Amazon RDS for SQL Server Now Supports SQL Server 2012
We are excited to announce SQL Server 2012 support for Amazon RDS. Starting today, you can launch new RDS instances running Microsoft SQL Server 2012, in addition to SQL Server 2008 R2. SQL Server 2012 for Amazon RDS is available for multiple editions of SQL Server including Express, Web, Standard, and Enterprise.
Amazon RDS for SQL Server delivers several important benefits to Microsoft SQL Server customers including simple deployment, push button scalability, automated back-ups, point-in-time restore, automated software upgrades and patching, and pay-as-you-go payment flexibility.
With added support for Microsoft SQL Server 2012, Amazon RDS customers can use the new features Microsoft has introduced as part of SQL Server 2012 including improvements to manageability, performance, programmability, and security. A few of these new features are highlighted below:
- Contained database – a database that is isolated from other SQL Server databases including system databases like the ‘master’ database. This simplifies the task of moving databases from one instance of SQL Server to another by removing dependencies to other SQL Server databases.
- Columnstore index – a new type of index for data warehouse type queries. It can greatly reduce I/O and memory utilization on large queries.
- Sequence object – an object that acts as a counter similar to SQL Server’s identity column, but it is not restricted to a single table.
- User-defined roles – a new role management system in SQL Server 2012 allows users to create custom server roles.
For more information on what’s new in SQL Server 2012, please visit Microsoft’s SQL Server 2012 MSDN documentation.
To learn more about using RDS for SQL Server 2012, please visit the Amazon RDS for SQL Server detail page, our documentation and our FAQs.