Microsoft SQL Server 2022 is the most Azure-enabled version to date 

Microsoft SQL Server and offers further innovations in performance, security and availability. It is part of the Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform, which unifies operational databases, analytics and data management.  

SQL Server 2022 integrates with Azure Synapse Link and Microsoft Purview to provide customers with deeper insight, prediction and governance from their data at scale. Cloud integration is enhanced with managed disaster recovery (DR) on Azure SQL Managed Instance and real-time analytics, allowing database administrators to manage their data assets with greater flexibility and minimal end-user impact. Performance and scalability are automatically improved with built-in query intelligence.

The most requested features for SQL Server 2022 EAP applicants include:

• Link feature for Azure SQL Managed Instance1:
  To ensure uptime, SQL Server 2022 is fully integrated with the new Link feature in Azure SQL Managed Instance. With this feature, you now get all the benefits of a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) environment applied to DR, so you spend less time setting up and managing it, even compared to an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) environment. General availability of the Link bi-directional disaster recovery capability for Azure SQL Managed Instance will follow the general availability of SQL Server 2022.

• Azure Synapse Link for SQL:
  Azure Synapse Link for SQL Server 2022 provides near real-time analytics and hybrid transactional and analytical processing with minimal impact on operational systems.

• Microsoft Purview integration:
  SQL Server 2022 integrates with Microsoft Purview, a unified data management service, for better data discovery that lets you break down data silos, and policy management for access control.

• General ledger:
  A new technology that brings the benefits of blockchains to relational databases by cryptographically linking data and its changes in a blockchain structure to make the data tamper-proof and verifiable. By embedding trust into the SQL Server database engine, Ledger facilitates the implementation of multi-party business processes, such as supply chain systems, and enables participants to verify the integrity of centrally stored data without the complexity and performance overhead of a blockchain network. Ledger can also help customers streamline compliance audits by providing auditors with cryptographic evidence of data integrity and eliminating the need for manual forensics.

• Intelligent Query Processing Enhancements:
  We are extending more scenarios based on common customer issues. For example, the "parameter-dependent plan" problem refers to a scenario where a single cached plan for a parameterized query is not optimal for all possible incoming parameter values. With SQL Server 2022's parameter-dependent plan optimization feature, we automatically enable the generation of multiple active cached plans for a single parameterized statement. These cached execution plans consider different data sizes based on the specified runtime parameter values.

• Query Store:
  We add support for read replicas and enable query hints to improve performance and quickly mitigate issues without having to change the T-SQL source. In addition, Query Store Hints are introduced in SQL Server 2022. Query Store Hints provide a user-friendly way to design query plans without changing application code.

Among the security enhancements in SQL Server 2022:

Include Azure Active Directory authentication, support for richer queries in Always Encrypted with secure enclaves, backup and restore of certificates in PFX format, and numerous other enhancements to improve standard cryptography in SQL Server to address the evolving threat landscape.

• Included Availability Groups: Supports managing objects (users, logins, permissions, SQL Agent jobs, etc.) at the availability group level using specific contained system databases within the availability group.

• Multi-write replication: We automate the last-writer-wins rule. Now, when a conflict is detected, the most recent modification time is selected to be maintained on all replicas. This helps keep your multi-write scenarios running smoothly.

• Data Lake Virtualization and Object Storage: Query any data lake and backup/restore SQL to S3-compatible object stores.

• JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) Data: New JSON features to improve the ability to query and manipulate JSON data.

• Memory and Concurrency: In-memory memory improvements for online transaction processing (OLTP) and system page lock concurrency improvements.

New features in SQL Server 2022

SQL Server 2022 (16.x) Preview is an evolution of the SQL Server platform that builds on previous versions. It offers a wide range of development languages, data types and operating systems, and enables work in on-premises and cloud environments.

Microsoft SQL Server 2022 Standard

SQL Server 2022 - Analysis

SQL Server 2022 - Availability