The only thing constant in the Cloud Infrastructure environment is change. In line with that concept, Azure has rolled the new Version 12 for the SQL Database. Whether it is related to the numerous Cloud applications or the backend infrastructure supporting it, a valid and secure Database is required for the smooth operation.
Here’s how you can take full advantage of the new features and upgrades to the new Azure SQL Database Version 12.
Increased application compatibility with Azure SQL Server
One of the key features for the SQL Database V12 was to improve the compatibility with Microsoft SQL Server 2014. It was specific to the area of programmability. It included enhancements, for instance in the Full-Text Search queries on the databases, change tracking, XML indexes and selective XML indexes.
Improved and Reliable Performance levels
One way the performance and power of the Azure SQL Database is expressed is through the Database Throughput Units (DTUs). It is the unit of measure in SQL Database that represents the relative power of databases based on a real-world measure: the database transaction. It is a measure of the number of transactions that can be completed per second under fully loaded conditions.
The three Service Tiers allocated in the Azure SQL Cloud Database are Basic, Standard and Premium. Of these, Premium level has a top DTU of 1750.
In V12, the database throughput units (DTUs) allocated to all Premium performance levels is increased by 25% at no additional cost.
Security Enhancements
Improvements in the Security is the primary concern for running any business in the cloud. The V12 security enhancements include among others:
- Row-Level security of the databases
- Transparent Data Encryption (TDE)
- Connectivity to the database using Azure Active Directory Authentication (Azure AD)
- Dynamic Data Masking
- Always Encrypted (a new feature where encryption is transparent to applications. It allows clients to encrypt sensitive data inside client applications without sharing the encryption keys with SQL Database)
Disaster Recovery for increased Business Continuity
Business Continuity is vital for deploying and running a Cloud Application in the event of a planned or unplanned disruptive events that result in permanent or temporary loss of the application’s ability to conduct its business function.
In V12, there is significant improvement in the Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs) and Estimated Recovery Times (ERTs)
Better support for Cloud SaaS vendors
The SaaS vendors need to have better performance and support for executing their scheduled tasks. In V12, the public preview of the Elastic Database Pools and a new Standard performance level S3, is available specifically for the SaaS vendors.
Here, DTU’s are shared among the various databases to reduce cost and execute the large number of database jobs.
More reasons to upgrade to Version12
Along with the above mentioned reasons, here’s why you should upgrade to Version 12:
- Enhanced and new features that are not available in V11
- New features will be continuously added to V12, but not to V11.
- New features are released first in the Azure SQL Database and later in the SQL Server.
To upgrade to the SQL Database V12, please contact us at +91-80-4110-5555 or write to us on info@sysfore.com and we’ll get back to you.