This page is an attempt to list all the new features in SQL Server 2014 and give data professionals a place to begin learning about what has changed. Each of the topics below is described with a link to another page that contains various resources that can help you learn more about that particular topic.
If you find errors or ommissions for the topic list, please leave a comment on this article. If any of the specific topics has broken or missing links, please leave a comment on those pages.
The title for each section is the link to another page.
Columnstore Indexes
SQL Server 2016 has new improvements for columnstore indexes including updateable nonclustered columnstore indexes, columnstore indexes on in-memory tables, and many more.
This technology was released in SQL Server 2012, and has been improved with each version. There are fewer limitations and more features with each evolution.
See the Columnstore Index links
In-Memory OLTP
Improvements have been made in SQL Server 2016 to the In-Memory OLTP tables and reducing limitations.
This technology was originally code-named "Hekaton" as the goal was to improve performance 100x. The technology was based on MIcrosoft research into in-memory databases and was first released in SQL Server 2014.
AlwaysOn
AlwaysOn is a suite of technologies that provide High Availability (HA) and Disaster Recovery (DR) capabilities for SQL Server. These technologies include Failover Clustered Instances (FCI) and Availability Groups (AG). There is no AlwaysOn technology by itself.
This was first introduced in SQL Server 2012 and has continued to be enhanced in future versions.
Cardinality Estimator
The Cardinality Estimator is a part of the query processor that evaluates the data in a table and helps choose an efficient query plan.
