Azure SQL Data Warehouse Platform Upgrade, Roadmap

• A platform upgrade for SQL Data Warehouse increases performance and scale for large, compute-intensive data warehouses.
• Security updates help regulated industries and allow customers to control encryption keys.
• Data management improvements provide access to non-SQL data for new workloads and assist with migrating large volumes of data to the service.
• Planned updates will allow customers to leverage the service’s performance and SQL features to query more data sources.

Azure SQL Data Warehouse is a specialized data storage service that delivers petabyte-level data storage and high-speed query features. It is based on SQL Server 2017 and offers many of the most common database management features and APIs offered with its on-premises parent. SQL Data Warehouse is designed for organizations seeking a hosted data warehouse service with low cost, quick deployment, scalability, and global reach. (For more details, see the sidebar “Azure SQL Data Warehouse Overview“.)

This report covers key changes to the service in 2018 that are important for enterprise customers and provides guidance on upcoming changes in 2019.