Hi guys,
With the release of SQL Server 2012, couple of Programmability enhancements are also introduced. One of the cool feature is “FileTable”.

So, what is FileTable and Why do we need it?

Applications typically store data within a relational database. But as we know that different applications stores their data in their own formats which could be unstructured formats for other applications and database, e.g. word or excel documents, media files, XML files etc.

Unstructured data usually resides on a file server (File System) and not directly in a relational database such as SQL Server. (Because if we do so, then it would increase the size of database)

So, it becomes challenging for us to manage structured and unstructured data across these systems/platforms as well as to keep them in sync.

FileTable feature which is a new capability in SQL Server 2012 is a solution for these challenges.

It builds on FILESTREAM technology that was first introduced with SQL Server 2008. FileTable offers organizations Windows file namespace support and application compatibility with the file data stored in SQL Server.

As an added bonus, when applications are allowed to integrate storage and data management within SQL Server, fulltext
and semantic search is achievable over unstructured and structured data.

You can find more details here : http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff929144.aspx

Thanks, Khilit