Microsoft SQL Server 2012 has many great new features that will allow you to develop higher performing, more scalable next-generation applications using more than just relational data. Although this release will be a little early for many customers, the fact that the features are largely incremental in nature should reassure users that Microsoft is building on the established foundation of SQL Server 2008. Using the same architecture and management tools, you will be able to smoothly upgrade your systems and skills based on the need for the new features and according to your own schedule.
Three underlying themes categorize the SQL Server 2012 release:
Mission Critical Confidence
Breakthrough Insight
Cloud On Your Terms
In this white paper, we will explore just some of the new features under each theme to give a feel for the capabilities of the upcoming release. Other features, while too numerous to describe here, are documented on the Microsoft web site at http://www.microsoft.com/sql. You can also download a pre-release version of the software or Community Technology Preview (CTP) from the same location.
AlwaysOn for High Availability and Disaster Recovery
Project "Apollo" provides column compression and performance gains
Organizational compliance with enterprise-wide security controls
Before SQL Server 2012, we had four options for High Availability (HA), namely, Server Clustering, Database Mirroring, Log Shipping, and Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Replication. Each solution had its pros and cons. Clustering and Mirroring provided automatic failover. Log Shipping and P2P provided load balancing. Log Shipping would provide the ability to create multiple read-only "secondaries" dispersed over great geographical distances for Disaster Recovery (DR) sites. A common solution was to define a Server Cluster for HA combined with Log Shipping for DR known as HADR. Database Mirroring would only allow one Mirror, and it would not be available until failover. Log Shipping and Replication did not have automatic failover. Replication also can require complex administration.
SQL Server 2012 effectively combines the pros of each of these solutions with its AlwaysOn feature. With AlwaysOn, you will have the automatic failover of Mirroring at the Database level but with the added ability to create multiple secondaries for read-only load balancing. AlwaysOn will provide HADR and Load Balancing in one effective solution.
SQL Server 2008 introduced Data Compression at the Row and Page Levels to provide not only storage savings but also, surprisingly, performance gains based on less I/O. In SQL Server 2008 R2, the VertiPaq technology allowed massive Column-level compression in conjunction with the PowerPivot add-in. In SQL Server 2012, the new column-store index, as part of Project Apollo, will provide the same massive column-level compression within the Database Engine itself. Data Warehouse queries against Star or Snowflake schemas will be optimized to give potential performance gains and storage savings in the order of 100 times improvement.
On the security front, new features in SQL Server 2012 include the ability to create user-defined server roles. This allows specific permissions to be applied to groups of logins instead of using the fixed server roles or having to give permissions directly to each login.
Another interesting security feature is the Contained Database that allows a database to be moved or copied to a new instance without having the dependency on login objects. Users can connect to the database without authenticating a login at the Database Engine-level. Effectively, the database becomes self-contained and removes the normally tricky situation of orphaned users. However, the Contained Databases option has to be specifically enabled at the instance level, an existing database needs to be converted to be Contained, and the users need to be migrated to become Contained Database Users. There exist some specific security threats that relate uniquely to Contained Databases (documented in SQL Server 2012 Books Online), but if you need a database to be easily portable, the benefits may outweigh the drawbacks.
The SQL Audit feature, which was introduced in SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition, allows Server- and Database- level auditing without the need for DDL or DML Trigger, giving a more efficient method of auditing that is built in to the Database Engine. SQL Server 2012 allows new features such as filtering audit output and now supports Server level audits for all SQL Server editions.
SSAS 2012: VertiPaq, BI Semantic Model, and PowerPivot
Consistent data via Data Quality Services
Parallel Data Warehouse and Reference Architectures
SQL Server 2008 R2 introduced support for PowerPivot through Excel 2010 and SharePoint 2010 using its VertiPaq technology for massive column compression. This allowed advanced users to develop their own Business Intelligence solutions via Excel or Sharepoint. The Vertipaq technology allowed literally hundreds of millions of rows of data to be imported and analyzed efficiently on the client via Excel and on the Server via Sharepoint. Based on the popularity of the technology, SSAS 2012 enables Vertipaq on the server-side within Analysis Services itself in a new configuration option named Tabular Mode that supports the BI Semantic Model (BISM).
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