Many of us have been working with SQL Server long enough to remember when SQL Server 2016 was shiny and new. It’s unquestionably a milestone of a version with Query Store being introduced, availability groups finally working, lots of features eventually added to Standard Edition, and more. But now it is old enough that Microsoft is politely showing it the door.
That’s right: it’s time to plan to retire SQL Server 2016 to Del Boca Vista. And soon.
This post is the first in a series we are calling “SQL Server 2016 – The Final Countdown.” (Yes, you may now have that song stuck in your head for the rest of the day, and you are welcome.) Over several posts we are going to walk through what you ought to know before this version rides off into the sunset, but today we start with the big one: the end of support, what it actually means, and why you should care a good deal more than you probably do right now.
And although “End of support” sounds like one of those vague corporate phrases that lives inside an email you never opened, I assure you it is a real concern. It has a date, it has consequences, and if you are running SQL Server 2016 in production, it has your organization’s name on it.
Let’s get to it then.