Whats new date cleanup

Author: MashaMSFT

azure-sql/database/doc-changes-updates-release-notes-whats-new-archive.md

@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ description: Learn about the features and documentation improvements for Azure S
 author: WilliamDAssafMSFT
 ms.author: wiassaf
 ms.reviewer: mathoma, maghan
-ms.date: 02/19/2026
+ms.date: 03/02/2026
 ms.service: azure-sql-database
 ms.subservice: service-overview
 ms.topic: whats-new
@@ -25,6 +25,43 @@ This article summarizes older documentation changes associated with new features
 
 Return to [What's new in Azure SQL Database?](doc-changes-updates-release-notes-whats-new.md)
 
+## 2025
+
+| Changes | Month | Details |
+| --- | --- | --- |
+| **Regular expression functions preview** | November | Regular expression (REGEX) functions return text based on values in a search pattern.  Regular expression (REGEX) functions are now generally available for Azure SQL Database. For more information, see [Regular expressions](/sql/relational-databases/regular-expressions/overview) or [General Availability Announcement: Regex Support in SQL Server 2025 & Azure SQL](https://devblogs.microsoft.com/azure-sql/general-availability-announcement-regex-support-in-sql-server-2025-azure-sql/). |
+| **Change event streaming preview** | November | Capture and publish incremental DML changes of data (such as updates, inserts, and deletes) in near real-time. Change event streaming sends details of data changes such as the schema, previous values, and new values to Azure Event Hubs in a simple CloudEvent, serialized as either native JSON or Avro Binary. This feature is now in preview. To learn more, review [Change event streaming](/sql/relational-databases/track-changes/change-event-streaming/overview). |
+| **Convert to Hyperscale with geo-replicas** | October | The ability to [convert a geo-replicated database non-Hyperscale database to Hyperscale](convert-to-hyperscale.md) using T-SQL, REST API, PowerShell, or Azure CLI is now generally available. For more information, see [Blog: Hyperscale conversion support for geo-replicas](https://aka.ms/hs-conversion-geodr-ga). |
+| **Restart database in the Azure portal (preview)** | October | You can [restart your SQL database or elastic pool](restart-database.md) from the Azure portal. |
+| **Multiple geo-replicas for Hyperscale** | October | The ability to create up to four geo-replicas for Azure SQL Hyperscale is in preview.  Learn more about [multiple geo-replicas for Hyperscale](https://aka.ms/sqlhs-multi-geo-announcement). |
+| **Immutable LTR backups** | September | You can [configure long-term retention backups of Azure SQL Database as immutable](backup-immutability.md), a feature currently in preview.|
+| **New Azure SQL hub** | September | Choosing the right Azure SQL service can be challenging. To make this easier, we built the [Azure SQL hub at aka.ms/azuresqlhub](https://aka.ms/azuresqlhub), a new home for everything related to Azure SQL in the Azure portal. For more information, read the blog post [Introducing the Azure SQL hub: A simpler, guided entry into Azure SQL](https://aka.ms/azuresqlhubblog). | 
+| **sys.dm_hs_database_replicas** | August | You can query the details of Azure SQL Database Hyperscale replicas with the new dynamic management view (DMV) [sys.dm_hs_database_replicas](/sql/relational-databases/system-functions/sys-dm-hs-database-replicas).|
+| **UNISTR** | July | Azure SQL Database now supports the `UNISTR`. This syntax is now generally available. For more information, see [UNISTR (Transact-SQL)](/sql/t-sql/functions/unistr-transact-sql). |
+| **\| \| and \| \| = string concatenation support** | July | Azure SQL Database now supports \| \| and \| \| = compound assignment T-SQL syntax. This syntax is now generally available. For more information, see [|| (String concatenation)](/sql/t-sql/language-elements/string-concatenation-pipes-transact-sql) and [||= (Compound assignment)](/sql/t-sql/language-elements/compound-assignment-pipes-transact-sql). |
+| **Degrees of Parallelism (DOP) feedback** | July |[DOP Feedback](/sql/relational-databases/performance/intelligent-query-processing-degree-parallelism-feedback?view=azuresqldb-current&preserve-view=true) is now generally available for Azure SQL Database. For more information, see [Smarter Parallelism: Degree of parallelism feedback in SQL Server 2025](https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/sqlserver/smarter-parallelism-degree-of-parallelism-feedback-in-sql-server-2025/4431318). |
+| **Convert to Hyperscale with geo-replicas (preview)** |July |The ability to [convert a geo-replicated database non-Hyperscale database to Hyperscale](convert-to-hyperscale.md) using T-SQL, REST API, PowerShell, or Azure CLI is currently a preview feature. For more information, see [Blog: Hyperscale conversion support for geo-replicas](https://aka.ms/hs-conversion-geodr-preview). |
+| **Audit re-architecture GA** | July | Enhancements to performance, availability, and reliability in server auditing for Azure SQL Database. For more information, see [Auditing](auditing-overview.md#enhancements-to-performance-availability-and-reliability-in-server-auditing-for-azure-sql-database-july-2025-ga). |
+| **TLS 1.0 and 1.1 retirement FAQ** | July | Azure has announced that support for older TLS versions (TLS 1.0, and 1.1) ends August 31, 2025. For more information, see [TLS 1.0 and 1.1 deprecation frequently asked questions](connectivity-settings.md#upcoming-tls-10-and-11-retirement-changes-faq). Starting August 2025, versions below TLS 1.2 won't be available. |
+| **Data Virtualization for Azure SQL Database (preview)** | June | Data virtualization, now in preview in Azure SQL Database, enables you to leverage all the power of Transact-SQL (T-SQL) and seamlessly query external data from Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 or Azure Blob Storage. For more information, see [Data virtualization with Azure SQL Database (Preview)](data-virtualization-overview.md).|
