SQL Server 2019 is already looking to be one of the major releases of the platform with quite a few enhancements. The addition of Big Data Clusters, Accelerated Database Recovery, and Java programmability, many organizations will be considering the move to SQL Server from other relational platforms. However, there is one more major enhancement due to be released in the next CTP that might create an even more tempting to implement.
There will be new database engine support that allows different types of data to be stored inside the engine, all based on the CosmosDB product available in Azure. Microsoft is bringing this support to their on-premises product, essentially allowing developers to choose to work with SQL Server as a relational or NoSQL platform.
Cosmos DB Support
CosmosDB is the database as a service offered in Azure. This is a globally distributed engine with quite impressive SLAs available. The interesting thing is that Cosmos DB gives you a number of APIs available for your data, including the following:
- Azure Table Storage
- Gremlin
- MongoDB
- Cassandra
With SQL Server 2019, these APIs and query engines are being ported to the SQL Server platform. In the new setup program, you will have the option to choose not only the core relational engine, but you can optionally add MongoDB and Cassandra engines to store data that appears as a relational table construct.
This means that your application can store data using the existing APIs, but you can write stored procedures and functions to query this data inside of SQL Server and combine it with your existing relational data.
Additional Enhancements
If this weren't enough, you should also be aware that this entire story is an April Fool's fabrication. Hopefully you were excited enough by the headline to read this far and get that this is a joke. CosmosDB support is not coming on premises, at least not now. While it is possible that SQL Server might get support in the future for NoSQL engines, similar to the graph support we have, at this time there is no plan I am aware of to add this.
This is both a fun and frustrating day as one might never know what is a real story and what isn't, but I hope you've enjoyed this short piece and were excited by the possibility. If you think this might be a good idea, you can always submit it as feedback to the SQL Server team.
Conclusion
Don't believe much of what you read on April 1.
