SQLCon 2026 launches this week in Atlanta alongside FabCon, uniting SQL and Fabric communities for collaborative learning and exploration of Microsoft's database portfolio. The event marks the return of a Microsoft-led SQL community gathering while demonstrating SQL's expanding role within Fabric.
The Microsoft SQL community continues its momentum globally, with active user groups and enterprises deploying SQL solutions for daily innovation. Microsoft's database portfolio spans edge, PaaS, and SaaS deployments on shared strategic foundations, supporting migration, modernization, cloud-native AI development, and data unification.
Azure SQL: Familiar migration paths to the cloud
Enterprise modernization rarely happens in a single leap. Organizations typically progress from SQL Server through hybrid architectures before reaching full cloud adoption. Azure SQL facilitates this evolution with full SQL compatibility, consistent foundations from on-premises to cloud, and integrated AI capabilities alongside enterprise security, high availability, and elastic scaling. Azure Arc enables hybrid scenarios while maintaining strong performance and low latency.
AI agents are accelerating database migration and modernization at Microsoft by reducing manual work and providing guided experiences. GitHub Copilot's general availability in SSMS 22 exemplifies this approach, delivering the same assistance developers use in Visual Studio and VS Code directly within SQL Server Management Studio. The tool supports T-SQL writing, editing, and refactoring for developers and DBAs at all experience levels, with ongoing capability expansion for query optimization, troubleshooting, and administrative tasks.
Microsoft announced savings plan for databases, a spend-based pricing model offering up to 35% savings versus pay-as-you-go rates on one-year commitments. The plan accommodates evolving database environments through fixed hourly spend commitments with automatic application of savings to highest-value usage each hour, supporting migration, modernization, and architectural transitions.
Azure SQL Database Hyperscale for cloud-native scale
Azure SQL Database Hyperscale addresses post-migration challenges around building faster, scaling efficiently, and extracting data value without complete re-architecture. The service delivers improved price-performance, elastic scale, and workload resilience without T-SQL rewrites or operational model changes.
Hyperscale's architecture uses shared storage and multiple replicas for independent read scaling from writes. Built-in HTAP isolation handles massive transactional and analytical workloads without complex redesign. New public preview capabilities include the SQL MCP Server for secure AI agent and Copilot connections to SQL data, plus 160 and 192 vCore options for high-throughput scenarios.
Recent vector index enhancements improve AI application performance and efficiency without code changes. Full insert, update, and delete support maintains real-time index currency for dynamic applications. Quantization, iterative filtering, and enhanced query optimizer integration deliver faster, more predictable results for responsive AI experiences built on SQL data.
Temenos built its Temenos Core next-generation banking platform on Azure using Azure SQL Database Hyperscale to achieve global scale, high availability, and resilient performance. The platform processes billions of daily transactions and exceeds 17,500 transactions per second at peak, with Hyperscale enabling reduced onboarding time, accelerated innovation, and a shift from downtime concerns to availability-based competition.
SQL database in Fabric: Enterprise-ready data unification
SQL database in Fabric now includes enterprise-grade security and compliance capabilities. General availability features announced at SQLCon include SQL Auditing, Customer-Managed Keys, and Dynamic Data Masking, with workspace-level Private Link in preview. These enhancements address strict governance and regulatory requirements without operational complexity, ensuring production-ready security and compliance for SQL workloads in Fabric.
AI-driven application capabilities expand with the same vector indexing enhancements available in Azure SQL Database Hyperscale now integrated into SQL database in Fabric. Both services share the Microsoft SQL engine, providing consistent performance, capabilities, and innovation across the portfolio for intelligent application development regardless of data location.
Migration to SQL database in Fabric simplifies through the Migration Assistant's new support for Fabric as a target destination. The Copilot-assisted experience helps SQL developers assess readiness, migrate schemas, identify compatibility issues, and copy data with reduced manual effort. Familiar SQL skills and workflows enable self-paced modernization while accelerating time to value on Fabric's unified analytics and AI platform.
Database Hub: Unified management across the estate
Modern applications typically rely on mixed SQL and NoSQL databases across cloud, on-premises, and edge environments. Provisioning, monitoring, and maintaining health across expanding database fleets often requires multiple tools and portals, complicating visibility and scale management.
The Database Hub in Microsoft Fabric, now in early access, provides unified database management across edge, cloud, and Fabric environments. Database teams can explore, observe, govern, and optimize their entire estate from a single interface, including Azure SQL, Azure Cosmos DB, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc, and Azure Database for MySQL, without changing deployment or operational models.
Built for scale, the Database Hub introduces an agent-assisted, human-in-the-loop management approach. Intelligent agents continuously analyze estate-wide signals to surface changes, explain significance, and guide next actions. Built-in observability, delegated governance, and Copilot-powered insights help teams move from insight to action with confidence, spending less time navigating tools and more time enabling deeper integration across applications, analytics, and AI from a single control plane.
Database Hub is available in early access today.
SQLCon Europe and community commitment
SQLCon represents Microsoft's long-term SQL commitment alongside the community shaping its future. The comprehensive portfolio built on strategic common foundations across edge, PaaS, and SaaS provides a unified platform for migration, modernization, cloud-native AI development, and data unification.
SQLCon expands to Europe with an event scheduled for September 28 – October 1, 2026 in Barcelona, Spain, featuring hands-on learning, expert insights, and real-world implementations.
