SQL Server 2014 enables customers to build mission-critical applications and Big Data solutions using high-performance, in-memory technology across OLTP, data warehousing, business intelligence and analytics workloads without having to buy expensive add-ons or high-end appliances. SQL Server 2014 uses a common set of tools to deploy and manage databases both on-premises and in the cloud, which makes it easier for customers to take advantage of the cloud with existing skills.
Benefits
SQL Server 2014 makes it easier and more cost effective to build high-performance, mission-critical applications, enterprise ready Big Data assets, and BI solutions that help employees make better decisions, faster. These solutions have the flexibility of being deployed on-premises, in the cloud or in a hybrid environment, and can be managed through a common and familiar tool set.
Mission-critical performance
SQL Server 2014 accelerates reliable, mission critical applications with a new in-memory OLTP engine that can deliver on average 10x, and up to 30x transactional performance gains. For Data Warehousing, the new updatable in-memory columnstore can query 100x faster than legacy solutions. SQL Server also delivers peace of mind as the most secure database five years in a row. (National Institute of Standards and Technology Comprehensive Vulnerability Database 4/17/2013, Market share from IDC 2013)
Faster insights on any data
Get to insights faster with a complete BI platform that speeds up how you access, analyze, clean and shape both internal and external data. With SQL Server 2014 and Power BI for Office 365, it is easy to connect every user in an organization to the right data they need to make better decisions, faster.
Platform for hybrid cloud
SQL Server 2014 was designed to work in a hybrid environment that spans on-premises and the cloud and has new tools that make it even easier to build back-up and disaster recovery solutions with Microsoft Azure. These tools provide an easy on-ramp to the cloud for on-premises SQL Server databases, enabling customers to use their existing skills to take advantage of Microsoft’s global datacenters.
Capabilities
Breakthrough, in-memory performance
With SQL Server 2014, new in-memory capabilities for transaction processing and enhancements for data warehousing complement our existing technologies for data warehousing and analytics. Scale and transform your business with, on average, a 10x performance gain for transaction processing while still using existing hardware, and a greater-than 100x performance gain for data warehousing.
Proven, predictable performance
SQL Server consistently leads in TPC-E, TPC-H and real-world application performance benchmarks. SQL Server is SAP-certified to run some of the most demanding workloads. Get more predictable performance of virtualized SQL Server instances with IO governance in Resource Governor.
High availability and disaster recovery
Gain greater uptime, faster failover, improved manageability, and better use of hardware resources through AlwaysOn, a unified solution for high availability. In SQL Server 2014, there are additional active secondaries, new online operations and the ability to quickly setup a secondary in Microsoft Azure.
Enterprise scalability across compute, networking, and storage
With Windows Server, physical processing now scales up to 640 logical processors, and virtual machines scale up to 64 logical processors. SQL Server 2014 uses this scale, storage spaces and network virtualization to maximize overall infrastructure utilization. It can also run on Windows Server Core to lower the surface area of attack.
Security and compliance
Help secure data with transparent data encryption, robust auditing, extensible key management and encrypted backups. It is even easier to manage permissions for data access to support separation of duties across various users.
Consistent data platform on-premises to cloud
Leverage existing skills and familiar tools across Microsoft’s data platform with SQL Server in a Microsoft Azure virtual machine when migrating existing on-premises apps into the cloud, and Microsoft Azure SQL Database for new modern applications that fully utilize the scale of the cloud.
Corporate business intelligence
Scale your BI models, enrich and help secure your data, and ensure quality and accuracy with a complete BI solution. Build comprehensive, enterprise-scale analytic solutions with Analysis Services and simplify BI model deployment with the BI Semantic Model.
Faster insights for all users in familiar tools like Excel and data access via mobile devices
Accelerate time-to-insight, on-premises and in the cloud with SQL 2014 and Power BI for Office 365. Get richer visualizations using Power Map and Power View. Search, access, and shape internal, external, structured, and unstructured data with Power Query. Access insights from anywhere using Power BI for Office 365.
Scalable data warehousing
Scale to petabytes for relational data warehousing and integrate with non-relational sources like Hadoop. Support your smallest to your largest data storage needs while handling queries up to 100x faster than your legacy data platform through massive parallel processing and in-memory technologies with SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse.
Data quality and integration services
Integration services includes rich support for extract, transact and load (ETL) tasks, and the ability to run and manage as a separate SQL Server instance. Improve data quality by using organizational knowledge and third-party data providers to cleanse data through Data Quality Services.