MS SQL 2014 comes with a lot of features that are designed to give developers and administrators better performance, security, and manageability. The primary areas of improvement include in-memory OLTP, improvements to Always On, new Hybrid Cloud features, the new Buffer Pool, and better security through separation of duties between administrators and developers.
From our personal point of view, SQL Server 2014 is indeed an interesting release to mention. Thanks to all the testing we did with the various features of SQL Server 2016.
GeoPITS brings you the comprehensive list of SQL Server 2014 features that are supported in different editions (Enterprise Standard, Web, Express Adv, Express.)
| Features | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express (Adv.) | Express |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Server core support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Log shipping | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Database mirroring | Yes | Yes | Yes (Witness Only) | Yes (Witness Only) | |
| Backup compression | Yes | Yes | |||
| Database snapshot | Yes | ||||
| Always On failover cluster instances | Yes | Yes | |||
| Always On availability groups | Yes | ||||
| Basic availability groups | |||||
| Automatic read write connection re-routing | Yes | ||||
| Online page and file restore | Yes | ||||
| Online indexing | Yes | ||||
| Resumable online index rebuilds | Yes | ||||
| Online schema change | Yes | ||||
| Fast recovery | Yes | ||||
| Accelerated database recovery | |||||
| Mirrored backups | Yes | ||||
| Hot add memory and CPU | Yes | ||||
| Database recovery advisor | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Encrypted backup | Yes | Yes | |||
| Hybrid backup to Azure (backup to URL) | |||||
| Read-scale availability group | |||||
| Cluster-less availability group | |||||
| Failover servers for disaster recovery | |||||
| Failover servers for high availability | |||||
| Failover servers for disaster recovery in Azure |
| Features | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express (Adv.) | Express |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Row-level security | |||||
| Always Encrypted | |||||
| Always Encrypted with Secure Enclaves | |||||
| Dynamic data masking | |||||
| Server audit | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Database audit | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Transparent database encryption | Yes | ||||
| Extensible key management | Yes | ||||
| User-defined roles | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Contained databases | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Encryption for backups | Yes | Yes | |||
| Data classification and auditing |
| Features | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express (Adv.) | Express |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heterogeneous subscribers | Yes | ||||
| Merge replication | Yes | Yes | Yes (Subscriber only) | Yes (Subscriber only) | |
| Oracle publishing | Yes | ||||
| Peer to peer transactional replication | Yes | ||||
| Snapshot replication | Yes | Yes | Yes (Subscriber only) | Yes (Subscriber only) | |
| SQL Server change tracking | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Transactional replication | Yes | Yes | Yes (Subscriber only) | Yes (Subscriber only) | |
| Transactional replication to Azure | |||||
| Transactional replication updateable subscription | Yes |
| Features | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express (Adv.) | Express |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SQL Management Objects (SMO) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| SQL Assessment API | |||||
| SQL Vulnerability Assessment | |||||
| SQL Configuration Manager | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| SQL CMD (Command Prompt tool) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Distributed Replay - Admin Tool | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Distribute Replay - Client | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Distributed Replay - Controller | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| SQL Profiler | Yes | Yes | |||
| SQL Server Agent | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Microsoft System Center Operations Manager Management Pack | |||||
| Database Tuning Advisor (DTA) |
| Features | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express (Adv.) | Express |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Visual Studio integration | |||||
| Intellisense (Transact-SQL and MDX) | |||||
| SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) | |||||
| MDX edit, debug, and design tools |
| Features | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express (Adv.) | Express |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spatial indexes | |||||
| Planar and geodetic datatypes | |||||
| Advanced spatial libraries | |||||
| Import/export of industry-standard spatial data formats |
| Features | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express (Adv.) | Express |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SQL Server Migration Assistant | |||||
| Database mail |
| Features | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express (Adv.) | Express |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| StreamInsight | |||||
| StreamInsight HA |
