An overview of database watcher for Azure SQL, a managed monitoring solution for database services in the Azure SQL family.

You can now restart or fail over databases directly from the Azure portal, including single databases, Hyperscale databases, and databases in elastic pools, without writing scripts against the Rest API or contacting support.

With this enhancement, you have the ability to lock your retention to the configured PITR retention, beyond the default 7 days of immutable backups that are already available. This is especially useful for financial customers who typically have 35 days of PITR retention.

In this article, you create an Azure SQL Database server and database using Terraform.

In this article, you create an Azure SQL Database server and database using Terraform.

With database-level managed identity in Azure SQL Database, you can use a user-assigned managed identity for each database to query files in Azure Blob Storage and Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 through external tables and OPENROWSET. You can authenticate these queries without storing shared access signature (SAS) tokens or relying on a shared server-level identity.

Use REGEXP_REPLACE in Azure SQL Database dynamic data masking to define pattern-driven masks for emails, phone numbers, and other structured string data.

This article introduces pattern-based masking with examples and limitation. Ite was last updated by Microsoft Learn with disclosed AI involvement in March 2026.#databases #Azure #AzureSQL #AzureSQLDatabase #AzureSQLDB #DatabaseSecurity #DataProtection #DataSecurity #Cybersecurity #TSQL #SQLhttps://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-sql/database/dynamic-data-masking-regex?view=azuresql&wt.mc_id=DP-MVP-4015656

Learn about system assigned and user assigned managed identities in Microsoft Entra for Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Managed Instance.

Learn how to secure Azure SQL Managed Instance with best practices for protecting data, managing access, and defending against common threats.

Always Encrypted with Intel SGX enclaves in Azure SQL Database will retire on October 31, 2027 as support for SGX-enabled DC-series hardware is phased out. Customers should transition to Virtualization-Based Security (VBS) enclaves, a hardware-independent alternative, or consider SQL Server on Confidential VMs.

Auto-pause and auto-resume are now available in public preview for Azure SQL Hyperscale databases using the Serverless compute tier. You can configure databases to automatically pause during periods of inactivity and automatically resume when activity returns, helping reduce costs for workloads that experience extended or predictable idle periods.

The public preview of Microsoft-managed performance monitoring for Azure SQL Database is now available. You can now monitor Azure SQL Database without building custom collection scripts or correlating telemetry across disconnected tools.

In late September 2026, the following updates and enhancements were made to Azure SQL: Database Hub in Microsoft Fabric is a unified experience for discovering, managing, monitoring, and optimizing databases across SQL Server, Azure SQL, PostgreSQL, Azure Cosmos DB, and Fabric SQL. By bringing AI-powered insights and agents into a single control plane, Database Hub simplifies database operations and helps you modernize your data estate.

You can now format SQL scripts directly in Visual Studio Code using SQL Formatter for more consistent, readable code. Customizable formatting options help you match your preferred coding style, so you can keep queries tidy without manual reformatting.

The following updates and enhancements were made to Azure SQL: Scale larger workloads on Azure SQL Database Hyperscale Premium series with new 160-vCore and 192-vCore options, delivering up to 50% greater compute capacity than the previous 128-vCore maximum. Enable automatic index compaction to reduce storage space consumption and save resources without index maintenance jobs.

In SSMS, you can now use Microsoft.Build.Sql projects to help you implement, manage, and collaborate on database changes, by providing a local definition of the database objects. A SQL database project is a local representation of SQL objects that comprise the schema for a single database, such as tables, stored procedures, or functions.

Vector search and vector indexes are now generally available in Azure SQL Database. Using the CREATE VECTOR INDEX and VECTOR_SEARCH T-SQL capabilities, you can perform efficient approximate nearest neighbor (ANN) searches for AI scenarios such as semantic search, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), recommendation systems, and image search.

Microsoft SQL Agent Skills help you get more accurate, product-specific guidance when using AI agents to build, operate, and migrate SQL workloads. You can use these skills with Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Database container, SQL Server to Azure migration, and Fabric Database Hub scenarios.

Azure SQL Dev Hub gives you a central starting point for building applications with Azure SQL, whether you're developing directly or using AI agents. You can find guidance for connecting to Azure SQL from.NET, Python, Node.js, and Java, along with resources for working with schemas and queries.

You can now select Azure SQL Database, including Hyperscale, as a migration target directly from the database migration experience in Azure Arc. The workflow brings Azure Database Migration Service and Self-hosted Integration Runtime setup into the guided portal journey, allowing you to assess your SQL Server estate, choose your target, configure your migration and monitor progress without leaving Arc.

In mid-August 2026, the following updates and enhancements were made to Azure SQL: You can customize keyboard shortcuts for Quick Queries, the Results Grid, and the Query Editor directly within Visual Studio Code—without leaving your editor. Shortcut Configuration helps you complete your data tasks faster.

With SQL Formatter, you can format SQL scripts directly in your editor for cleaner, more consistent, and readable code. Now in public preview, it includes more customizable formatting options to match your preferred coding style and streamline development.

With Azure SQL Database provisioning, you can create and connect to a fully managed cloud database directly from your editor—at no cost. Now generally available, the feature also includes ready-to-use Azure Resource Manager (ARM), Bicep, and Terraform templates for repeatable deployments, along with additional options to help you get started faster.