https://www.sqldbachamps.
com Praveen Madupu +91 98661 30093
Sr SQL Server DBA, Dubai
praveensqldba12@gmail.com
SQL Server 2022, released by Microsoft, brings a host of new features and enhancements designed to improve
performance, security, integration with cloud services, and overall user experience.
Here’s a detailed overview of the most significant new features and capabilities of SQL Server 2022:
1. Azure Integration and Hybrid Capabilities
SQL Server 2022 introduces deeper integration with Azure, allowing organizations to extend their on-premises
SQL Server environments into the cloud seamlessly. Key hybrid features include:
a. Azure Synapse Link for SQL
● Purpose: Enables real-time analytics on operational data without moving it to another system.
● How it works: You can link SQL Server 2022 directly to Azure Synapse Analytics to perform advanced
analytics, reporting, and data exploration on live transactional data without impacting the performance of
your operational databases.
b. Azure Purview Integration
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● Purpose: Provides enhanced data governance and auditing.
● How it works: SQL Server 2022 can connect to Azure Purview, a unified data governance service, to
automatically scan, classify, and manage data across the SQL Server estate. This is particularly useful for
compliance, ensuring that sensitive data is properly classified and controlled.
c. Azure Arc Integration
● Purpose: Extends Azure management to SQL Server.
● How it works: SQL Server 2022 can be managed through Azure Arc, allowing you to deploy, manage,
and secure your databases on-premises, in multi-cloud, or at the edge, all from a single management
portal in Azure.
d. Managed Disaster Recovery (DR) to Azure SQL Managed Instance
● Purpose: Simplified disaster recovery in hybrid environments.
● How it works: SQL Server 2022 can use Azure SQL Managed Instance as a secondary disaster
recovery site. In the event of a failover, you can quickly switch to a cloud-based managed instance without
needing complex manual interventions.
https://www.sqldbachamps.com Praveen Madupu +91 98661 30093
Sr SQL Server DBA, Dubai
praveensqldba12@gmail.com
2. Intelligent Query Processing Enhancements
Building on the Intelligent Query Processing (IQP) introduced in SQL Server 2019, SQL Server 2022 adds
more features to optimize performance automatically without requiring changes to application code.
a. Parameter Sensitive Plan (PSP) Optimization
● Purpose: Addresses performance issues related to parameter sniffing.
● How it works: SQL Server 2022 generates multiple execution plans for queries with varying input
parameters, avoiding situations where a plan optimized for one set of parameters degrades performance
for others.
b. Degree of Parallelism (DOP) Feedback
● Purpose: Optimizes parallel execution plans.
● How it works: SQL Server 2022 dynamically adjusts the degree of parallelism for repeated query
executions based on feedback, reducing over or under-utilization of resources.
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c. Cardinality Estimation (CE) Feedback
● Purpose: Improves query performance by optimizing row estimates.
● How it works: SQL Server 2022 uses feedback from previous query executions to adjust cardinality
estimates for more accurate query plans, leading to better resource allocation and performance.
d. Memory Grant Feedback Improvements
● Purpose: Prevents over or under-allocation of memory for queries.
● How it works: SQL Server 2022 enhances memory grant feedback by persisting memory usage
information between query executions, improving memory allocation efficiency.
https://www.sqldbachamps.com Praveen Madupu +91 98661 30093
Sr SQL Server DBA, Dubai
praveensqldba12@gmail.com
3. Security Enhancements
Security is a top priority in SQL Server 2022, with multiple new features aimed at enhancing data protection and
compliance:
a. Ledger for SQL Server
● Purpose: Provides tamper-evidence for data.
● How it works: SQL Server 2022 introduces a blockchain-based ledger feature that cryptographically
verifies the integrity of data. This is particularly useful in scenarios where audit trails and compliance are
essential, as it ensures that data has not been tampered with.
b. Always Encrypted with Secure Enclaves Enhancements
● Purpose: Enhances data security for sensitive workloads.
