Stretch Database is a nice feature of SQL Server 2016

Source: MSFT Blog

Why do you need this?

Well you want to archive data (historical) but you do not want to store it locally as it is not frequently accessed and your resources are inadequate. However you do want to access. No problem, a query in SSMS can access that data (remotely stored in Azure) as easily as the on premises data. It is possible there may be a bit of latency from the remote site.

SSMS 2016 has a very good wizard to take care of the Stretch Database.  The Wizard is accessible via the Object Explorer. You need to select the database you want to extend using the Stretch Database feature. It is not necessary that you choose an entire database to extend; you can use the filter to include what you need to go into the Stretch database. Of course, since the remote is on Azure, you should have an account and proper credentials. The Stretch database is always online and querying should have no problem.

Stretch database is compatible with the other features; Transparent Data Encryption and Always Encrypted and Row-Level Security features.

You do require a Azure account but a free trial is available. There is a price for everything including the new Stretch database feature.

More here:
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/dataplatforminsider/2016/04/13/keep-data-virtually-forever-with-stretch-database-in-sql-server-2016/

Must see Video: SQL Database for Developers

SQL Server 2016 is advertised to be the most significant SQL Server in recent times and has a plethora of new ideas and concepts. This presentation (over an hour long) really provides a great background for SQL Server 2016 which is in RC3 presently but appears to be on Azure (preview?) already.

This is a video that you must see if you are a SQL Database Developer. The presentation (nearly an hour, March 30, 2016 Build event) by Lindsey Allen and Tony Petrossian is really informative, helpful and well made.

The stated overview of the presentation was:
"Microsoft offers SQL Server and Azure SQL Database to help you develop great relational database applications. In this session you will learn about the top developer features coming in SQL Server 2016 which are already in Azure SQL Database. Additionally, you will see the latest investments in Azure SQL Database that enable you to easily manage thousands of databases and get the performance and security insight needed to build robust and secure applications in the cloud.
"
You can hear the full presentation with all the demos here:
(Day 1 of the Microsoft Build meeting. Lindsey Allen and Tony Petrossian March 30, 2016)

The following demos were presented to deliver the 'wow' impact (it is possible that I might have omitted some).

• In-memory OLTP Demo nicely presented.
• Always encrypted demo(Security schema, security policy  etc)
• Dynamic data matching
• SQL Injection/Auditing
• Demo with Python script
• Demo with Ruby

The video presentation is copied over here as well:



However, if you are short on time and just would like to glance over the slides they used, you may review the following images captured from the video as screen shots.

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 Comparison

Download SQL Server 2016 Release Candidate 3 and evaluate

SQL2K16RC3.png
You can download the 120 day edition from here after registering.

Three types of download (only 64-bit):

ISO
CAB
Azure

Hardware and software requirements (abbreviated):

• .NET Framework 4.6, Installation setup installs.NET Framework
• Network Software: Shared memory, Named Pipes, TCP/IP and VIA
• Hard disk space: Minimum of 6GB
• Drive/Monitor/Internet required.
• Memory: 1GB
• Processor: x64 bit 1.4GHZ
• Processor type: x64 Processor: AMD Opteron, AMD Athlon, Intel Xeon with Intel EM64T Support and Intel Premium with EM64T support
• No support for WOW 64

Here are the benefits of SQL Server 2016:
Enhanced in-memory performance provide up to 30x faster transactions, more than 100x faster queries than disk based relational databases and real-time operational analytics
◾New Always Encrypted technology helps protect your data at rest and in motion, on-premises and in the cloud, with master keys sitting with the application, without application changes
◾Built-in advanced analytics– provide the scalability and performance benefits of building and running your advanced analytics algorithms directly in the core SQL Server transactional database
◾Business insights through rich visualizations on mobile devices with native apps for Windows, iOS and Android
◾Simplify management of relational and non-relational data with ability to query both through standard T-SQL using PolyBase technology
◾Stretch Database technology keeps more of your customer’s historical data at your fingertips by transparently stretching your warm and cold OLTP data to Microsoft Azure in a secure manner  without application changes
◾Faster hybrid backups, high availability and disaster recovery scenarios to backup and restore your on-premises databases to Microsoft Azure and place your SQL Server AlwaysOn secondaries in Azure

There are several different types of SQL Server 2014 available and detials are here:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143506(v=sql.130).aspx#hwswr

Get SQL Server 2016 CTP3 and work on SQL Server 2016 soon

SQL Server Team blog on 10/18/2015 announced the availability of SQL Server 2016 CTP3 besides quite a few others. This post is related to CTP2 only.

Microsoft has been very active in working on its database product SQL Server 2016 this year as seen in the number of posts. It is still in CTP but then it is not 2016 yet. These are the quoted kye words for this version,'faster transactions and queries, deeper insights on any device, advanced analytics, new security technology, and new hybrid cloud scenarios'.

http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2015/05/sql-serverr-2016-early-bird-special.html -5/13
http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2015/05/start-evaluating-sql-server-2016-ctp2.html -5/28
http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2015/07/sql-server-2016-ctp-21-is-ready-for.html -7/11
http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2015/07/upgrading-sql-server-2016-ctp-2-to-sql.html -7/11
http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2015/07/notes-2-sql-server-management-studio.html -7/13
http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2015/08/regarding-sql-server-2016-ctp-22.html -8/06
http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2015/09/download-sql-server-ctp-23-and-check.html -9/11

