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Microsoft Kicks off SQL Server vNext Early Adoption Program with Direct Access to Engineering Team

The company wants to help customers and partners to adopt the upcoming version of its SQL Server on Windows or Linux in production before general availability

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Customers and partners interested in adopting the vNext can help validate new features such as High Availability (HA) on Linux and Adaptive Query Processing.

has invited partners who want to build SI (system integration) offerings and ISV (independent software vendor) applications join the Early Adoption Program (EAP). Upon successful validation, these applications and solutions could be supported in production, prior to the general availability release.

Working with Microsoft's engineering team

As Microsoft states in an announcement, EAP participants will have direct access to Microsoft´s engineering team with the help of a Program Manager Buddy. “Your PM Buddy is there as a primary contact within the development team to help connect you to the right people to help your solution adopt SQL Server v.Next”, the company explains.

Other benefits of the SQL Server vNext EAP as described by Microsoft are:

  • SQL EAP participants have the opportunity to bring your workload to the SQL Customer Advisory Team Customer Lab to directly engage and test with the SQL Server team.
  • Customers in SQL EAP will be able to try out new features, sometimes before the public gets to see them, and provide the feedback directly to the engineering team. They will have the opportunity to provide input into the prioritization of product requirements for SQL Server v.Next via regular surveys. Participants will also be able to discuss feature design with PMs.
  • You will have access to a private Yammer group for SQL EAP customers to communicate with one another and the engineering team, helping customers learn from each other. Content on the private Yammer group will be considered confidential and covered by the Microsoft NDA required to participate in SQL EAP.
  • Customers going into production will be fully supported by Microsoft Support before general availability. A special support channel is provided to raise cases for SQL Server v.Next. The SQL Server engineering team will be backing up the Microsoft Support team to provide assistance as needed. Customers in production will also have support for release-to-release upgrades”.

Joining the EAP

In order to participate in the EAP, customers and partners should apply by completing this form. A Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) with Microsoft is required and in case applicants don't already have one, the company will help them get one signed.

Finally, customers in SQL EAP that are going in production “will need to sign a EULA amendment that grants them the permission to use the software in production.

A few weeks ago Microsoft released a System Center Management Package preview for the SQL Server vNext that introduced a number of new features. It is compatible with both Operations Manager 2012 R2 and Operations Manager 2016.

Users that want to check the public preview of the next release of SQL Server can do so here.

SourceMicrosoft
Kostas Papanikolaou
Kostas Papanikolaou
Kostas is a former sports journalist and an amateur gamer. Combining his love for technology with his writing experience, he enjoys covering news about Microsoft. Being an artistic “soul”, he is also writing poems and short stories.

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