Introduction

  • 5 minutes

SQL Server 2022 is Microsoft's latest major release of the SQL Server product. SQL Server 2022 is a hybrid data platform powered by innovations in security, performance, availability, and data virtualization.

SQL Server 2022 is designed to help organizations looking to modernize their data estate from older versions of SQL Server. This SQL Server release provides new cloud-connected capabilities for users looking to enable hybrid data scenarios.

Organizations can accelerate performance for their applications with no code changes, protect data integrity with blockchain capabilities, and achieve increased scalability and availability for critical data.

SQL Server 2022 also allows developers to build new applications connecting relational data with data lakes containing parquet files and delta tables using Azure or Simple Storage Service (S3) compatible storage providers.

The following diagram shows the major capabilities of SQL Server 2022:

Diagram showing SQL Server 2022 capabilities.

Here are some of the capabilities you learn about in this module:

  • Deployment options and differences in SQL Server 2022: You learn the various methods to deploy SQL Server 2022 and some of the differences in features and deployment from previous releases of SQL Server.
  • Cloud connected scenarios: You learn scenarios for new hybrid capabilities for SQL Server 2022, and how you can connect to Azure for managed disaster recovery, near real-time analytics, and security access and assessments.
  • Built-in query intelligence: You learn new built-in engine capabilities that can help you gain performance with no code changes, and gain deep insights into query performance.
  • Security, scalability, and availability: You learn new core database engine capabilities across security, scalability, and availability.
  • Data virtualization and object storage: You learn how to access data lakes using built-in connectors across REST APIs for Azure and S3 compatible object storage providers. You also learn how to use S3 compatible object storage providers for backup and restore of SQL Server databases.
  • Language enhancements for developers: Finally, you learn new T-SQL language capabilities to help developers build new application scenarios that use SQL Server.

Learning objectives

By the end of this module, you're able to:

  • Describe the innovations introduced in SQL Server 2022.
  • Determine if SQL Server 2022 can help modernize your data estate, while reducing the cost of ownership, and accelerating the performance of your applications.
  • Apply new security capabilities in SQL Server 2022 to protect your data, and use cryptographic attestations that your data wasn't tampered with.
  • Connect your data to Azure and data lakes.

Prerequisites

  • Basic working knowledge of SQL Server, including deployment, security, query processing, and high availability.
  • Fundamental knowledge of the T-SQL language.
  • Basic knowledge of Azure concepts, including subscriptions, resource groups, Infrastructure-as-a-Service, and Platform-as-a-Service.