Historically, Microsoft publicly announces the next version of SQL Server about a year before it ships. For example:
- November 2, 2021, Microsoft announced the private preview of SQL Server 2022.
- About 6 months later, on May 24, 2022, they announced the public preview.
- About 12 months after the private preview announcement, on November 16, 2022, SQL Server 2022 was generally available.
This was pretty consistent with past releases: about a year before the release, Microsoft would go on record with the features included with the next version, and some companies would be able to start using it in production to prepare for the eventual release.
<checks calendar>
Well, it’s been about 2.5 years since SQL Server 2022’s announcement, so we’re looking at at least a 3-year release cycle. We might be coming up on the announcements for SQL Server 2025.
They could either announce the next version’s features at Microsoft Build on May 21-24 or at the PASS Summit on Nov 4-8. I’ll be watching the Build session catalog as Microsoft updates it because when Microsoft announces a new product, the related sessions are hidden until after the product is officially announced. It’s free to attend Build online, so if they announce 2025 during a keynote, I’ll tune in to the related general sessions.
I personally love a 3-year release cadence, and I don’t want new versions any more frequently than that. People have a hard time upgrading, and frankly, Microsoft has a hard time shipping that quickly. Just release every 3 years, and make sure the product is actually ready at the time of release. That’s good enough.
I’ve heard some folks say, “Maybe Microsoft is done with SQL Server because they want everyone to move to Azure.” Well, I’m sure they do, but they also acknowledge the reality that many companies host their infrastructure in Amazon and Google. Those clients need SQL Server licensing, because you can’t practically run Azure SQL DB in other clouds.
Microsoft also has to keep releasing new versions of SQL Server because they need to keep cashing your sweet, sweet Software Assurance checks. While SA does come with other benefits, like free licensing for a couple/few passive standby servers for HA and DR, those benefits aren’t priceless. If Microsoft didn’t ship a new version for, say, 5 years, I know some companies that would simply stop paying Software Assurance. Even if these companies don’t actually upgrade that often, they pay for the ability to know that they could upgrade – which means Microsoft has to keep bringing out versions & features.
What might Microsoft add in 2025? Clearly, AI is the buzzword du jour, and Microsoft’s Joe Sack has already demoed some of the Copilot things they’re working on in Azure SQL DB. Copilot integration requires internet connectivity, something that’s easier to integrate in cloud databases like Azure SQL DB. If you try to do large language model work on-premises, you’ll quickly learn that it’s extremely CPU and GPU intensive, and that doesn’t really make sense for a product like SQL Server that’s licensed by the CPU core. I’ll be curious to see how they package AI services to a crowd that sometimes screams in horror at the idea of giving their database servers access to the Internet.
Would you be okay giving your SQL Servers access to the Internet? And what AI-related features would you love to see included?
11 Comments. Leave new
Some of my SQLServers are in factories supporting machines there. No way will they go to the cloud. They need to be connected to the machine.
Liz, you are not alone. Smart idea. Azure is great for DR and research projects but some things need to be local.
Try saying “Lets host the 9-1-1 system in the cloud” or “Our water treatment / fuel flow needs to be in the cloud” when Joe Backhoe has cut the cable multiple times.
The only thing we keep in the cloud is our Mainframe.
Totally agree. There’s just no way you can put critical manufacturing infrastructure in the cloud. Even with two connections to the outside world – ATT&T, Comcast, Century Link, or whoever – the last mile of copper is usually one provider especially when the production facility is outside a metro area like most food manufacturing.
I would also add that with the problems the major providers have had with security and the focus bad players are putting on attacking their infrastructure, putting any critical business data in the cloud is a questionable decision.
I’m with Techno on Joe Backhoe. We’ve had him cut the cable even with it marked and in one case he cut it on one side of the road one day and the other side of the road the next day. Reliability is determined by the weakest link in the chain. I prefer I have control of the weakest link and that’s no in the cloud.
Old(ish) IT guy here. Got about 15-17 years left in the ol’ work day grind. Really hoping I can avoid moving to Azure and using AI in that time. Both are inevitable for sure though, just trying to stave it off as long as possible.
The lack of new SQL version announcement does have me a bit on edge though.
Back in 1997 I worked for the University and it was common to have databases accessible by the internet. Also back then the University used students social security numbers as student ids. It didn’t take long for databases to go under firewalls and Universities to stop using social security numbers as student ids. Who knows maybe we can go back in time in the future.
A three or four year upgrade rate is good. At two years, we might skip every other upgrade.
Patching is an issue. With five versions of SQL (2014,16,17,19 &22) its hard to keep track of patches for servers. [ SQL 2012 & 08 were driven out by security edict – not because they stopped working. SQL 2000 ran for over a decade ]
We are still running two 2014 servers and several 2016 servers [SQL 2016 is now seven years old + ]
Oddly, being able to upgrade the hardware behind the scenes has made upgrades slower. Since a VM can be floated over to a new cluster to upgrade the hardware & memory speed, the OS and SQL can stay the same.
What should SQL 2025 have ? Single table restore !!! ORACLE & DB2 have it.
(a pretty short wish list as SQL already does everything I’m currently look for)
Each release has been better on my projects and there have been times…
Some issues have become harder to address/confirm due to underlying tweaks or undocumented features due to the particular version (release/hotpack/sp/cu) cadence item.
My suggestions would be:
Use the three-year model, I understand people like the shiny new (so do I) when things break, oh boy.
Use a tired price for the product as an overlapping sinewave throughout its life cycle as the next product approaches. So early adopters may have their needs fulfilled and others supporting deeply integrated moving parts can adapt as needed.
Provide a deeper dive technical note that provides the changes, the why, and potential impacts. The CU update notes sometimes have this, sometimes more detail would be epic.
Other items I would wish for:
Simplify the documentation to remove the cruft & legacy bits from other versions that do not apply.
Best practices “notes” for “the version” based on…
This would highlight suggestions based on the regression testing and details of how the elements were tested. This can be hard and may expose inner items, I get it.
These last two items are all available, but digging is hard when constraints abound.
This is my reason for loving the time & effort Mr. Unlimited, and all the others that have shared online & stage over the years have made me love the product.
Yes, I am on 2022/2019 and started with 4.2 on OS/2 SE. 🙂
Mr. Unlimited! Whoo boy you’re going to give Brent a big head 😀
We have secure data that we aren’t allowed to put into the cloud, so we still need on-prem SQL servers. I know that we aren’t the only ones with that requirement. No, we don’t allow our SQL servers open access to the Internet and we never will. The only AI features we might consider have to do with monitoring, using AI to help us identify issues that we wouldn’t recognize or to identify trends over time.
The cloud is new, nice, easy, shiny but expensive and slow.
We are at 5-10% cloud adoption rate, and it is slowing. We even had the for few migrations back to onPrem due to either cost or performance needs.
Purchase the infrastructure to run a nice big “SQL Server Hotel” in a HA/DR setup (when you have the facilities, people and know how) – then compare prices. The cloud is ridiculously expensive after a year or two.
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