What's New in Microsoft SQL at SQLCon/FabCon | Data Exposed

Key Takeaways

Hi, I'm Anna Hoffman and welcome back to Data Exposed. I am super excited because I have some really special guests and we are going to recap the first ever SQL Con. So, to do that, I am bringing back Bob Ward. Bob, thank you so much for coming back to Data Exposed. Uh and I'm bringing someone new and rather than trying to introduce her myself, uh she's super important to the Microsoft SQL organization and Microsoft overall, but uh Priya, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do? Yeah, hey Anna Bob, so good to see you here and so excited. Thank you for having me. Folks, I am Priya Sathi. I am the vice president of product for Microsoft SQL and I'm super excited to be here and talk about some exciting things we're working on and cooking up in the SQL world. Awesome. Great. We are super excited and very fortunate to have you, so thank you for joining us on the show. Everyone's super excited to see you here. I keep saying super excited because that's how we feel. Uh but anyways, I wanted to bring you on specifically as well as Bob to talk about SQL Con. It's this huge conference that we're kind of wrapping up as we speak. Um but, you know, you were a huge spearhead of SQL Con. So, can you tell us a little bit a little bit more about why you thought SQL Con was so important for us to have and, you know, if we're going to keep doing these in the future? Yeah. Yeah, it's a such a great question, Anna. And you know what? Uh we really needed a moment for the SQL community. Now, a little-known secret about me is, you know, I started my career 30 years ago with SQL and I'm a been a huge fan of SQL for a very, very, very long time. Uh and we've kind of felt like we needed a Microsoft led SQL conference. And what better way to do it than do it side by side with the Fabric conference? Guess what? Because SQL databases and analytics have been better together for a very, very long time. Best friends, cousins, siblings, maybe? And going forward, this is actually just going to be an ongoing 6-month rhythm. We're going to show you progress. We're going to share what's new, what's next. We're going to talk about our roadmaps and we really want to stay close to you. We want to stay close to the community. And that is exactly why we thought SQL Con with Fab Con is the best of both worlds. Awesome. Yeah, I I love that and I know we're we're all grateful that this is happening and that it's going to continue to happen. So, if you didn't attend SQL Con Fab Con this year, um maybe you'll consider joining us in Barcelona later this year or wherever it is in the US the following year. Um but with that, I wanted to get right into all the announcements because we announced so many things. Um I'm going to throw up this literally just wall of announcements. >> [laughter] >> About across, you know, several themes that we've kind of been tying through to over the past year or so. Um Priya, as far as like, you know, broad sweeping strategy that the Microsoft SQL team has taken on, like, how does that impact what folks are seeing here? Yeah, first of all, Anna Bob, I mean, man, SQL folks have been really busy, right? Like this wall should tell you how busy we've been. But I I really want to take a step back here and talk a little bit here, right? SQL's been around a long time, 30 years, over 30 years, right? And over the years, we have just kept up with the demands of the market, whether it was price, performance, security, analytics needs. We have just evolved and evolved and we've kept up and we have modernized ourselves over and over again and the database has just landed what the community has needed, what customers have needed every single year, every step of the way. Now, last year, we took a huge step in this modernization journey to bring AI directly into the database itself, making SQL smarter, more assistive and more integrated with the rest of the data platform. Now, at SQL Con, we are building on that momentum we set up last year and we are going to show you how SQL is evolving into the foundation for modern AI data ready estates or AI ready estates across the entire SQL footprint. Whether you're deploying SQL Server, you're in Azure SQL or you're trying Fabric SQL database, all of it is going to be ready to help you build modern AI ready applications. And folks, honestly, that is such an exciting moment, not just for the SQL community, but the entire data community. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I couldn't have said it better if I tried. So, thank you, Priya. I think that gives everybody the grounding in the background for when you look at all the things that we're doing, um why we're doing those things. Um Bob, you know, I always bring you on around events to talk about some things that stand out to you. Uh what are some of the things that stand out or maybe are hidden gems as you've said before? >> Sure. Yeah, thanks, Anna. Priya, great statement. In fact, thank you because I've always struggled to say SQL's never put like Microsoft SQL. Thank you for just like that easy thing to tell everybody, which covers everything we do. And thank you so much for calling it SQL Con. It's just an easy word to say instead of some huge name of a conference, right? So, thank you for that. Um you're right, Anna. So, some of this I've worked on directly, some I've worked on the team, some I showed at SQL Con. Here's a couple hidden ones. Look at register inventory multiple instances and databases. People are like, what the heck is that? Do you know how many people do Azure virtual machine, but the IS agent extension that comes with it couldn't register a multi-instance SQL Server. Very frustrating for our customers. That's finally landed. That's a massive request that's been around for a while. So, really great to see that land. There's a great stuff in the migration journey, for sure. In the cloud-native space, I spent a lot of time on AI. We've got some really nice improvements for vectors. We've got inner filter. We've got faster index performance. Um you know, we've got the idea of being able to go in and do approximation now. That's really, really important. Uh DML on a vector tables. You couldn't even update these tables, right, with an index. So, kind of brought the vector space kind of in my mind more first class that our developers expect, for sure. And then on the right side there for Fabric, you spent a lot of time in this space, but I spent a lot of time behind the scenes with you on this parity idea. You know, trying to bring things like alter database into the world cuz we had a lot of customers asking for that, for sure. A lot of great stuff in that space for Fabric to bring kind of that that SQL feel into that Fabric space. And then the tools team and the drivers team and stuff, what an amazing job. I myself use GitHub Copilot quite a bit now internally and externally and so, great to see that land in Management Studio. It's going to be a great experience for not just developers, but also for DBAs. