Once upon a time, ex-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer called the Linux OS a "cancer." Today, under the leadership of CEO Satya Nadella, Microsoft released a public preview version of its SQL Server database that runs not only on Windows, but Linux. Not only that, but Microsoft has joined the Linux Foundation as a platinum-level member. Changing times, indeed.
Microsoft first announced its intentions to port SQL Server to Linux in March, with today's release coming in conjunction with the Connect(); developer conference. Since March, more than half of the Fortune 500 applied to take part in a private preview, according to an official blog post.
The added support for Linux would seem to be a long time coming, given that level of interest from Microsoft's customer base. The company positioned its move as one in support of openness on Wednesday:
This represents a major step in our journey to making SQL Server the platform of choice across operating systems, development languages, data types, on-premises and the cloud. All major features of the relational database engine, including advanced features such as in-memory OLTP, in-memory columnstores, Transparent Data Encryption, Always Encrypted, and Row-Level Security now come to Linux.
However, there is simple pragmatism at work as well.
"This is a winning move that recognizes that Linux is the dominant operating system of the cloud," says Constellation Research VP and principal analyst Doug Henschen. "For starters, Linux is more attractive cost-wise, with Linux-based compute instances costing a fraction of the cost of comparable Windows-based cloud capacity. Like-for-like Windows capacity is as much as 10 times more expensive on the Amazon and Google clouds, and even on Azure, an A4, 8-core, general-purpose Linux server is $0.352 per hour versus $0.592 for Windows."
"Without a Linux option, Microsoft SQL Server was losing ground in the cloud as well as on-premises," Henschen adds. "The move also improves Microsoft’s ability to make further inroads at the high end of the relational database market where it competes with Oracle's database."
General availability of SQL Server on Linux is expected sometime next year.
Meanwhile, Microsoft's move to join the Linux Foundation isn't merely symbolic, notes Constellation Research VP and principal analyst Holger Mueller. Rather, with more and more Linux workloads being run on Azure, it simply makes sense for Redmond to have a prominent place in the organization overseeing the OS's future, he says.
24/7 Access to Constellation Insights
Subscribe today for unrestricted access to expert analyst views on breaking news.
