SQL 2020 will be released in late 2020 probably November / December 2020.
Also named SQL2020 and SQL Server 16.0 (not to be confused with SQL Server 2016!)
The latest verison SQL 2019 was officially released in November 2019 and contained a range of new features covering:
- Big Data Clusters and PolyBase – this was a major enhacements and is a major enhancement to PolyBase that allows you to connect SQL Server to Oracle, MongoDB and Teradata natively
- Intelligent Query Processing- like a “black box” recorder that enables a database administrator to very quickly isolate the root cause of a performance issue.
- Smarter Monitoring – resolves issues many users had with query store
- Optimized Insert Performance – resolves bottleneck and performance constraints when trying to insert sequential records into a table at very high volume
- Better, faster database recovery – resolves one of those key NFR’s RTO
- On premise – Microsoft appears to still be very committed to building on premise SQL Server so this is not going away any time soon
Looking forward it is worth looking at some of the key features that Microsoft are likely to include in the SQL 2020 Release date.
The latest incarnation of Microsoft hugely popular BI, database and analytics toolset is likely to further build on the foundations laid in SQL 2019 and offer improved integration with widely used open source Data Science toolsets like R and Python.
We also widely expect the further embedding of more Azure Managed instance functionality and a widening of the Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Robotics and Predictive analytics capabilities into SQL2020.
It’s also anticipated that Power BI will get a major revamp with probably the introduction of improved data governance and stewardship capabilities to ensure it keeps pace with the competition now that Power BI
SQL 2020
An area that is ripe for exploitation by the main Business Intelligence vendors is Data Quality. This is an area that vendors increasingly provide expensive add on products for but there is a keen desire amongst many organisations for more embedded mainstream offerings in this area.
Wider use of Master Data Management tools and better Dev Ops integration with Azure
Data Quality is one key area that Microsoft have very few offerings to users in comparison with widely used Data Quality tools.
Overall Microsoft will likely continue to build on the success of SQL2019, widen and deepen the plaform.
