SQL Server 2014 was released a long time ago. But it’s still an option to use since the Extended End of Life date has not surpassed yet. In this article you can read more on the End of Life of SQL Server 2014, and the options for when the End of Life date has surpassed.
SQL Server 2014: End of Life
SQL Server 2014 was released on April 1, 2014. Generally, SQL Servers are supported for approximately 5 years. Therefore, the Mainstream End of Life date for SQL Server 2014 was July 9, 2019. From this date on the extended support started. This means that SQL Server 2014 will no longer receive any general updates, but only the security updates. The extended support lasts, just as the Mainstream support, around 5 years and will therefore end on July 9, 2024.
What to do after the End of Life for SQL Server 2014?
As was stated above, after the Mainstream End of Life, you’ll still receive security updates for 5 years because of the Extended End of Life. But there won’t be any other updates which means the quality of your server will decrease. Moreover, if the Extended End of Life has ended, which will be in around half a year, there won’t be any security updates either. This translates to potential danger regarding your data since possible cyber threats won’t be patched by Microsoft anymore. These cyber threats could mean a risk towards a potential data breach for your company.
In this case the advise would be to upgrade to a later version of SQL Server. These later versions have End of Life dates that haven’t been surpassed yet so users can benefit from all general and security updates for the upcoming years. In the next paragraph you can see which versions of SQL Server have already been released and therefore could be upgraded to.
SQL Server: versions
Since the release of SQL Server 2014 there have been 4 new versions of SQL Server. Below you can read about the most relevant features that are included and what their Mainstream and Extended End of Life dates are.
SQL Server 2022
The second SQL Server that has an End of Life data that has not been surpassed yet is the most recently released version of SQL Server: SQL Server 2022. It was released on November 16, 2022 and the End of Life date is November 1, 2028. Since the End of Life date is far into the future, the Extended End of Life date hasn’t been released yet. But the expectation is that, like the previous SQL Servers, the Extended End of Life date will be approximately 5 years after the Mainstream End of Life date.
New features compared to SQL Server 2019:
- Object Storage Integration: SQL Server 2022 supports S3-compatible object storage to back up your Data Lake virtualization and URLs.
- Azure Synapse Link: allows users to execute analytics without impacting the operational workload.
- Azure Active Directory Authentication: you can connect SQL Server while using Azure AD authentication if your servers are Azure Arc-enabled.
- Microsoft Purview: facilitates data administration for multi-cloud and on-premise environments.
- Distributed and Contained Availability Groups
Read more about the differences between SQL Server 2022 and SQL Server 2019.
SQL Server 2019
SQL Server 2019 is the first SQL Server that has an End of Life date that has not been surpassed yet. SQL Server 2019 was released on November 4, 2019 and its End of Life date is on January 7, 2025. The Extended End of Life date for SQL Server 2019 is on January 8, 2030.
New features compared to SQL Server 2017:
- Big Data Clusters: allows users to store more big data and query and analyse this data.
- Intelligent performance: ensures optimization within the SQL Server 2019 Database Engine.
- In-memory database (IMDB): improves response time by storing your data in the main memory of a computer instead of a disk drive.
- Data discovery and classification: provides standard abilities to label, classify, discover, and report your sensitive data into your databases.
SQL Server 2017
SQL Server 2017 was released on October 2, 2017. SQL Server 2017 is supported for 5 years as well so the Mainstream End of Life date is on October 11, 2022. SQL Server 2017 also has an Extended End of Life date which is on October 12, 2027.
New features compared to SQL Server 2016:
- Automatic database tuning: intelligent performance service that monitors database performed queries and improves their performance automatically.
- Graph database technology: manipulating and creating graphs.
- Machine learning: possible by adopting Python which can be used to build software and websites, run data analysis, and automate tasks.
- Dynamic management views and functions.
SQL Server 2016
SQL Server 2016 was released on June 1, 2016. Since the Mainstream End of Life Date is usually 5 years later and the Extended End of Life Date 5 years after that, these End of Life dates are respectively on July 13, 2021 and July 14, 2026.
New features compared to SQL Server 2014:
- Always Encrypted: protects your sensitive data.
- Mobile Business Intelligence (Mobile BI): Ensures effective decision-making and offers management support so users can make analyses on tablets and/or smartphones.
- OLTP including increased scalability, performance, and high availability.
- Advanced analytics with R services: allows SQL Server 2016 users to run R scripts with relational data.
Purchase SQL Server licenses
If you’re interested in purchasing SQL Server 2016, SQL Server 2017, SQL Server 2019 or SQL Server 2022, Softtrader offers pre-owned licenses at 70% cheaper. Feel free to request your quote here!
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