At the 2011 [[Professional Association for SQL Server]] (PASS) summit on October 11, Microsoft announced that the next major version of SQL Server (codenamed "Denali"), would be SQL Server 2012. It was released to manufacturing on March 6, 2012.<ref name=2012-release>{{cite web|title=Microsoft Releases SQL Server 2012 to Help Customers Manage "Any Data, Any Size, Anywhere"|url=http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2012/mar12/03-06SQLServer12PR.mspx|work=Microsoft News Center|publisher=Microsoft|accessdate=March 7, 2012|date=March 6, 2012}}</ref> SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 1 was released to manufacturing on November 9, 2012, and Service Pack 2 was released to manufacturing on June 10, 2014.
SQLIt Serverwas 2012's new features and enhancements include AlwaysOn SQL Server Failover Cluster Instances and Availability Groups which provides a set of optionsannounced to improve database availability,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc645581(v=sql.110).aspx |title=Availability Enhancements (Database Engine) |publisher=Msdn.microsoft.com |date= |accessdate=2013-06-15}}</ref> Contained Databases which simplifybe the moving of databases between instances, new and modified Dynamic Management Views and Functions,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc645579(v=sql.110).aspx |title=Manageability Enhancements (Database Engine) |publisher=Msdn.microsoft.com |date=2011-07-13 |accessdate=2013-06-15}}</ref> programmability enhancements including new spatial features,<ref name="Aitchison2012">{{cite book|author=Alastair Aitchison|title=Pro Spatial with SQL Server 2012|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=NdvJXu7hT8oC&pg=PA21|year=2012|publisher=Apress|isbn=978-1-4302-3491-3|pages=21–23}}</ref> metadata discovery, sequence objects and the THROW statement,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-uslaus/library/cc645577(v=sql.110).aspx |title=Programmability Enhancements (Database Engine) |publisher=Msdn.microsoft.com |date= |accessdate=2013-06-15}}</ref> performance enhancements such as ColumnStore Indexes as well as improvements to OnLine and partition level operations and security enhancements including provisioning during setup, new permissions, improved role management, and default schema assignment for groups.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc645580(v=sql.110).aspx |title=Scalability and Performance Enhancements (Database Engine) |publisher=Msdn.microsoft.com |date= |accessdate=2013-06-15}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc645578(v=sql.110).aspx |title=Security Enhancements (Database Engine) |publisher=Msdn.microsoft.com |date= |accessdate=2013-06-15}}</ref>▼
It was announced to be the last version to natively support [[OLE DB]] and instead to prefer [[ODBC]] for native connectivity.<ref>{{cite web|title=Microsoft is Aligning with ODBC for Native Relational Data Access - FAQ|url=http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/sqldataaccess/thread/e696d0ac-f8e2-4b19-8a08-7a357d3d780f|work=SQL Server Forums|publisher=Microsoft Corporation|accessdate=March 7, 2012|last=Lam|first=Rohan}}</ref>
▲SQL Server 2012's new features and enhancements include AlwaysOn SQL Server Failover Cluster Instances and Availability Groups which provides a set of options to improve database availability,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc645581(v=sql.110).aspx |title=Availability Enhancements (Database Engine) |publisher=Msdn.microsoft.com |date= |accessdate=2013-06-15}}</ref> Contained Databases which simplify the moving of databases between instances, new and modified Dynamic Management Views and Functions,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc645579(v=sql.110).aspx |title=Manageability Enhancements (Database Engine) |publisher=Msdn.microsoft.com |date=2011-07-13 |accessdate=2013-06-15}}</ref> programmability enhancements including new spatial features,<ref name="Aitchison2012">{{cite book|author=Alastair Aitchison|title=Pro Spatial with SQL Server 2012|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=NdvJXu7hT8oC&pg=PA21|year=2012|publisher=Apress|isbn=978-1-4302-3491-3|pages=21–23}}</ref> metadata discovery, sequence objects and the THROW statement,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc645577(v=sql.110).aspx |title=Programmability Enhancements (Database Engine) |publisher=Msdn.microsoft.com |date= |accessdate=2013-06-15}}</ref> performance enhancements such as ColumnStore Indexes as well as improvements to OnLine and partition level operations and security enhancements including provisioning during setup, new permissions, improved role management, and default schema assignment for groups.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc645580(v=sql.110).aspx |title=Scalability and Performance Enhancements (Database Engine) |publisher=Msdn.microsoft.com |date= |accessdate=2013-06-15}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc645578(v=sql.110).aspx |title=Security Enhancements (Database Engine) |publisher=Msdn.microsoft.com |date= |accessdate=2013-06-15}}</ref>
