Microsoft has announced the preview of the SQL Server Stretch Database service. This preview will allow users to stretch their on-premises warm as well as cold data to an Azure service which is engineered from the ground up for computing capacity and virtually infinite storage. Unlike cold data management solutions, your data will always be available at hand and secure by design. You will also be able to keep as much data as you want, without the long maintenance windows or the high cost of traditional enterprise storage.
The Stretch Database service makes remote query processing by providing computing and storage in such a way that it is completely ‘transparent to the application;’ using Stretch Database doesn’t require any change in application. If you require added security, you can use Stretch Database with the new Always Encrypted technology, where all your sensitive data will be encrypted before it is send to Azure and the encryption key remains on-premises, ‘extending data in a more secured manner for greater peace of mind.’
Microsoft states,
“Right now, with SQL Server 2016 RCO, when you enable stretching to Azure from SQL Server Management Studio, the default behavior is to stretch to Azure SQL Database. If you would like to preview the new Stretch Database service, you can enroll in the preview and we’ll provide instructions for configuring your SQL Server 2016 database for this new service. For future builds of SQL Server 2016, Stretch Database service will be the default target location for stretching.”
