The feature-set of Azure SQL Database has been given a boots. Microsoft has updated the platform to add a feature called “Temporal Tables”. With this addition, customers will be able to track their data history directly in SQL Database.
In fact, the entire history of your data can be viewed without needing to use custom coding. Temporal Tables also give the ability to see data at any specific point in the history. With this data, users can set a declarative cleanup policy to control retention for the historical data.
Temporal Tables have been made available for all Azure SQL Database customers. Microsoft says they improve productivity and help maintain data when creating apps:
“Quite often you may be in the situation to ask yourself fundamental questions: How did important information look yesterday, a month ago, a year ago, etc. What changes have been made since the beginning of the year? What were the dominant trends during a specific period of time? Without proper support in the database, however, questions like these have never been easy to answer”
Here’s what Temporal Tables can be used for:
- Supporting data auditing in your applications
- Analyzing trends or detect anomalies over time
- Easily implementing slowly changing dimension pattern
- Performing fine-grained row repairs in case of accidental data errors made by humans or applications
Recent SQL Database changes
Microsoft announced that the ability to develop databases using Always Encrypted in July. The feature is now supported in SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT). The company said developers can now create protected data within a database.
Always Encrypted is available in both SQL Server 2016 and Azure SQL Database and it allows users to protect sensitive data by transparently encrypting and decrypting data sent from the database column.
