If you’re planning on upgrading from SQL Server 2016 to the current version of SQL Server 2025, it would be helpful to note some of the features from versions since 2016 that are no longer supported. By that I’m talking about those things classified as “deprecated” (no longer supported) or “discontinued” (removed from the product). Let’s take a look at these features and say our goodbyes, organized by versions.
There’s not a lot on here that would affect most companies. Though to one of Jeff’s points in the article, I actually have seen a company use lightweight pooling, mostly because they didn’t know what it did and saw the bit about how it could improve performance. I came in and flipped that switch off for them. That was the kind of feature that likely benefited one or two large customers 30 years ago or so and it just hung around in the product due to inertia.