The Latest Azure Database Updates: SQL Server 2008; Azure SQL Database; Azure Analysis Services; Developer tools

As July got underway, Microsoft finally ended support for SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2, but worked to entice on-prem users to migrate to Azure, offering a move to Azure SQL Database or rehosting in VMs with three years of security updates. At Inspire 2019, Microsoft emphasized the partner opportunity for migrating the vast customer base on both SQL Server and Windows 2008, which they believe is a $50 billion opportunity.

For Azure SQL Database, Microsoft announced that the minimum configurable auto-pause delay has dropped to one hour, offering new cost savings for serverless databases. Serverless databases scales up single databases, billing by the second, but auto-pause options gives users the chance to halt database operations during times of inactivity and be billed based on the storage costs.