Database

Fabric IQ: The Long Road to Smarter Data August 10, 2026 Fabric IQ enhances OneLake data with additional business context to help AI, agents, and other...more Most Azure Reservation Exchanges End in 2027  August 7, 2026 Most key Azure reservations purchased after Feb. 2027 can no longer be exchanged once purchased....more Azure SQL Database DTUs: There’s a Better Way July 1, 2026 The Azure SQL Database DTU model bundles compute, memory, and storage that are easy to...more What Data Does Azure Arc Share with Microsoft? April 29, 2026 Azure Arc is an increasingly necessary management framework for organizations, particularly those seeking to use...more SQL Server 2016/2017 Integration Services Migration April 20, 2026 SQL Server Integration Services options remain strong, and there’s no immediate need to migrate away...more Azure Savings Plan for Databases Now Available March 27, 2026 Azure Savings Plan for Databases, introduced in Mar. 2026, may offer significant savings for organizations...more SQL Server 2016/2017 BI Migration: Destinations Point to Power BI March 13, 2026 Power BI or Fabric are Microsoft’s direction for reporting and analysis services unless organizations consider...more SQL Server 2016/2017 Database Migration: So Many Choices January 26, 2026 Organizations should develop plans to migrate off SQL Server 2016/2017 before the end of Extended support.  Migrating the database is likely the largest task but is manageable and less...more Top Reasons to Use SQL Server 2025 and a Few Reasons to Avoid It January 14, 2026 SQL Server 2025 reached general availability in Nov. 2025 and offers compelling changes that should...more SQL Server 2016/2017 Migration Strategy: Risks and Opportunities January 5, 2026 SQL Server 2016 and 2017 are leaving Extended support (in July 2026 and Oct. 2027,...more Goodbye SQL Server Reporting Services and Hello Power BI Report Server December 1, 2025 SQL Server 2025 (released in Nov. 2025) will not include Reporting Services (SSRS), its long-standing reporting...more Azure DocumentDB Has a Solid Future And a New Name November 24, 2025 Azure DocumentDB (previously called Cosmos DB for MongoDB vCore), has matured to the point where...more Azure’s MySQL Offering Gets a New Lease on Life November 24, 2025 Azure Database for MySQL is receiving new versions and enterprise features that make it more...more Azure SQL Managed Instance’s New Authentication Option to Help with Migrations November 3, 2025 SQL Managed Instance adds support for native Windows logins, removing the last barrier to migrating...more SQL Server Management Studio Update Will Integrate GitHub Copilot Updated: October 23, 2025 A new version of SQL Server Management Studio brings the most significant updates to the...more Azure Data Studio Is Retiring: What You Need to Do and When September 13, 2025 Azure Data Studio, long touted as the future for data management in Azure, will be...more

Per Core License Model Flowchart May 1, 2026 SQL Server Edition Packaging May 1, 2026 Server Application Version Support March 17, 2026

  Licensing Reference SQL Server A server-based product that provides database management, integration services, reporting, analysis services, and machine learning...more   Licensing Reference Azure Analysis Services Azure Analysis Services purchasing is instance-based and hourly, with costs driven by tier, size, runtime,...more   Licensing Reference Azure Data Factory ADF is bought through Azure consumption, with costs shaped by activity runs, runtime hours, reservations,...more   Product Reference HDInsight Azure HDInsight is a cloud database service based on Apache’s Hadoop open-source software framework.   Product Reference Synapse Analytics Azure Synapse Analytics is a multipurpose analytics and data warehouse service designed for organizations with...more   Product Reference Databricks Azure Databricks is an Azure cloud service based on Databricks technology, a third-party offering that...more   Product Reference Confidential Ledger Azure Confidential Ledger is a managed, append-only data store for records whose integrity must be...more   Licensing Reference Databricks Azure Databricks provides a “lakehouse”—a single governed environment that combines the structured data and query...more   Licensing Reference HDInsight Azure HDInsight is a managed cluster service for running Apache Hadoop ecosystem technologies on Azure...more   Licensing Reference Synapse Analytics Azure Synapse Analytics is purchased as an Azure consumption service, and each of the engines...more   Licensing Reference Fabric Fabric is primarily licensed through a combination of computational capacity-based fees (that can be applied...more   Product Reference Azure Analysis Services Azure Analysis Services (AAS) is a cloud analytics service based on SQL Server Analysis Services...more   Product Reference Azure Data Factory Azure Data Factory (ADF) is a cloud extract, transform, and load (ETL) service that helps...more   Licensing Reference Cosmos DB Azure Cosmos DB is billed for three separate components: Compute (provisioned or pay-as-you-go (PAYG) with...more   Product Reference Data Share Azure Data Share is a managed service for distributing data to customers, partners, and other...more   Product Reference Cosmos DB Azure Cosmos DB is a multimodal database service that supports multiple data formats and open...more

Database, Analytics, and AI/ML Roadmap

Copilot   Fabric