The first public preview of SQL Server 2016 (CTP2) got announced yesterday. The natural question for BI pros is what’s new for BI. The “What’s New in …” topics in the SQL Server 2016 Books Online provides the detailed description of the BI features that made the CTP2 cut. To summarize the major features:

SSAS

1. Process partitions within a Tabular table in parallel. Previously, partitions within a table were processed sequentially.
2. New DAX functions. The join-related ones, such as NATURALINNERJOIN, NATURALLEFTOUTERJOIN, UNION, will be useful.

SSRS

1. Subscription enhancements, such as Enable/disable subscriptions (New user interface options to quickly disable and enable subscriptions), change subscription owner, shared credential for file share subscriptions.
2. Report Builder for SQL Server 2016 supports High DPI

SSIS

1. Incremental Package Deployment – ability to deploy individual packages to the SSIS catalog.
2. AlwaysOn support – ability to host the SSIS catalog on a database configured for AlwaysOn for high-availability

MDS

1. Improved Manageability – reuse entities across models!
2. Improved performance – overall performance enhancements for larger models, as well as performance improvement for the Excel MDS add-in.
3. Improved security
4. Improved troubleshooting

More exciting features to come later on so stay tuned.