A new release of SQL Managed Instance has been announced you can check out all the documentation on this post.

Here are some of the highlights that got me excited about what has come out and how we will be able to use it.

Four Core Instances

We finally have 4 core instances of SQL MI. This makes SQL MI a lot easier to use as an entry-level database and opens this up to a lot more users.

Public Endpoints

Instead of having to go through a VNet you can use a public endpoint to connect to your SQL MI. This can still be controlled via NSG to give you IP level firewalling for accessing your databases. This becomes most useful when using Power BI, instead of rolling up an extra VM running the gateway service you can directly connect to SQL MI.

Choose Your Own Connection Policy

You can now pick your connection policy in the portal for your SQL MI. Redirect use the TDS redirect packet to directly attach you to the backend servers running your databases. Otherwise, you can use the Proxy connection which lets you use the gateway service to connect without having the redirect occur.