Aaron Bertrand

Microsoft Announces SQL Server 2012 R2 and SQL Server 2012 R3!

April 1, 2013 by in SQL Performance | 8 Comments
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Paul White is an independent SQL Server consultant specializing in performance tuning, execution plans, and the query optimizer.

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Today Microsoft has announced that the next two versions of SQL Server, which will include new features such as Hekaton and clustered, writable columnstore indexes, will adopt the R2 and R3 monikers respectively. Here is the tentative schedule:

  • SQL Server 2012 R2
    • Q3 2013
    • Hekaton in-memory database
  • SQL Server 2012 R3
    • Q1 2014
    • Clustered, writable columnstore indexes

Eric Hanson, Principal Program Manager Architect at Microsoft, talked about the decision in a recent interview:

We wanted to build off of the success of SQL Server 2012 and, as with our well-received SQL Server 2008 R2 campaign, create a migration story that was more intuitive for our customers. We conducted several usability studies and concluded that users don't care what year their software was released, and found it easier to follow an upgrade path with simple, incremental release numbers."

Okay, Eric didn't really say any of that, and none of the above is true. I hope. Check your calendar; you knew this was coming. :-)