Windows Azure Platform. Additionally, the new LocalDB version of Express introduced in CTP3 now has a smaller more simplified installer adding tremendous value for ISVs.
  • Extend any data, anywhere. Developers love it and organizations benefit from the built-in expansive data support and storage flexibility in SQL Server. Beyond relational investments introduced in CTP3 include, FileTable unstructured file storage directly in the database and full globe spatial support which include circular arcs on the ellipsoid, an industry first for relational database systems.