While SQL Server 2008 was little more than a service-pack level upgrade, the 2012 version of Microsoft’s database has a boatload of new features and delivers solid performance improvements.

SQL Server 2012/2014 delivers compelling new capabilities that make an upgrade worthwhile. Many IT professionals agree that the AlwaysOn Availability Group (AG) feature offers the most value with its ...

Unlock the full InfoQ experience by logging in! Stay updated with your favorite authors and topics, engage with content, and download exclusive resources. Cory Benfield discusses the evolution of ...

First introduced in SQL Server 2012, columnstore indexes can give you major performance gains -- provided you have the right workloads. Here's how columnstore indexes work and what types of data work ...

Custom proximity search is a new feature introduced in SQL Server 2012 Full-Text Search. It's facilitated using the NEAR operator, allowing it to be used in the CONTAINS predicate or CONTAINSTABLE ...

Microsoft is changing the pricing and SKUs for the upcoming version of SQL Server, its flagship database. The changes include deletion of some old editions, and a new way of counting compute power. In ...

Hmmm…think back to 2005, Microsoft is marketing its plans to release a new version of Microsoft SQL Server (2005) –remember how Microsoft executives were swearing ...

Microsoft has reminded Windows Server 2012 and SQL Server 2012 users that the products will reach their extended support end dates during the next two years, urging them to update to avoid security ...