9. SQL Server 2019 Big Data Clusters

In Chapter 8, Machine Learning Services Extensibility Framework, you learned about Machine Learning Services using SQL Server machine learning services. The training phase of model development requires a lot of data — more examples are better for the algorithms to "learn" from. However, machine learning isn't the only use case that requires lots of information: everything from business intelligence to data mining takes advantage of large sets of data. The SQL Server 2019 Big Data Clusters feature facilitates working with datasets far larger than a traditional Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) can usually handle, while incorporating other benefits and features as well.

Because of the depth of technical information in any scale-out system, this chapter will focus on the primary concepts of this new feature, while providing concrete examples of their use. References are provided in each section to assist...