SQL Server 2016 Reaches General Availability

Microsoft has announced today that SQL Server 2016 is ready for production environments. The updated platform brings with it improved security, performance and new features with a price point that allows it to target Oracle customers to grow its market share.

With SQL Server 2016, there will be four editions: Express, Standard, Enterprise, and a Developer edition. The Developer edition is now a free version of the Enterprise edition of SQL Server 2016, but it cannot be used in production environments and is for development and testing only.

The following image includes a full breakdown of the feature sets per edition.

For those curious about the Linux version of the platform, which the company announced earlier this year, that product will not be ready until mid-2017.

With this release, Microsoft is going after Oracle users by showing how the new platform can perform the same tasks as an Oracle-based deployment but for 1/10^th the cost. And, seeing as Microsoft is also offering free licenses to Oracle customers to switch to SQL Server 2016, the company is playing hardball with their database counterpart.

It will be interesting to watch the adoption curve of this platform as typically large clients will wait until the first few patches are released before implementing new software from Microsoft. But, seeing how the company has been publicly beta testing this platform for the past couple of months prior to launch, this may provide early adopters a bit more assurance that the platform is production ready from day one.