Microsoft Releases SQL Server 2012

Microsoft (MSFT) announced that the latest version of its data platform, Microsoft SQL Server 2012, has been released to manufacturing.

Microsoft says the new release will help customers manage any data, regardless of size, both on-premises and in the cloud.   Several new data warehousing solutions will be released in conjunction with the general availability of SQL Server 2012, slated to begin April 1. “Data is being generated faster than ever before, and organizations need a way to process and analyze all that data,” said Ted Kummert, corporate vice president at Microsoft. “Whatever the type or size of data, SQL Server 2012 delivers the platform and familiar tools to manage data, generate actionable insights and help drive business impact.”

Big Data

The company also disclosed additional details regarding its plans to release an Apache Hadoop-based service for Windows Azure. IT research firm Gartner estimates that the volume of global data is growing at a rate of 59 percent per year, with 70 to 85 percent in unstructured form. Furthering its commitment to connect SQL Server and rich business intelligence tools with unstructured data, Microsoft announced plans to release an additional limited preview of an Apache Hadoop-based service for Windows Azure in the first half of 2012.

Fusion-io announced that BetOnSoft, a global online gaming software provider, is accelerating its Microsoft SQL Server 2012 database to provide better experiences for its customers with Fusion’s ioMemory platform. The BetOnSoft development team recently upgraded to SQL Server 2012 as part of the Microsoft Technology Adoption Program, powered by Fusion ioMemory to scale with expected growth without impacting user experience.

“When upgrading to SQL Server 2012, visionary professionals like the BetOnSoft team recognize how ioMemory complements the powerful features in Microsoft’s newest version of SQL,” said Mat Young, Fusion-io Technical Senior Director. “With ioMemory products, customers can add terabytes of persistent, high-performance memory per server to gain top performance from tempDB, log and index files. The cut-through architecture of ioMemory enables users to fully exploit new features like AlwaysOn Availability, without the need to add latency and expense through a legacy SAN architecture.”

EMC announced new EMC Proven Solutions and Consulting Services for Microsoft SQL Server 2012 to help customers deploy SQL Server for mission critical data center applications. When addressing SQL Server 2012 requirements customers can achieve 80 percent faster SQL Server provisioning with EMC VNX Unified Storage, automate allocation of SQL Server 2012 storage and see a lower cost by using EMC FAST (Fully Automated Storage Tiering) software and EMC VFCache server flash caching solution.

EMC announced two new Proven Solutions to help customers leverage the newest features in SQL Server 2012. The EMC SQL Server Readiness will document technology considerations for utilizing the new SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn Availability Groups with EMC FAST VP and EMC VMAXe. The EMC SQL Server 2012 Multi-Site Disaster Recovery solution documents technology considerations for utilizing the new SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn Availability Groups, with EMC FAST Suite and EMC VNX unified storage.

"SQL Server 2012 and EMC Solutions and Application services help our customers address mission critical performance, availability and data protection requirements," said Eduardo Rosini, Corporate Vice President, SQL Server Marketing atMicrosoft. "EMC's announcement of new consulting services that leverage Microsoft BI tools will enable our customers to use their data more competitively – providing breakthrough insights."