Microsoft SQL server coming to Linux mid-2017, preview build available

In a blog post, Microsoft has announced that SQL Server will be making its way to Linux with a final release scheduled mid-2017.

“This is an enormously important decision for Microsoft, allowing it to offer its well-known and trusted database to an expanded set of customers”, said group vice president, enterprise infrastructure, at International Data Corporation, Al Gillen.

The system looks to incorporate a host of features, such as Stretch Database which allows users can access data on-premises via the cloud.

A preview build of SQL for Linux is already available with ‘core relational database capabilities’.

“By taking this key product to Linux Microsoft is proving its commitment to being a cross-platform solution provider. This gives customers choice and reduces the concerns for lock-in. We would expect this will also accelerate the overall adoption of SQL Server,” adds Gillen.

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Paul Cormier, President, Products Technology at Red Hat has confirmed SQL Server will also be available on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, which will give more database choices to enterprise users

Mark Shuttleworth’s Canonical, the company behind Debian-based OS uBuntu, is worth with Microsoft on bringing SQL Server to Linux. “Customers are already taking advantage of Azure Data Lake services on Ubuntu, and now developers will be able to build modern applications that utilize SQL Server’s enterprise capabilities,” says Shuttleworth.

Microsoft had not confirmed if the system will be available across all Linux distributions.

Along with the news, Microsoft has said SQL Server 2016 will be launching later this year. It will feature increased security, in-memory database support, business intelligence for every employee on every device (iOS, Android, Windows phone), analytics using R support, and cloud capabilities for hybrid architectures.

Over the past year, Microsoft has been using the system’s codebase to run over 1.4 million production SQL databases on their Azure SQL Database as a Service offering.