We still don’t have an exact release date for SQL Server 2022 but at this stage we can have strong confidence that it will be with us before the end of the year – rather than slipping and becoming SQL Server 2023.
My first intimation that this was so, was earlier this year. I’ve been writing a book for Apress – “Pro Encryption in SQL Server 2022” that’s due to be released in a couple of weeks. At some point I questioned my editor about whether we should hold off as I didn’t want to be the author of a book referencing a version of a product that never existed. His answer was that Bob Ward says it’s happening, we’re releasing his book too, and it’s also got SQL Server 2022 in the title.
Given that Bob’s a Principal Architect for SQL Server with Microsoft, that gave me the confidence I needed. Bob’s book “SQL Server 2022 Revealed” was released a couple of weeks ago and goes over all the new features and enhancements in depth. I’ve started working my way through it and can highly recommend you get yourselves a copy. You get it currently at nearly a 70% discount through the following link:
As well as being a great technologist, Bob is an excellent and engaging writer. In addition to talking about the what the new features are, he gives insights into the design thinking that went into creating them which makes for interesting reading.
Here I reproduce Bob’s diagram that he calls the “Wheel of Power” showing the major new capabilities of SQL Server 2022:
I plan to blog about some of the new features I find most interesting and exciting over the next couple of weeks. I can’t wait to get dug in with the enhancements to Built-in Query Intelligence and Query Store. There are also enhancements to Always Encrypted which I’ve written about in my own book.
The cloud connected features are also very interesting and create new options for us in term of how we manage High Availability and Disaster Recovery as well as being able to offload parts of our workloads to the cloud.
Stay tuned, or if you can’t wait then grab a copy of Bob’s book and start working through the demos – there’s some great stuff. Like most releases on SQL Server, it’s not a quantum leap in computing, but there’s certainly enough for us DBAs to get our teeth stuck into and start thinking about what it offers us.