Microsoft on Monday announced that the first release candidate for SQL Server 2017 is now available to the public.

The next-generation edition of Microsoft's flagship relational database system, SQL Server 2017, took a step closer to general availability with this week's launch of the first Release Candidate.

Microsoft this month started selling 'Premium Assurance' coverage plans for both Windows Server and SQL Server.

Microsoft Ignite: SQL Server 2017 for Linux goes live; or Windows, if you want The preview Docker image has already been fetched 2 million times.

Microsoft is using these capabilities internally as it builds, tests and publishes new versions of SQL Server 2017, revealed Petrossian.

Company says licensing is weak spot in Oracle's armory, and it hopes to use it to woo database customers to SQL Server 2008.

At PASS Summit 2017, Microsoft announced SQL Operations Studio to help devs and admins monitor database performance and boost efficiency while Azure picked up a new "compute-optimized" service tier.

Microsoft has previously announced SQL Server would be available for Linux, but right now, only the Windows version of SQL Server 2017 supports Python.

Microsoft releases SQL Server 2017 Community Technology Preview 2.0, complete with GPU-assisted AI features.