Microsoft Databases and Microsoft Cloth: Your unified and AI-powered knowledge property

Right now, I’m thrilled to announce the subsequent technology of Microsoft’s databases: SQL Server 2025, Azure Doc DB, Azure Horizon DB, and Cloth Databases, every redesigned to satisfy the calls for of AI.

As AI reshapes each {industry}, one fact stays fixed: knowledge is now not simply an asset—it’s your aggressive edge. The tempo of AI calls for simple knowledge entry, sooner insights, and the power to iterate with out friction. But many organizations are held again by fragmented knowledge estates and legacy methods. Microsoft Cloth was designed to satisfy this second—to unify your knowledge, simplify your structure, and speed up your path to turning into an AI-led group.

That mission is gaining traction at exceptional pace. Since Cloth launched two years in the past, it has grown sooner than every other knowledge and analytics platform within the {industry}. Greater than 28,000 clients—together with 80% of the Fortune 500—now depend on Cloth, and its ecosystem continues to increase as companions construct options to resolve essentially the most complicated knowledge challenges.

Microsoft already presents one of many {industry}’s most complete database portfolios, and we’re increasing it even additional—whereas deeply integrating these capabilities into Cloth. I’m excited to announce the final availability of SQL Server 2025, Azure DocumentDB, and SQL database and Cosmos DB in Cloth, together with the preview of our latest addition, Azure HorizonDB. With these new choices, you have a world-class database possibility to construct as soon as and deploy on the edge, as platform as a service (PaaS), and even as software program as a service (SaaS). And since our complete portfolio is both Cloth-connected or Cloth native, Cloth serves as a unified hub on your complete knowledge property. Beneath I’ll cowl how these new databases are purpose-built to assist your AI initiatives.  

Deploy the subsequent technology of Microsoft Databases

Modernize your SQL property with SQL Server 2025, now usually accessible

Microsoft has been shaping the SQL panorama for greater than 35 years. Now, with the discharge of SQL Server 2025 into common availability, we’re introducing the subsequent evolution—one which brings developer‑first AI capabilities on the edge, inside the acquainted T‑SQL expertise. Smarter search combines superior semantic intelligence with full‑textual content filtering to uncover richer insights from complicated knowledge. AI mannequin administration utilizing mannequin definitions in T-SQL permits seamless integration with standard AI providers resembling Microsoft Foundry.

Enterprise reliability and safety stay best-in-class. Enhanced question efficiency, optimized locking, and improved failover assist guarantee greater concurrency and uptime for mission‑important workloads. With strengthened credential administration by way of Microsoft Entra ID by way of Azure Arc, SQL Server 2025 is safe by design. Your knowledge can also be immediately accessible on your AI and analytics in Microsoft OneLake with mirroring for SQL Server 2025 in Cloth, now additionally usually accessible.

SQL Server 2025 is essentially the most vital launch for SQL builders in a decade. And the response to our preview has been overwhelming, with 10,000 organizations collaborating, 100,000 databases already deployed, and obtain price two occasions greater than SQL Server 2022. If you wish to be part of all those that’ve already adopted SQL Server 2025, obtain it immediately.

Azure DocumentDB: MongoDB-compatible, AI-ready, and constructed for hybrid and multi-cloud

We’re excited to announce Azure DocumentDB, a brand new service constructed on the open-source, MongoDB-compatible DocumentDB customary ruled by the Linux Basis. The primary Azure managed service to assist multi-cloud and hybrid NoSQL, Azure DocumentDB can run constantly throughout Azure, on-premises, and different clouds.

Azure DocumentDB offers you the liberty to embrace open supply whereas attaining scale, safety, and ease. It’s AI-ready, with capabilities like vector and hybrid search to ship extra related outcomes. On the spot autoscale meets demand, and impartial compute and storage scaling retains workloads environment friendly. Safety and availability is customary, with Microsoft Entra ID integration, customer-managed encryption keys, 35-day backups included, and a 99.995% availability service-level settlement (SLA). And shortly, enhanced full-text search will add options like fuzzy matching, proximity queries, and expanded language assist, making it even simpler to construct clever, search-driven apps.

