Failover, Replication, and Backup Improvements

SQL Server 2016 expands replication to reduce downtime and cost and improves offsite backup security and manageability with Azure Storage. High-availability features include more failover options for highly critical applications, automated routing and load balancing of read-only queries to improve application performance, and the inclusion of advanced failover in Standard edition (with some limitations) to reduce cost and management effort. Azure backup introduces more flexible security controls to limit access to data, support for larger backup sizes, and simplified management to reduce manual work.

Failover and Disaster Recovery Options Expanded

Improvements to high-availability and disaster recovery features in AlwaysOn Availability Groups (AGs) enables AlwaysOn AG usage in a broader range of applications than previous versions supported.

AlwaysOn AG Overview

AlwaysOn AG replicates one or more primary databases to multiple secondary databases and can provide automated failover to a secondary database when the primary fails. AlwaysOn AG can be used for high availability and disaster recovery, and to reduce load on primary databases for tasks such as backup and reporting.