● How it works: SQL Server 2022 expands the capabilities of Always Encrypted with secure enclaves,
allowing richer operations (like pattern matching) on encrypted data. This ensures greater functionality
while maintaining data privacy.
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c. Enhanced Authentication
● Purpose: Supports more secure authentication methods.
● How it works: SQL Server 2022 improves Azure Active Directory (AAD) integration, including support
for multi-factor authentication (MFA) and passwordless authentication, increasing security in hybrid
cloud scenarios.
4. Data Virtualization and PolyBase Enhancements
SQL Server 2022 further enhances PolyBase, enabling better data virtualization capabilities and integrating with
more data sources.
a. Object Storage Integration (S3-compatible storage)
● Purpose: Simplifies data integration with cloud storage.
● How it works: SQL Server 2022 now supports querying data stored in Amazon S3 and other
S3-compatible object storage directly using PolyBase. This makes it easier to run queries on
cloud-based data without needing to move it.
https://www.sqldbachamps.com Praveen Madupu +91 98661 30093
Sr SQL Server DBA, Dubai
praveensqldba12@gmail.com
b. Improved Data Virtualization Performance
● Purpose: Optimize queries across disparate data sources.
● How it works: SQL Server 2022 enhances PolyBase performance, making it faster and more efficient to
execute queries across external data sources such as Hadoop, Oracle, Teradata, and others.
5. Availability and Disaster Recovery Improvements
SQL Server 2022 continues to improve high availability and disaster recovery features for mission-critical
workloads.
a. Failover Enhancements for Availability Groups
● Purpose: Improve the reliability and speed of failovers.
● How it works: SQL Server 2022 enhances Always On Availability Groups, reducing the downtime
during failovers and improving failover efficiency for distributed transactions.
b. Contained Availability Groups
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●
●
Purpose: Simplifies the management of Availability Groups.
How it works: SQL Server 2022 introduces Contained Availability Groups, which allow users, logins,
and other security configurations to be fully contained within the Availability Group, making failovers and
disaster recovery simpler and reducing dependencies on instance-level objects.
6. Performance and Scalability Enhancements
Performance continues to be a core focus of SQL Server 2022, with improvements in areas such as:
a. Buffer Pool Parallel Scan
● Purpose: Improve data retrieval performance.
● How it works: SQL Server 2022 introduces parallel buffer pool scans, which reduce the time taken to
scan the buffer pool, particularly in large databases, thereby improving performance during maintenance
operations.
b. TempDB Optimization
● Purpose: Enhances scalability of TempDB.
https://www.sqldbachamps.com Praveen Madupu +91 98661 30093
Sr SQL Server DBA, Dubai
praveensqldba12@gmail.com
● How it works: SQL Server 2022 introduces new optimizations for TempDB, improving its scalability under
high-concurrency workloads by minimizing contention on system metadata and TempDB page allocations.
7. T-SQL Enhancements
SQL Server 2022 brings several Transact-SQL (T-SQL) improvements that enhance developer productivity and
simplify query writing.
a. JSON Improvements
● Purpose: Simplifies JSON manipulation.
● How it works: SQL Server 2022 introduces new JSON functions that make it easier to work with JSON
data, such as extracting values, modifying JSON documents, and handling JSON arrays more efficiently.
b. Enhanced STRING_SPLIT Function
● Purpose: Improves handling of delimited strings.
● How it works: SQL Server 2022 enhances the STRING_SPLIT function by adding an option to preserve
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the order of the elements, making it easier to parse and work with comma-separated lists and other
delimited data.
c. Date and Time Enhancements
● Purpose: Simplifies time zone management.
● How it works: New T-SQL functions provide better support for handling time zones, including converting
between time zones and working with UTC offsets.
Summary:
1. SQL Server 2022 represents a significant step forward with its cloud-native features, enhanced security,
and intelligent performance optimizations.
2. The integration with Azure services makes it an excellent option for organizations looking to expand their
hybrid cloud environments, while innovations like Ledger, Azure Synapse Link, and deeper query
optimization help improve security, governance, and performance across a range of use cases.
