There are many innovations bundled with the new release of SQL Server 2022. Lets focus on a few major ones :
Disaster Recovery: Do failover from SQL Server 2022 to Azure SQL Managed Instance in regions you need
Today Customer has to spin up an Azure VM or another SQL On Prem Server to fail over.
Now with Azure SQL Managed Instance , its easy to setup DR Site. You need to attach Azure SQL Managed Instance to SQL Server . Using Azure SQL Managed Instance Link With one click you can attach your DB to the cloud. Availability Group and Distributed Availability Group is setup automatically . You can also view this in Azure Portal . Since this is a Managed Service, you do not have to manage and maintain your DR Infrastructure . Replication to Azure Managed Instance happens immediately . You can also use this service in case of outage or hardware upgrade. And once when things are normal , you can move Azure SQL Managed Instance database back to On Prem SQL Server.
Integration of Operations and Analytics . Earlier you had to ETL your Data ( Extract – Transform – Load ) on a schedule into your analytics system . Now this is not required as you can use Azure Synapse link integration for near real time analytics and reporting. Now SQL Server can be integrated with Azure Synapse just like Dataverse and Cosmos DB . Using Synapse workspace , establish Synapse Link relationship between SQl pool in Synapse and SQL Server . Link specific tables that you want to link with Synapse. Azure Synapse opens up limitless data analytics . You can get insights in near real time. And as Power BI visualization is built in to Synapse , Data Visualization becomes very easy to understand.
Get complete visibility of your SQL Data across all regions and locations using Azure Purview integration
Auditing. Introducing SQL Server Ledger. This uses Block chain Technology to verify changes by other parties so that you can retain accurate record of data
Improved Performance . With built-in query intelligence. Example is Stored procedure for consistent query performance . Earlier due to Parameter sniffing , the performance would go down. Now the built in query intelligence ensures super performance.
Licensing Information :
SQL Server SA benefits :
Existing
AHB
License Mobility
Unltd Virtualization for Enterprise Edition
New version upgrade rights
Free HA/DR On Prem and DR to Azure SQL VM
New
Free DR to Azure SQL Managed Instance
SSO and AAD
Microsoft Defender
Centralized Governance
Unlimited Containerization
Other Options :
Move from older On Prem SQL to Azure SQL or new PAY As You Go Model