SQL Server 2019 Preview Expands Footprint

• With its next version, SQL Server continues to develop into a one-stop data management solution that works with any data type, process, and platform.
• Organizations should be able to better leverage existing SQL Server investments and skills for new types of databases and more existing systems.
• Administrators will have to master substantially different management technologies to take advantage of new Big Data capabilities.
• The version reduces the gap between Windows Server and Linux editions, making deployment on the open source OS more viable, although business intelligence tools are still lacking.

The next version of the SQL Server Software, SQL Server 2019, is available for evaluation in Community Technical Preview (CTP) 2.0 The preview contains several new platform features that open the door to using SQL Server for a broader range of workloads.

Big Data Deployment Option

The release is introducing a new deployment option, called Big Data clusters, that enables SQL Server to create, manage, and query large, unstructured data sources, such as a data lake, without requiring an external data management system, such as Hadoop. A data lake is a storage repository whose purpose is to hold vast amounts of unprocessed data, such as Internet of Things (IoT) sensor data, in its native format for further analysis.