Introducing SQL Server 2025 - Enterprise Ready AI

SQL Server 2025 is an upcoming release focused on AI, analytics, and modern database development, backed by innovations in mission-critical engine features for security, performance, and high availability.

Let’s dive into what this means for your AI and data-driven applications. We’ll walk through some of the new features announced by Azure Data Principal Architect Bob Ward in his post Announcing SQL Server 2025, and I’ll give some thoughts on these innovations and where they will fit in the enterprise.

AI Built-In

SQL Server 2025 introduces AI capabilities like vector search with native vector types, RAG pattern implementation, and integration with Azure OpenAI and other AI services.

These features include:

Native Vector Indexing: Accelerated hybrid searches via DiskANN and vector distance functions. Combine vector and native indexes to perform hybrid searches on your data.
Seamless AI Model Management: Deploy, manage and secure T-SQL-accessible models via REST APIs.
Embedding generation and text chunking built into T-SQL.
Developer Ecosystem Integration: Ready support for LangChain, Semantic Kernel, and Entity Framework Core.

These are the features we’ve all been waiting for and expecting to see from Microsoft surrounding AI. Microsoft is aiming to bring AI capabilities to the enterprise. The messaging around this release emphasizes that SQL Server 2025 is an “Enterprise AI-ready database.” By incorporating AI capabilities into the database engine, enterprises can leverage existing skills, support mechanisms, and licensing they already possess in their environment and leverage the enterprise-grade features and capabilities a platform like SQL Server has already built in, such as high availability, performance, and security.

Integrate Your Data with Fabric

Unlock real-time analytics using Fabric Mirroring for seamless integration with Microsoft Fabric. This zero-ETL solution provides analytic offloading without impacting transactional workloads.

Fabric serves as the foundation for modern analytics and data engineering. Microsoft is simplifying the process of transferring data from operational systems to its flagship analytics platform. Architecturally, this innovation aligns seamlessly with contemporary data strategies by minimizing data movement and complexity. For both developers and architects, it offers a more efficient route to delivering realtime analytics while keeping operational overhead and technical complexity to a minimum.

Secure by Default

Enhanced security includes Managed Identity Support for inbound/outbound operations, coupled with the trusted Microsoft Entra authentication.

Microsoft continues to drive security innovations in SQL Server. They’re enhancing security features in SQL Server to improve interoperability with cloud resources, including BACKUP to Azure Storage Accounts using Managed Identities.

Develop Modern Data Applications

Developers building next-gen apps will enjoy:

JSON Enhancements: New JSON type, index, and T-SQL functions.
GraphQL Support: Via Data API Builder (DAB).
REST and Regex: Built-in T-SQL and sp_invoke_external_rest_endpoint capabilities.
Change feeds from the transaction log: bring near real-time sync to external systems such as Azure Event Hub and Kafka.

I have been watching this area for some time, and with these new features, Microsoft is appealing to developers starting new database projects. SQL Server faces intense competition from open-source databases like PostgreSQL. By enabling these features, Microsoft is likely to draw in more developers and facilitate the integration of external distributed systems. In today’s landscape, JSON has emerged as the standard format for modern data, with REST becoming the primary data access method.

Mission Critical Engine

SQL Server 2025 invests in performance and availability with:

Optimized Locking: For reduced contention in concurrent environments.
Batch Mode and Query Processing Upgrades: Improved throughput with zero code changes.
Reliability Enhancements: New diagnostics and Always On Availability Groups failover improvements.

Bob calls the database engine work the “meat and potatoes” of SQL Server. Generally, these features focus on scaling the SQL Server to support demanding workloads. Optimized locking is a massive win for high concurrency environments, with the outcomes of reduced contention yielding higher transaction throughput. Batch Mode and Query Processing improvements will boost your application’s performance without changing the code. Finally, while I LOVE availability groups, troubleshooting failovers can be challenging, so any work here is welcome to increase the supportability and also the availability of the platform.

Foundational Elements

Also mentioned in Bob’s post is the following investments in SQL Server 2025:

Connected with Arc
Assisted by Copilots
Benchmark Leader
Optimized for latest Hardware
Build for all platforms

The details provided for these callouts are limited, but a common theme emerges: continued investment in the Arc space for hybrid deployments. This focus ensures a consistent management experience across hybrid scenarios. With Copilot features in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), developers can enhance their productivity through intelligent recommendations. (I’m a huge fan of Copilot in VS Code, love seeing it make it into SSMS) There is a specific callout addressing benchmarks, so we can expect more announcements in that area and updates on hardware optimization for modern systems. Additionally, I appreciate the emphasis on Kubernetes and containers, which enable SQL Server to operate across various platforms.

Wrapping Things Up

SQL Server 2025 revolutionizes enterprise databases by incorporating AI and modernizing analytics with zero-ETL Fabric mirroring. It provides developer-friendly tools like JSON indexing and GraphQL while focusing on performance with optimized locking and improved query execution. With secure by default deployments and seamless cloud integration, it’s ideal for AI-driven, mission-critical applications in hybrid environments.