Applies to:
SQL Server 2016 (13.x) and later versions
With SQL Server 2016, you can build intelligent, mission-critical applications using a scalable, hybrid database platform that has everything built in, from in-memory performance and advanced security to in-database analytics. The SQL Server 2016 release adds new security features, querying capabilities, Hadoop and cloud integration, R analytics and more, along with numerous improvements and enhancements.
This page provides summary information and links to more detailed SQL Server 2016 what's new information for each SQL Server component.
You can now configure multiple tempDB database files during SQL Server installation and setup.
New Query Store stores query texts, execution plans, and performance metrics within the database, allowing easy monitoring and troubleshooting of performance issues. A dashboard shows which queries consumed the most time, memory or CPU resources.
Temporal tables are history tables which record all data changes, complete with the date and time they occurred.
New built-in JSON support in SQL Server supports JSON imports, exports, parsing and storing.
New PolyBase query engine integrates SQL Server with external data in Hadoop or Azure Blob storage. You can import and export data as well as executing queries.
The new Stretch Database feature lets you dynamically, securely archive data from a local SQL Server database to an Azure SQL database in the cloud. SQL Server automatically queries both local and remote data in the linked databases.
In-memory OLTP:
Now supports FOREIGN KEY, UNIQUE and CHECK constraints, and native compiled stored procedures OR, NOT, SELECT DISTINCT, OUTER JOIN, and subqueries in SELECT.
Supports tables up to 2TB (up from 256GB).
Has columnstore index enhancements for sorting and Always On Availability Group support.
New security features:
Always Encrypted: When enabled, only the application that has the encryption key can access the encrypted sensitive data in the SQL Server 2016 database. The key is never passed to SQL Server.
Dynamic Data Masking: If specified in the table definition, masked data is hidden from most users, and only users with UNMASK permission can see the complete data.
Row Level Security: Data access can be restricted at the database engine level, so users see only what is relevant to them.
SQL Server 2016 Analysis Services (SSAS)
SQL Server 2016 Analysis Services provides improved performance, authoring, database management, filtering, processing, and much more for tabular model databases based on the 1200 compatibility level.
SQL Server R Services integrate the R programming language, used for statistical analysis, into SQL Server.
New Database Consistency Checker (DBCC) runs internally to detect potential data corruption issues.
Direct Query, which queries live external data rather than importing it first, now supports more data sources, including Azure SQL, Oracle and Teradata.
There are numerous new DAX (Data Access Expressions) functions.
Did you know that you can edit SQL content yourself? If you do so, not only do you help improve our documentation, but you also get credited as a contributor to the page.
SQL Server 2022 introduces a range of new features and enhancements, providing powerful tools and capabilities that optimize performance and offer better control on SQL objects manipulation and creation.
Administer an SQL Server database infrastructure for cloud, on-premises and hybrid relational databases using the Microsoft PaaS relational database offerings.