What’s new in Microsoft SQL in 2026 so far (SQL Server/Azure SQL/Fabric) | Data Exposed

We’re halfway through 2026, and Microsoft SQL has not slowed down. Since SQLCon/FabCon in March (where we released a ton of things, and those updates can be found in the What's New in Microsoft SQL at SQLCon/FabCon | Data Exposed video), we shipped a wave of updates across SQL Server, Azure SQL, and SQL database in Fabric, with Microsoft Build 2026 as the centerpiece. If you want the details on Build, start with my recap blog, The Era of the Agentic Database Developer. This post (https://aka.ms/newsupdate2026) collects everything new from mid-March through today, organized by service so you can find what matters to you. Every item is tagged Preview or Generally Available with a link. You can also catch new episodes on the Azure SQL YouTube channel, where we go deeper on a lot of what’s covered today. 📌 Let's connect: Twitter - Anna Hoffman, https://twitter.com/AnalyticAnna Twitter - AzureSQL, https://aka.ms/azuresqltw 🔴 Watch even more Data Exposed episodes: https://aka.ms/dataexposedyt 🔔 Subscribe to our channels for even more SQL tips: Microsoft Azure SQL: https://aka.ms/msazuresqlyt Microsoft SQL Server: https://aka.ms/mssqlserveryt Microsoft Developer: https://aka.ms/microsoftdeveloperyt 0:00 intro 0:50 where to get the blog aka.ms/newsupdate2026 1:30 what we announced at SQLCon Atlanta 1:50 blog from Microsoft Build 2:10 updates across Azure SQL and SQL database in Fabric 2:55 moving away from SQL auth 3:20 TDE with AES key support 3:55 Regex-powered DDM 4:05 AI_GENERATE_EMBEDDINGS 4:46 Local time zone support 5:00 192 vCore support 5:38 SQL database in Fabric announcements 6:15 Fabric Apps 6:50 shareable sites with Rayfin/Fabric Apps 8:00 SQL Server CU and security updates 8:20 SQL Server CU5 improvements - max lock memory % 9:10 Fixed CPU starvation issue with in-memory OLTP 9:30 FulltextIndexVersion2 9:55 Change feed settings 10:00 CAG listener 10:45 Tools announcements at Build: MSSQL extension for VS Code, SSMS, and more 11:23 SQL Formatter and Schema Compare 11:45 What's new page 12:00 Database DevOps and SQL Projects in SSMS 12:45 Migrate SQL Server to Azure SQL and assessments in SSMS 13:05 SQL Notebooks back in VS Code 13:20 GitHub Copilot experiences 13:30 ADS retirement releases 13:50 SQL MCP Server 14:18 Drivers updates: Python, etc including Apache Arrow support 15:30 Blogs that are worth reading 15:55 AI security across the stack 16:33 SQL AI developer certification 16:55 Azure SQL YouTube channel tour 18:35 SQLCon Barcelona