The upcoming release of Sql Server 2019 which is largely expected to take place during PASS Summit 2019 & Ignite 2019 simultaneously (and given that Rohan Kumar (Microsoft VP) seems to be present only at the PASS Summit, I am slowly starting to believe that maybe and just maybe Microsoft will announce it first on PASS Summit … though given that Florida is a couple of hours before Seattle )
I wish would announce it at PASS Summit 2019, this would give huge focus to the industry principle event, where people say what they really think – and where one can expect a honest & independent opinions, which are becoming increasingly rare.
The documentation has been released on the Editions & Features support in Sql Server 2019 and there are huge news that will get a good number of Standard Editions users excited.
The thing that should make every single user of the Sql Server 2019 Standard Edition jump is the presence of TDE (Transparent Database Encryption), the feature that
– every single responsible company would love to be able to use to secure their data
– that every single DBA, Developer & IT Professional kept asking Microsoft to include for so many years
– was already there since Azure SQL Database has it by default a couple of years even for the basic edition
I am beyond happy with this news. Grateful that Microsoft has listened to the common sense voice and made a security feature available for the paying customers, giving them a little bit more possibility to be conformant to such demanding norms as GDPR.
Maximum Server Memory
There are no changes to maximum amount of memory available to Sql Server Standard Edition (128 GB, plus of course the Columnstore & In-Memory pools) and that is all that I want to say about that.
And yes, those capped 24 cores are totally fine.
Other New Features that are IN Standard Edition
Persistent Memory Support – very cool. This can give some good performance edge for the Standard Edition. This could be a good solution once the Persistent Memory prices and availability will become a little bit more reasonable.
Approximate Distinct Count – As expected, this is a programmability feature.
Always Encrypted with secure enclaves – Security. Microsoft keeps pushing the boundaries and that makes me extremely happy.
UTF-8 – Programmability.
Accelerated Database Recovery – a very, very, very welcome feature. I am honestly surprised and excited about its inclusion to support Standard Edition of Sql Server. This is a huge move.
Table variable deferred compilation – Programmability & Performance … So I am positively surprised with this one.
Interleaved execution for multi-statement table valued functions – Programmability & Performance. Same as the previous item
Scalar UDF Inlining – Programmability & Performance. I am beyond happy for having this feature in Standard Edition. I hope to see so many applications just simply fly because of the Sql Server 2019 upgrade. For very big projects this might be one of the key reasons to migrate to Sql Server 2019.
Polybase Head Node
This is a kind of a big one. We should be able to run the Standard Edition as the head node for the Scale-out groups.
I love that the cool exclusive toys eventually starts becoming available for everyone.
New Features that are Enterprise Edition Exclusives
Online Rebuild for the Clustered Columnstore – Performance and Online, makes sense to ask for more money for them. *Sniff*
Memory-Optimised TempDB Metadata – Performance feature. Totally makable for the standard edition though. I do not expect it to be “make it or break it” kind of stuff. Well, from the positive side – less people will face TempDB incompatibility when using Columnstore Indexes. :)
Batch Mode on Rowstore – totally expected. Performance feature. Meh though …
RowStore Indexes Memory grant feedback – … Performance it is. :( Heck, I do agree that it will make people paying more money or in some cases use their brain and start using Columnstore Indexes. :)
RowStore Indexes Adaptive Join – … Same as for the original Sql Server 2017 Columnstore Adaptive Join.
From SQL 14 to SQL 19
Imagine the world where you are migrating an instance of Sql Server 2014 Standard Edition to Sql Server 2019 Standard Edition.
You are hitting a whole brave new world – Compression, Partitioning, Columnstore, In-Memory, TDE, ADR you name it!
The programming surface is incredibly rich and upgrading is beyond just new features introduction – but the potential is there to take your applications to brand new level of performance, availability and reliability …
One last thing
Oh, Microsoft … increase that “mighty” 128 GB one day soon, please :)