Run SQL Server on RDS and EC2, design high availability and disaster recovery, and modernise to Aurora PostgreSQL where it makes sense. AWS was a Platinum sponsor of SQLBits 2026 and ran a full programme of sessions and workshops for SQL Server teams.
Migration, licensing and cost, HA/DR across AZs and Regions, performance tuning on RDS, lakehouse on Iceberg and AI on your data. Sessions include hands-on workshops, not just slides.
SQLBits 2026 featured AWS Principal and Senior Specialist Solutions Architects who work on Microsoft workloads daily. Bring your estate, your questions and your migration blockers.
The challenges we’ll help you solve
If any of these sound familiar, you will find people at SQLBits who have already been there.
Aurora PostgreSQL with pgvector (0.8.0) works as a vector store for Bedrock Knowledge Bases, with hybrid search support.
AgentCore Gateway wraps existing APIs and MCP servers as agent tools, with identity and observability.
Aurora PostgreSQL dynamic data masking was announced at re:Invent 2025.
S3 Tables, with Kinesis streaming delivery to S3 Tables (August 2026). SQLBits 2026 included a session on an Iceberg lakehouse.
Glue zero-ETL integrations feed S3 Tables and the SageMaker lakehouse.
RDS for SQL Server Developer Edition (December 2025) gives non-production environments enterprise features.
Aurora DSQL multi-Region, with CDC generally available since 8 July 2026 for downstream feeds.
Eight places agents are already earning their keep in AWS, and where SQLBits sessions will show you how.
AWS Transform for Windows modernisation assesses, converts schema and T-SQL procedures to PL/pgSQL, updates application code and deploys. It supports .NET 6+ and is currently us-east-1 only.
AWS Transform offline schema transformation (GA, 3 Aug 2026) converts SQL Server DDL with no live database connection, and fixes can be made in the IDE through the AWS Transform MCP server.
DMS Schema Conversion with generative AI converts Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL and Sybase sources to Aurora or RDS PostgreSQL, extended to nine more regions in March 2026 at no extra charge.
AWS DevOps Agent (GA, 31 Mar 2026) correlates telemetry, code and deployment data across AWS, Azure and on-premises.
The Aurora PostgreSQL power for Kiro (December 2025) bundles an MCP server with best-practice guidance, so an agent can create clusters, manage schemas and run queries from the IDE.
Aurora DSQL has an MCP server, Kiro powers and agent skills, plus DSQL Assist (July 2026).
Kiro reached GA in November 2025, with a CLI for agent-driven development.
Amazon Bedrock AgentCore (GA, 13 Oct 2025) provides runtime, gateway for MCP, identity and observability. SQLBits 2026 sessions used it with the Strands SDK.
Bob Ward needs no introduction. A bona fide SQL Server GOAT, Bob is a Principal Architect on Microsoft’s Azure Data team, shaping SQL from ground to cloud to Fabric. In 32 years at Microsoft, he’s worked on every version of SQL Server, from OS/2 1.1 to SQL Server 2025, as well as Azure SQL and SQL database in Fabric.
A world-renowned speaker and bestselling technical author, Bob shares his expertise on SQL Server, Azure SQL, AI and Fabric at leading events including SQLBits, Microsoft Build and Ignite. He’s also the face of the popular Azure SQL for Beginners series.
Brent Ozar makes SQL Server go faster, and makes learning it a whole lot more fun. A world-renowned SQL Server expert, performance tuning specialist and speaker, Brent has spent decades helping database professionals solve their toughest performance problems. He’s the founder of Brent Ozar Unlimited, creator of the hugely popular First Responder Kit and a much-loved educator known for making complex technical topics accessible, practical and entertaining. Through his training, blog posts, videos and open-source tools, Brent has helped SQL Server professionals around the world build faster, more reliable databases.
Anna Hoffman is helping shape the future of Microsoft SQL. A Principal Group Product Manager on Microsoft’s SQL engineering team, Anna works across the tools and experiences that power SQL Server, Azure SQL and SQL database in Microsoft Fabric. She’s also the host of Data Exposed, bringing the latest developments, product insights and expert perspectives directly to the SQL community. Whether she’s exploring new capabilities or talking to the engineers behind them, Anna connects the people building Microsoft’s data technologies with the people putting them to work.
Kevin Kline is a noted database expert and software industry veteran. A 20-year Microsoft Data Platform MVP and noted community leader in the IT industry, Kevin is a founder and former president of the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS.ORG), as well as the author of popular books including the bestseller “SQL in a Nutshell”. Kevin is a top-rated speaker at conferences worldwide and has a monthly column at Database Trends & Applications magazine (DBTA.com). His product designs for database tools have won numerous awards.