Azure DocumentDB is now usually accessible, so you possibly can attempt it immediately. You may as well study extra about Azure DocumentDB and all of the Azure Database information by studying Shireesh Thota’s, Company Vice President of Azure Databases, announcement weblog.

Azure HorizonDB: PostgreSQL designed on your mission-critical workloads

PostgreSQL has change into the spine of contemporary knowledge options because of its wealthy ecosystem, extensibility, and open supply basis. Microsoft is proud to be the #1 PostgreSQL committer amongst hyperscalers, and we’re constructing on that management with Azure HorizonDB.

Now in early preview, Azure HorizonDB is a completely managed, PostgreSQL-compatible database service, constructed to deal with the dimensions and efficiency required by the fashionable enterprise. It goes far past open supply Postgres, with auto-scaling storage as much as 128 TB, scale-out compute as much as 3,072 vCores, <1 millisecond multi-zone commit latency, and enterprise safety and compliance. Vector search is built-in, together with built-in AI mannequin administration and seamless connectivity to Microsoft Foundry so you possibly can construct fashionable AI apps. Mixed with GitHub Copilot, Cloth, and Visible Studio Code integrations, it offers an clever and safe basis for constructing and modernizing purposes at any scale. To study extra about Azure HorizonDB, learn our announcement weblog.

Speed up app improvement with Cloth SaaS Databases, now usually accessible

We’re additionally releasing a brand new class of SaaS databases, each SQL database and Cosmos DB in Cloth, into common availability. Knowledge builders now have entry to world-class database engines inside the similar unified platform that powers analytics, AI, and enterprise intelligence.

Cloth Databases are designed to streamline your software improvement. You may provision them in seconds, and so they don’t require the same old granular configuration or deep database experience. They supply enterprise-grade efficiency, are safe by default with options like cloud authentication, customer-managed keys, and database encryption, and are available natively built-in into the Cloth platform, even utilizing the identical Cloth capability models for billing.

With Cloth databases, builders now have the pliability to construct purposes grounded in operational, transactional, and analytical knowledge. Collectively, these choices make Cloth a developer-first knowledge platform that’s streamlined, scalable, and prepared for contemporary knowledge purposes.

Be taught extra by studying Shireesh Thota’s, Company Vice President of Azure Databases, announcement weblog.

All of your databases related into Cloth

We’re making it simpler than ever to work together with your complete Microsoft database portfolio in Cloth, supplying you with a single, unified place to handle and use all of your knowledge. Constructing on our present mirroring assist for Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL MI, we’re now saying the final availability of mirroring for Azure Database for PostgreSQL, Azure Cosmos DB, and SQL Server variations 2016–2022 and 2025. With these databases mirrored straight into Cloth, you possibly can remove conventional extract, rework, and cargo (ETL) pipelines and make your knowledge immediately prepared for analytics and AI.

Getting your knowledge property prepared for AI with Microsoft Cloth

Choosing the proper database is important, nevertheless it’s only the start. The key alternative lies in driving frontier transformation, the place knowledge turns into the muse for an AI-native enterprise. We advocate specializing in three core steps:

• Unifying your knowledge property to remove silos and complexity.
• Creating semantic that means so your knowledge is prepared for AI.
• Empowering brokers to behave on insights and rework operations.

On this part, I’ll dive into the newest enhancements to Microsoft Cloth that assist you obtain each step of your knowledge journey. This contains expanded interoperability in OneLake with SAP, Salesforce, Azure Databricks, and Snowflake, the introduction of Cloth IQ—a brand new workload that provides semantic understanding—and enhanced agentic capabilities throughout Cloth that will help you construct richer, AI-powered knowledge experiences.

That is the way forward for knowledge, and it’s already inside attain. With Cloth and our database improvements, Microsoft helps organizations transfer seamlessly from perception to motion—unlocking the complete potential of your knowledge and the AI constructed on prime of it.

