This week, we’re excited to kick off SQLCon 2026 alongside FabCon in Atlanta. Bringing these SQL and Material communities collectively creates a singular alternative to study, join, and share what’s subsequent throughout the Microsoft databases portfolio.
This 12 months is very significant, because it marks the return of a Microsoft‑led SQL group occasion, whereas additionally showcasing how SQL continues to evolve as a essential a part of Material. It’s not nearly new know-how, however about reconnecting with one another and constructing the way forward for SQL collectively.
It’s inspiring to see the Microsoft SQL group proceed to develop and have interaction, with person teams worldwide protecting conversations lively throughout the SQL portfolio and numerous clients utilizing Microsoft SQL to innovate on daily basis. With a complete portfolio constructed on strategic widespread foundations and accessible throughout edge, PaaS, and SaaS, Microsoft databases type a unified platform for contemporary enterprise wants, whether or not you’re migrating and modernizing, constructing cloud-native AI functions, or unifying your information.
Migrate and modernize with Azure SQL
Lots of our clients usually are not modernizing in a single huge leap. You might be evolving from SQL Server to hybrid after which to cloud providers, and also you need that journey to really feel acquainted, predictable, and low danger. That’s precisely what Azure SQL is designed to ship. Constructed on a constant Microsoft SQL basis from on premises to the cloud, Azure SQL brings AI capabilities straight into your database expertise, together with enterprise‑grade safety, excessive availability, and the pliability to scale as your wants develop. Azure SQL is totally SQL appropriate, delivers robust efficiency and low latency, and helps hybrid eventualities by means of Azure Arc.
AI brokers have gotten an necessary accelerator for database migration and modernization at Microsoft, serving to our clients cut back handbook effort and transfer sooner with extra guided experiences throughout the journey. The normal availability of GitHub Copilot in SSMS 22 is a good instance of that funding in motion: you should utilize the identical GitHub Copilot expertise you already use in Visible Studio and VS Code, now inside SQL Server Administration Studio (SSMS), with chat and code help that helps you write, edit, and refactor T‑SQL extra rapidly and confidently. Whether or not you’re a developer or database administrator (DBA), new to SQL or extremely skilled, GitHub Copilot can assist widespread workflows like bettering queries and aiding with troubleshooting and administration duties proper the place you’re employed, and we’re persevering with to increase what it might do.
Right now we’re saying financial savings plan for databases, a versatile, spend-based pricing choice that helps you save as much as 35%1 vs. pay-as-you-go costs on a one-year dedication. Financial savings plan for databases is designed for contemporary, evolving database environments: Prospects decide to a set hourly spend for one 12 months and obtain decrease costs throughout eligible Azure database providers. Financial savings are robotically utilized to the highest-value utilization every hour, serving to cut back prices whereas supporting migration, modernization, and architectural change.
Construct cloud-native AI apps at scale
As soon as you progress to the cloud, the questions shift. How do you construct sooner, scale smarter, and unlock extra worth out of your information with out re‑architecting every thing you could have already constructed? That’s the place Azure SQL Database Hyperscale is available in.
With Azure SQL Database Hyperscale, clients achieve higher price-performance, elastic scale and resilience for any workload, with out the associated fee or disruption of rewriting T‑SQL or remodeling operational fashions. Its distinctive structure, constructed on shared storage and a number of replicas, lets you scale reads independently from writes. With constructed‑in HTAP isolation, functions can deal with large transactional and analytical workloads with out complicated redesign. New capabilities now in public preview lengthen that basis even additional, together with the SQL MCP Server for securely connecting SQL information to AI brokers and Copilots, in addition to bigger 160 and 192 vCore choices for top‑throughput workloads.
We’re delivering sooner, extra succesful vector indexes to energy AI functions. Current enhancements enhance vector search efficiency and effectivity with no code adjustments required. With full insert, replace, and delete assist, vector indexes keep present in actual time, enabling dynamic functions. Options like quantization, iterative filtering, and tighter question optimizer integration present sooner, extra predictable outcomes, serving to groups construct responsive AI experiences straight on their SQL information.