+| **Hyperscale increased log generation rate** | May | The transaction log generation rate in Azure SQL Database Hyperscale single databases has been increased from 100 MiB/s to 150 MiB/s for premium-series and premium-series memory optimized hardware. For more information, read [Blog: Enhancements to Azure SQL Database Hyperscale](https://aka.ms/HSenhancements).|
+| **Hyperscale continuous priming** | May | [Continuous priming](service-tier-hyperscale.md#continuous-priming) optimizes Hyperscale performance during failovers by priming high availability secondary compute replicas. Continuous priming is now generally available. For more information, read [Blog: Enhancements to Azure SQL Database Hyperscale](https://aka.ms/HSenhancements).|
+| **JSON native data type GA** | May | The [**json** data type and JSON aggregate functions](/sql/t-sql/data-types/json-data-type?view=azuresqldb-current&preserve-view=true) provide new capabilities for handling semistructured data in Azure SQL Database. This data type is now generally available. |
+| **JSON aggregate functions GA** | May | Two [**json** aggregate functions `JSON_OBJECTAGG` and `JSON_ARRAYAGG`](/sql/relational-databases/json/json-data-sql-server?view=azuresqldb-current&preserve-view=true#json-data-from-aggregates) enable construction of JSON objects or arrays based on an aggregate from SQL data. These JSON functions are now generally available. |
+| **Manually initiate cutover for conversion to Hyperscale** | April | When converting an Azure SQL Database to the Hyperscale service tier, [you have a new option to manually initiate the cutover](https://aka.ms/hs-conversion-v2-ga). For more information, see [Convert an existing database to Hyperscale](convert-to-hyperscale.md). This feature is currently in preview.|
+| **ABORT_QUERY_EXECUTION** | March | The new `ABORT_QUERY_EXECUTION` [query hint](/sql/t-sql/queries/hints-transact-sql-query?view=azuresqldb-current&preserve-view=true#use_hint_abort_query_execution), currently in preview, can block future execution of known problematic queries, for example nonessential queries causing high resource consumption and impacting critical application workloads. For more information, see [Query Store hints: Block future execution of problematic queries](/sql/relational-databases/performance/query-store-hints-best-practices?view=azuresqldb-current&preserve-view=true#block-future-execution-of-problematic-queries).|
+| **Approximate or fuzzy string matching (preview)**| February | Check if two strings are similar, and calculate the difference between two strings. Use this capability to identify strings that might be different because of character corruption. [What is fuzzy string matching?](/sql/relational-databases/fuzzy-string-match/overview)|
+| **DATEADD number allows bigint (preview)** | February | For `DATEADD (datepart, number, date)`, number can be expressed as a **bigint**. For more information, see [DATEADD (Transact-SQL)](/sql/t-sql/functions/dateadd-transact-sql).|
+| **Regular expression functions (preview)** | February | Regular expression (REGEX) functions return text based on values in a search pattern. For more information, see [Regular expressions](/sql/relational-databases/regular-expressions/overview). |
+| **Availability metric**| February | Availability is presented as a metric in the Azure Monitor metrics. Driven by a variety of user connection failures, you can [monitor and configure alerts on Azure SQL Database Availability](monitoring-metrics-alerts.md#availability-metric). For more information, see [Blog: Availability metric is now generally available](https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/azuresqlblog/availability-metric-for-azure-sql-db-is-now-generally-available/4379174).|
+| **sys.dm_database_backups** | February | The [sys.dm_database_backups](/sql/relational-databases/system-dynamic-management-views/sys-dm-database-backups-azure-sql-database?view=azuresqldb-current&preserve-view=true) dynamic management view returns information about the [automated backups of a database](automated-backups-overview.md). This DMV is now generally available. | 
+| **Manually initiate cutover for conversion to Hyperscale** | February | When converting an Azure SQL Database to the Hyperscale service tier, [you have a new option to manually initiate the cutover](https://aka.ms/hs-conversion-v2-preview). For more information, see [Convert an existing database to Hyperscale](convert-to-hyperscale.md). This feature is currently in preview.|
+| **Import bacpac file size increase** | February | The limit for an imported bacpac file size has been increased from 4 GB to 150 GB. For more information on importing a bacpac file generated from SqlPackage, see [Quickstart: Import a bacpac file to a database in Azure SQL Database](database-import.md).|
+| **Free Azure SQL Database** | January | Use [Azure SQL Database for free](free-offer.md), for the life of your subscription. This free offer provides up to 10 free General Purpose databases, each with 100,000 vCore seconds of compute, every month. For more information, see [Blog: General availability of Azure SQL Database free offer](https://aka.ms/azuresqlfreedb).|
+| **Hyperscale support for database and file shrink** | January | [Database and file shrink commands](file-space-manage.md)  are now generally available for Azure SQL Database Hyperscale. For more information, see the [Shrink in Hyperscale Generally Available blog post](https://aka.ms/hs-shrink-ga).|
+| **SQL Insights retired** | January | [SQL Insights has been retired](https://azure.microsoft.com/updates/?id=sql-insights-retirement) and is no longer available. Use [database watcher](../database-watcher-overview.md) or another monitoring solution to monitor Azure SQL Database. |
+
+
 ## 2024
 
 | Changes | Month | Details |