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Microsoft Makes SQL Server 2019 Generally Available

Microsoft on Monday released the latest version of its flagship relational database, SQL Server 2019, during its 2019 Ignite conference in Orlando, Fla.

New features in the new version include Big Data clusters, always-on availability and Scalar UDF inlining. SQL Server 2019 can also run on Linux and offers a container registry. Microsoft is also touting improved monitoring, analytics, security, high availability and ease-of-use improvements in this latest release.

"SQL Server 2019 enables enterprises to gain intelligence over all data types, both structured and unstructured, by combining the power of new big data clusters with enhanced data virtualization," commented John "JG" Chirapurath, Microsoft's general manager of Azure Data & AI, in the blog post announcing the release.

"These powerful additions to SQL Server enable enterprises to not only store and query big data at scale but also combine it with structured data in whatever database it may reside such as SQL Server, Oracle, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, and others," he continued. "SQL Database [is] the price-performance leader for mission-critical workloads while costing up to 86 percent less than AWS RDS."

SQL Server 2019 is available now.

The last refresh of SQL Server 2019 version came in late August. At that time, it was only known that Microsoft would be releasing the final version by the end of 2020. The original preview of SQL Server 2019 debuted at Microsoft's 2018 Ignite show.

About the Author

Becky Nagel serves as vice president of AI for 1105 Media specializing in developing media, events and training for companies around AI and generative AI technology. She also regularly writes and reports on AI news, and is the founding editor of PureAI.com. She's the author of "ChatGPT Prompt 101 Guide for Business Users" and other popular AI resources with a real-world business perspective. She regularly speaks, writes and develops content around AI, generative AI and other business tech. She has a background in Web technology and B2B enterprise technology journalism.

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