Temenos constructed its subsequent‑technology banking platform, Temenos Core, on Azure utilizing Azure SQL Database Hyperscale to realize international scale, excessive availability, and resilient efficiency. The platform processes billions of transactions every day and greater than 17,500 transactions per second at peak. By constructing on Hyperscale, Temenos decreased onboarding time, accelerated innovation, and shifted banks from worrying about downtime to competing on availability and digital innovation.
Unify your information property with SQL database in Material
We proceed to boost the bar on enterprise readiness for SQL database in Material by bringing enterprise-grade safety and compliance capabilities straight into the platform. Right now at SQLCon, we introduced the final availability of options together with SQL Auditing, Buyer‑Managed Keys, and Dynamic Knowledge Masking, and the preview of workspace‑degree Personal Hyperlink. We introduced these enhancements to assist clients meet strict governance and regulatory necessities with out including operational complexity. The result’s confidence that your SQL workloads in Material are safe, compliant, and prepared for manufacturing.
SQL database in Material is turning into much more highly effective for AI‑pushed functions. The identical vector indexing enhancements accessible in Azure SQL Database Hyperscale are actually constructed into SQL database in Material as properly. As a result of each are powered by the identical Microsoft SQL engine, clients profit from constant efficiency, capabilities, and innovation throughout the SQL portfolio—making it simpler to construct clever functions wherever their information lives.
Lastly, shifting to SQL database in Material is easier than ever. The Migration Assistant now helps SQL database in Material as a goal vacation spot. It supplies a Copilot-assisted expertise that helps SQL builders assess readiness, migrate schema, determine compatibility points, and replica information with much less handbook effort. By preserving acquainted SQL expertise and workflows, clients can modernize at their very own tempo whereas accelerating time to worth on Material’s unified analytics and AI platform.
There may be yet one more Material innovation that issues deeply for the way we ship Microsoft databases as a unified platform. As functions develop extra subtle, most organizations now depend on a mixture of SQL and NoSQL databases throughout cloud, on‑premises, and edge environments. Provisioning, monitoring, and sustaining well being throughout a rising database fleet typically requires a number of instruments and portals, making it tougher to see what’s taking place and handle at scale.
To deal with this, we’re introducing the Database Hub in Microsoft Material, now accessible in early entry. The Database Hub supplies a unified database administration expertise that brings collectively databases throughout edge, cloud, and Material into one coherent view. From a single place, database groups can discover, observe, govern, and optimize their total property, together with Azure SQL, Azure Cosmos DB, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc, and Azure Database for MySQL with out altering how every service is deployed or operated.
Constructed for scale, the Database Hub introduces an agent-assisted, human-in-the-loop method to database administration. Clever brokers constantly motive over estate-wide indicators to floor what modified, clarify why it issues, and information groups towards what to do subsequent, whereas built-in observability, delegated governance, and Copilot-powered insights assist groups transfer from perception to motion with better confidence. With the Database Hub, groups spend much less time navigating instruments and extra time enabling what comes subsequent: unlocking deeper integration throughout functions, analytics, and AI from a single management airplane for the Microsoft databases portfolio.
Database Hub is accessible at this time in early entry. Enroll at this time and see how the Database Hub can carry readability and management to your database property.
SQLCon is about bringing the SQL group collectively. It’s about rebuilding connections and shared studying. It additionally displays our long-term dedication to SQL. With a complete portfolio constructed on strategic widespread foundations and accessible throughout edge, PaaS, and SaaS, Microsoft databases present a unified platform for contemporary enterprise wants, whether or not you’re migrating and modernizing, constructing cloud-native AI functions, or unifying your information. We’re investing in SQL for the long run, alongside the group that continues to form it.
Lastly, SQLCon is coming to Europe! Be part of the worldwide information and SQL group from 28 Sep – 01st October, 2026 in Barcelona, Spain for hands-on studying, skilled insights, and real-world tales. Register to be part of it. I can’t wait to see you there.
Extra SQL sources
1Prospects may even see financial savings estimated to be between 0% and 35%. The 35% financial savings estimate relies on one Azure SQL Database serverless operating for 12 months at a pay-as-you-go price vs. a decreased price for a 1-year financial savings plan. Primarily based on Azure pricing as of March 2026. Costs are topic to alter. Precise financial savings could fluctuate primarily based on location, database service, and/or utilization.
