SQL Server 2019 on Windows containers now in Early Adopters Program

Starting with SQL Server 2017’s support for Linux and containers, Microsoft has been on a journey of platform and operating system choice. SQL Server 2019 containers simplify application development, continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, and production workloads by making it easier to deploy SQL Server in these environments. Today, we’re happy to continue down this journey, and announce the availability of SQL Server 2019 Windows-based container images in the Early Adopters Program.

SQL Server 2019 on Windows containers

SQL Server in Windows containers help developers build and ship SQL Server applications faster. Developers and database administrators (DBAs) can start a new SQL Server instance in a container in seconds without any installation for fast development. SQL Server containers can also be used alongside application containers to simplify building and testing applications. Containers can further aid application and database development by easily integrating into existing CI/CD pipelines where new SQL Server instances are required on demand and stopped when they are no longer required.

SQL Server on Windows containers also help IT professionals manage and deploy SQL Server in organizations. IT professionals can pre-configure and build on top of the SQL Server containers to provide standardized deployments for development, test, and production teams. With SQL Server containers, developers, DBAs, and data engineers don’t have to worry about installation or configuring SQL Server. Containers simplify many aspects of deployment and management of SQL Server instances for a variety of use cases.

Getting started with SQL Server on Windows containers

Join the SQL Server 2019 Early Adopter Program, and tell us how you plan to use SQL Server 2019 on Windows containers for early access.