Unify your knowledge property with Microsoft OneLake

Microsoft OneLake unifies all of your knowledge—throughout clouds, on-premises, and past Microsoft—right into a single knowledge lake with zero-ETL capabilities like shortcuts and mirroring. Alongside the extra mirroring sources for Microsoft Databases, we’re additionally introducing the preview of shortcuts to SharePoint and OneDrive. This lets you convey unstructured productiveness knowledge into OneLake with out copying recordsdata or constructing ETL pipelines, making it simpler to coach brokers and enrich your structured knowledge.

See how shortcuts and mirroring unify your knowledge in OneLake:

As soon as related to OneLake, your knowledge turns into simply discoverable within the apps your groups use each day like Energy BI, Groups, Excel, Copilot Studio, and Microsoft Foundry. Right now, we’re taking {that a} step additional with native integration with Foundry IQ—the subsequent technology of retrieval-augmented technology (RAG). Brokers depend on context—Foundry IQ’s information bases ship high-value context to brokers by simplifying entry to a number of knowledge sources and making connections throughout info. You should use the OneLake information supply in Foundry IQ to attach brokers to multi-cloud sources like AWS S3, on-premises sources, and structured and unstructured knowledge.

Increasing OneLake interoperability with main knowledge platforms

We’re additionally seeing nice momentum with dozens of companions outdoors of Microsoft deeply integrating with OneLake, together with ClickHouse, Dremio, Confluent, EON, and plenty of extra. And now, we’re thrilled so as to add new, deeper interoperability with SAP, Salesforce, Azure Databricks, and Snowflake.

First, we’re deepening interoperability with the methods organizations depend on most, SAP and Salesforce. With the launch of SAP Enterprise Knowledge Cloud Join for Microsoft Cloth, clients can permit bidirectional, zero-copy knowledge sharing between SAP Enterprise Knowledge Cloud (BDC) and Cloth. On the similar time, we’re working with Salesforce to combine their knowledge into Cloth utilizing the identical zero-copy method, unlocking superior analytics and AI capabilities with out the overhead of conventional ETL.

We’re additionally strengthening interoperability with Azure Databricks and Snowflake so you should utilize a single copy of information throughout platforms. By the top of 2025, Azure Databricks will launch, in preview, the power to natively learn knowledge from OneLake by way of Unity Catalog, enabling seamless entry with out duplication or complicated knowledge motion. Trying forward, Databricks will even add assist for writing to and storing knowledge straight in OneLake, permitting full two-way interoperability. Learn extra about this interoperability.

Our collaboration with Snowflake on bidirectional knowledge entry continues as properly. We’re introducing a brand new merchandise in OneLake known as a Snowflake Database and a brand new UI in Snowflake—each designed to permit OneLake to be the native storage answer on your Snowflake knowledge. We’re additionally bringing Snowflake mirroring to common availability, permitting you to virtualize your exterior Snowflake-managed Iceberg tables in OneLake with shortcuts created and dealt with mechanically. Collectively, these improvements allow you to run any Cloth workload—whether or not analytics, AI, or visualization—straight in your Snowflake-managed Iceberg tables.

Be taught extra about our Snowflake collaboration by studying our newest joint weblog or by watching the next demo:

Lastly, in shut collaboration with dbt Labs, we’re additionally excited to announce built-in assist for his or her {industry} main knowledge transformation functionality. Now in preview, dbt jobs in Microsoft Cloth allow you to construct, take a look at, and orchestrate dbt workflows in your Cloth workspaces. Be taught extra on this weblog.

Create semantic information to gas AI with Cloth IQ

As Frontier Companies practice brokers on their enterprise knowledge, it’s change into clear that high quality and context matter greater than knowledge quantity. Brokers want enterprise context throughout relationships, hierarchies, and that means to show uncooked knowledge into actionable perception. That’s why we’re introducing Cloth IQ—a brand new workload designed to map your datasets to the real-world entities they characterize, making a shared semantic construction on prime of your knowledge.