You can download from here after the sign in ritual.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-sql-server-2016.
From the other links on the above site you can download the previous versions of SQL Servers(2014 SP1 and 2012 SP1; both evaluation versions valid for 180 days)

The stated benefits of the CTP3 are the following:

•     Enhanced in-memory performance provide up to 30x faster transactions, more than 100x faster queries than disk based relational databases and real-time operational analytics

•     New Always Encrypted technology helps protect your data at rest and in motion, on-premises and in the cloud, with master keys sitting with the application, without application changes

•     Built-in advanced analytics– provide the scalability and performance benefits of building and running your advanced analytics algorithms directly in the core SQL Server transactional database

•     Business insights through rich visualizations on mobile devices with native apps for Windows, iOS and Android

•     Simplify management of relational and non-relational data with ability to query both through standard T-SQL using PolyBase technology

•     Stretch Database technology keeps more of your customer’s historical data at your fingertips by transparently stretching your warm and cold OLTP data to Microsoft Azure in a secure manner  without application changes

•     Faster hybrid backups, high availability and disaster recovery scenarios to backup and restore your on-premises databases to Microsoft Azure and place your SQL Server AlwaysOn secondaries in Azure

File formats are 64bit ISO or CAB. The installation is as usual except if you are using Microsoft Edge, you cannot save, you just run. However you do get an option to name a directory (with a default) to save extracted files.

Keep coming back to Hodentek and HodentekMSSS for more posts on SQL Server related information.

SQL Server 2016 CTP2 is ready, get it now!

Starting May 27 you can download your own copy of SQL Server 2016 Community
Technology Preview 2 from this site:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-sql-server-2016

Since it's lifetime is 120 days download right away to test drive. You can
download a CAB file or an ISO file. I believe there is a virtual image on the
Microsoft Azure cloud as well.

SQL Server 2016 has taken a big, big step in what it can offer compared to the
previous versions.

It offers a whole lot of benefits listed here from a
Microsoft site:

◾Enhanced in-memory performance provide up to 30x faster transactions, more
than 100x faster queries than disk based relational databases and real-time
operational analytics
◾New Always Encrypted technology helps protect your data at rest and in motion,
on-premises and in the cloud, with master keys sitting with the application,
without application changes
◾Built-in advanced analytics– provide the scalability and performance benefits
of building and running your advanced analytics algorithms directly in the core
SQL Server transactional database
◾Business insights through rich visualizations on mobile devices with native
apps for Windows, iOS and Android
◾Simplify management of relational and non-relational data with ability to
query both through standard T-SQL using PolyBase technology
◾Stretch Database technology keeps more of your customer’s historical data at
your fingertips by transparently stretching your warm and cold OLTP data to
Microsoft Azure in a secure manner  without application changes
◾Faster hybrid backups, high availability and disaster recovery scenarios to
backup and restore your on-premises databases to Microsoft Azure and place your
SQL Server AlwaysOn secondaries in Azure
You can get it for both x32 and x64 bit architectures.

SQL Server 2016 CTP2 CAB file:
Download the following files from the Evaluation Center to a temporary directory on your device:

◦SQLServer2016CTP2-<architecture>-<language>.box
◦SQLServer2016CTP2-<architecture>-<language>.exe

Once the download has completed, extract the zip files then double click on the SQLServer2016CTP2-<architecture>-<language>.exe to begin the installation process.
 

SQL Server 2016 Public Preview Coming Soon

The first public preview of SQL Server 2016 is imminent. This is deemed to be an historic version with real-time operational analytics; rich data visualization on mobile platforms and advanced analytics already built-in. It also has the latest hybrid cloud scenarios with latest Advanced security technology.

Key features:
Always Encrypted:
Straight from Microsoft Research. Data protection at rest (in Server) and in motion
Encryption key stays with application
Encryption, decryption takes place transparently inside the application
This feature supports the new Stretch Database as well.

Stretch Database:
This technology which is motivated to reduce cost for customers so that they can archive by moving bloated transactional data to Azure and maintain fast performance with hot data. This stretching of transactional data is dynamic and is secure using the latest Always Encrypted feature.



Real-time Operational Analytics and In-Memory OLTP:
Blazing fast transactional performance of real time operational analytics according to Microsoft. 100 times faster queries with in-memory OLTP compared to 30 times presently possible with disk-based system.

Built-in Advanced Analytics, Polybase and Mobile BI
Goes beyond OLTP to data warehousing and Business Intelligence and delivers advanced analytics made possible by Revolution Analytics. It uses R processing with excellent statistics support. Polybase will be integrated with SQL Server to address both relational and unstructured data using SQL Skills. There is a Data Scientist here!!


These are additional capabilities quoted from the blog:

•    Additional security enhancements for Row-level Security and Dynamic Data Masking to round out our security investments with Always Encrypted.
•    Improvements to AlwaysOn for more robust availability and disaster recovery with multiple synchronous replicas and secondary load balancing.
•    Native JSON support to offer better performance and support for your many types of your data.
•    SQL Server Enterprise Information Management (EIM) tools and Analysis Services get an upgrade in performance, usability and scalability.
•    Faster hybrid backups, high availability and disaster recovery scenarios to backup and restore your on-premises databases to Azure and place your SQL Server AlwaysOn secondaries in Azure.

Download a copy of the datasheet here:

You could look up more details here (the pictures are from Microsoft Blog):