SQL Updates Newsletter – March 2016

Recent Releases and Announcements

• Cumulative update package 2 for SQL Server 2012 SP3
  • https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3137746
• Cumulative update package 11 for SQL Server 2012 SP2
  • https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3137745
• Announcing updates to the SQL Server Incremental Servicing Model (ISM)
  • https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlreleaseservices/announcing-updates-to-the-sql-server-incremental-servicing-model-ism/
• Announcing SQL Server Management Studio – March 2016 Release
  • https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlreleaseservices/announcing-sql-server-management-studio-march-2016-release/
• Announcing SQL Server on Linux
  • Apply for the preview: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/sql-server-on-linux.aspx
  • https://blogs.microsoft.com/firehose/2016/03/07/microsoft-extends-sql-server-to-linux-kicks-off-sql-server-2016-launch-activities/
• Now available: SQL Server 2016 Release Candidate 1
  • https://blogs.microsoft.com/firehose/2016/03/21/now-available-sql-server-2016-release-candidate-1/
  • https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/dataplatforminsider/2016/03/07/first-release-candidate-of-sql-server-2016-now-available/
• SQL Server 2016 offers new features in SQL Client Tools, including monthly updates
  • SQL Server 2016 includes significant changes to the SQL Client Tools, including providing monthly updates and a single version of the tools that will work with all supported SQL Server versions on-premises or in a Virtual Machine, Azure SQL Database, and Azure SQL Data Warehouse.
  • https://blogs.microsoft.com/firehose/2016/03/25/sql-server-2016-offers-new-features-in-sql-client-tools-including-monthly-updates/
  • https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/dataplatforminsider/2016/03/25/sql-client-tools-update-for-sql-server-2016/
• New SQL Server 2016, StorSimple hybrid offerings deliver nearly limitless capacity for managing data
  • https://blogs.microsoft.com/firehose/2016/03/02/new-sql-server-2016-storsimple-hybrid-offerings-deliver-nearly-limitless-capacity-for-managing-data/
  • Hybrid solutions enable mission critical, recent, or latency-sensitive data to remain on-premises, while backups and archival data can seamlessly move to low cost and nearly limitless cloud storage.
  • https://blogs.microsoft.com/firehose/2016/03/02/storsimple-virtual-array-now-available-plus-update-for-storsimple-integrates-azure-site-recovery
• Announcing R Tools for Visual Studio
  • https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/machinelearning/2016/03/09/announcing-r-tools-for-visual-studio-2/
• Code complete: Microsoft announces SharePoint Server 2016 RTM
  • https://blogs.microsoft.com/firehose/2016/03/14/code-complete-microsoft-announces-sharepoint-server-2016-rtm
• Upgrade SQL Server 2005 before support ends on April 12
  • https://blogs.microsoft.com/firehose/2016/03/16/upgrade-sql-server-2005-before-support-ends-on-april-12
• Developer preview for Bing’s new search APIs now available
  • https://blogs.microsoft.com/firehose/2016/03/15/developer-preview-for-bings-new-search-apis-now-available/#sm.001bkxn8n1826ffnt8n1lkde1hzu0
• Build 2016 announcements:
  • https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2016/03/31/build-2016-announcing-tomorrows-cloud-innovations-for-todays-developers
  • https://news.microsoft.com/build2016/
  • … we made targeting every device and platform a lot easier by making Xamarin available to every Visual Studio developer for free, including the free Visual Studio Community Edition.
  • To enable even more choice and flexibility for developers, we announced a commitment to open source Xamarin’s runtime, libraries and command line tools as part of the .NET Foundation
  • We announced a preview of Azure Functions, extending Azure’s market-leading application platform with new serverless compute for event-driven solutions. Functions lets developers easily handle on-demand tasks that respond to events, common in Web and mobile applications, IoT and big data scenarios. Working across Azure and third-party services, it enables developers to write functions in a variety of languages, such as JavaScript, C#, Python and PHP, with the ability to automatically scale out to meet demand, only charging for the time a function runs.
  • We now have Azure IoT Starter Kits available for purchase. With development boards, actuators, sensors and easy user-friendly tutorials, now anyone with Windows or Linux experience – whether a student, inventor, device maker, hobbyist or developer – can quickly build IoT prototypes inexpensively.
  • We also announced that applications can now communicate with the scalable NoSQL service DocumentDB, using existing Apache License MongoDB APIs and drivers
  • We announced the general availability of Azure Service Fabric, our microservices application platform, to help developers design apps and services with always-on availability and scale.
• Azure SQL Database Threat Detection includes round-the-clock security
  • https://blogs.microsoft.com/firehose/2016/03/17/azure-sql-database-threat-detection-includes-round-the-clock-security/#sm.0001clk5i6193eer3w9kunrxjlwpf
  • Threat Detection easily tracks millions of transactions to find the needle-in-a-haystack, a malicious attacker. When it discovers suspicious activity, it will proactively notify you and enable you to respond and mitigate any potential damage.”
• Try out machine learning templates for real-world scenarios using SQL Server 2016 R Services
  • https://blogs.microsoft.com/firehose/2016/03/23/try-out-machine-learning-templates-for-real-world-scenarios-using-sql-server-2016-r-services/
  • Microsoft provides data science templates that address real-world scenarios, including online fraud detection, predictive maintenance and customer churn prediction

 

 

Recent Whitepapers/E-books/Training/Tutorials

• Free Webinar: Building A Scalable Data Science Platform with R and Hadoop
  • https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/machinelearning/2016/03/21/free-webinar-building-a-scalable-data-science-platform-with-r-and-hadoop/
• JSON support in SQL Server – Details, tips and trick
  • https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlserverstorageengine/2016/03/20/json-support-in-sql-server-details-tips-and-tricks/
• Columnstore Index: A short video showcasing enhancements in SQL Server 2016
  • https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlserverstorageengine/2016/03/18/columnstore-index-a-short-video-showcasing-enhancements-in-sql-server-2016/
• Whitepaper SAP on SQL Server 2012 and SQL Server 2014
  • https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/saponsqlserver/2016/03/07/whitepaper-sap-on-sql-server-2012-and-sql-server-2014/
• On Demand Webinar “What’s New for SQL Server 2016 Analysis Services” available now
  • https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/analysisservices/2016/03/25/on-demand-webinar-whats-new-for-sql-server-2016-analysis-services-available-now/

 

 

Monthly Script Tips

• [Script Of Mar. 21] How to get SQL Server information by PowerShell
  • https://blogs.technet.com/b/onescript/archive/2016/03/21/script-of-mar-21-how-to-get-sql-server-information-by-powershell.aspx
• [Script Of Mar. 02] How to find the created and last updated date of procedures in a SQL instance
  • https://blogs.technet.com/b/onescript/archive/2016/03/02/script-of-mar-02-how-to-find-the-created-and-last-updated-date-of-procedures-in-a-sql-instance.aspx
• [Script Of Mar. 22] How to get SQL Server information by PowerShell
  • https://blogs.technet.com/b/onescript/archive/2016/03/22/script-of-mar-22-how-to-get-sql-server-information-by-powershell.aspx
• [Script Of Mar. 03] How to compress rowstore tables in SQL Server
  • https://blogs.technet.com/b/onescript/archive/2016/03/03/script-of-mar-03-how-to-compress-rowstore-tables-in-sql-server.aspx
• Creating a SQL Server 2016 demo
  • https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/msuspartner/2016/03/09/data-analytics-community-creating-a-sql-server-2016-demo/

 

Fany Carolina Vargas | SQL Dedicated Premier Field Engineer | Microsoft Services