The ability of IQ lies in the way it unifies disparate knowledge sorts below a single, coherent framework. Constructed upon Energy BI’s industry-leading, wealthy semantic mannequin expertise, IQ brings collectively analytical knowledge, time-series telemetry, and geospatial info, all organized below a semantic framework of enterprise entities and their relationships, properties, guidelines, and actions. You may then create operations brokers, a brand new sort of agent in Cloth, which might use this mannequin to behave as digital group members, monitoring real-time knowledge sources, figuring out patterns, and taking proactive motion. As an alternative of forcing your groups and even brokers to assume by way of tables and schemas, IQ means that you can align knowledge with how your group operates.

In brief, Cloth IQ is designed to mannequin actuality with knowledge, so that each perception, prediction, and motion is grounded in how your group really operates. You may study extra about IQ in Yitzhak Kesselman’s, Company Vice President of Messaging and Actual-Time Intelligence, announcement weblog.

As organizations scale their AI initiatives, the power to attach clever brokers with enterprise-grade knowledge is turning into a important differentiator. Cloth is making this doable with a set of built-in AI experiences: Copilot in Energy BI helps you ask questions of your knowledge, Cloth knowledge brokers permit deeper evaluation, and the brand new Cloth operations brokers allow you to monitor your knowledge property and take motion in actual time. These experiences can be utilized throughout Cloth or as foundational information sources in industry-leading AI instruments like Microsoft Foundry, Copilot Studio and even Microsoft 365 Copilot to energy smarter, extra data-rich AI experiences.

Past introducing operations brokers as a part of Cloth IQ, we’re additionally increasing what knowledge brokers and Copilot can do. Together with present integration with Microsoft Foundry and Copilot Studio, Cloth knowledge brokers can now be embedded straight in Microsoft 365 Copilot. This lets enterprise customers (with the suitable permissions) entry trusted information from OneLake and transforms Microsoft 365 from a productiveness suite into an clever insights platform.

They will additionally act as hosted Mannequin Context Protocol (MCP) servers, making it simple to combine with different purposes and brokers throughout the AI ecosystem. Lastly, knowledge brokers can now purpose throughout each structured and unstructured knowledge. Because of an integration with Azure AI Search, knowledge groups can add their present unstructured knowledge search endpoints as a supply in knowledge brokers. Be taught extra the Cloth knowledge agent enhancements by studying the Cloth AI weblog.

We’re additionally enhancing the standalone expertise for Copilot in Energy BI with a brand new search expertise. Merely describe what you want, and Copilot will find the related report, semantic mannequin, or knowledge agent and floor the suitable solutions. This standalone expertise can also be coming to Energy BI cellular so you should utilize it on the go.

Check out how one can apply all of those AI experiences collectively seamlessly:

In brief, we’re redefining what it means to have an AI-powered knowledge property. With knowledge brokers, Copilot in Energy BI, and operations brokers in Cloth IQ, AI is now woven throughout Cloth. And with native integration to Microsoft Foundry and Copilot Studio, you possibly can simply add Cloth brokers as constructing blocks to create extra clever, knowledgeable customized brokers.

You can also see extra innovation coming to the Cloth platform by studying Kim Manis’, Company Vice President of the Cloth Platform, Cloth weblog or by trying out the extra technical Cloth November 2025 Function abstract weblog.

Mark your calendar for FabCon and SQLCon

We’re excited to announce SQLCon 2026, which can occur on the similar time and the identical location because the Microsoft Cloth Group Convention (FabCon), taking place March 16–20, 2026 in Atlanta, Georgia. By uniting the powerhouse SQL and Cloth communities, we’re giving knowledge professionals in all places a singular alternative to grasp the newest improvements, share sensible information, and speed up what’s doable with knowledge and AI, multi functional highly effective week. Register for both convention and revel in full entry to each, with the pliability to combine and match periods, keynotes, and neighborhood occasions to suit your pursuits.

When you’re desirous about seeing these bulletins stay, I encourage you to affix my Ignite session, “Innovation Session: Microsoft Cloth and Azure Databases – the information property for AI” both in particular person or on-line for free of charge. I’ll not solely cowl these main bulletins however present you the way they arrive collectively that will help you create a unified, clever knowledge basis for AI.

You may as well dive deeper into these bulletins and a lot extra by watching the remainder of the breakout periods throughout Azure Knowledge:

Tuesday, November 18