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, I'm here, so I have to call out some of my favorite things. Uh some of the things that I think maybe if you missed it, you would not have wanted to miss this. Uh two things I want to call out. One is SQL notebooks. So many of you have been asking for this with the retirement of Azure Data Studio and then the Polyglot extension retirement and we are delivering. So, SQL notebooks is now available in preview in the MSSQL extension in VS Code. Um the second thing is SQL projects. So, we're bringing SDK-style SQL projects into SSMS and so, it's a whole new world where we can all work with source control and our databases together in SSMS. So, those are just two of the things, but yeah, I agree. Like there's just so many things going on. Um some things that aren't even on this slide. Um Priya, I know AI is a huge initiative. Like, what are we doing to help kind of people ramp up? Yeah, and you know what? We know that there are people that are in this We have a lot of DBAs. We have a lot of developers that use love SQL on a daily basis and we really want to bring everybody along the journey of AI. We are in such a transformative time as an industry, right? But we know it's not easy to get up and say, "Oh my gosh, what changed today? You know, how do I keep up with this? And how do I use this to build AI insights into my app or chat with my data?" Too much going on. So, we are excited that there is a new SQL AI developer certification that we are bringing into beta for you. And this is exactly what is going to help you learn about all of the AI capabilities and build upon the foundations of SQL that you built your career on over the last 10, 20, 30 years, right? Anna, that I I don't know. You guys have been so deeply involved, you and Bob. What do you think of this certification? Yeah, I'm uh I'm really excited about it. I'm not sure if I would pass it, but I would definitely need to go I need to go make sure that I can pass it because just like everybody else, you know, like this world is changing so quickly and like, you know, this is a good way to me of saying like, we're bringing you with us just like when we started doing cloud stuff. Bob, what do you think? Yeah, I'm I I same thing. I I can't take it. I helped build it. But I mean, I'm just saying, number one, we haven't had a cert forever. People have been asking us for a certification. People love certifications. It really is something they can put as a badge to to their cops that they've done. And Priya, what I love the concept we've done is it's not just for your traditional .NET developer, Python developer. This is for all SQL professionals, DBA, Python pros. You can become what we call an AI SQL developer now. Guess what? A lot of it's all T-SQL based that's in there. I think people are going to love this certification. Yep. It's going to help you up-level your skills, folks. Up-level your career, and all of a sudden your apps are going to pop up with new capabilities. Okay, we've also been I I failed to mention probably the biggest announcement here, and that is something that didn't even land on the slide. Priya, do you want to tell us a little bit about it? Yeah, super excited about this, Anna, and we've been keeping it a secret. We've been working on it for quite a while. You know, over the the years, actually, we heard a lot of feedback from you folks. We heard that, you know, it's no longer managing one or two databases. You're managing a database estate. You're managing tens and hundreds and thousands of databases. You're not just managing SQL Server or Azure SQL, but you're managing Cosmos DB and Postgres and even the new Fabric databases. And you want more observability, you want insights, and you want us to make your lives easier in managing, governing the entire estate. And guess what, folks? That is exactly what we've solved for, and we're super excited to bring to you database hub in Fabric into limited preview. And this is going to give you exactly that. Observability across the estate with insights across your databases, whether it's cost optimization, performance optimization, or it's about how you can use our agent capabilities to get deeper insights. All of that tied up in the database hub to help you manage your estate, be more cost-efficient, be more performant with a single pane of glass. So, super excited about it, Anna. I love it. Yeah, and it's just been resonating so well with customers both before we announced it when we've been working on it internally, as well as here at SQL Con this week. So, awesome. Thank you so much, Priya, for for sharing the background with us. Bob, thanks so much for coming on the show and sharing your insights on the things that you like. It's always a pleasure to have you on Data Exposed. And Priya, I hope you'll come back sometime that we didn't traumatize you too badly here. No, no, this was exciting. Actually, this was fun. I had really a lot of fun talking to you guys, and yes, I'd love to come back in anytime. And if there are other secret projects we're working on, maybe, Anna, we can come back and talk about it. But you know what? People are going to have to just keep coming to SQL Con to understand what are these secret secret projects we're working on, because we are on a whole modernization journey, and we want you to come along with us. Barcelona. That was good, actually. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, I mean, go get your tickets, Bob. That's right. Awesome. Okay, you heard it here first, folks. Like, we want you to join us for all the secrets at the next SQL Con. We're going to hold Priya to that, okay? So, you guys come find us in Barcelona later this year. But but in all reality, if you like this episode, go ahead and give it us a a like. Leave us a comment and let us know what your favorite announcement is or what you want to see next. And we'll put some links in the description so you can go read the blogs about what landed. And we hope to see you next time on Data Exposed.