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Applies to: 
SQL Server 2025 (17.x) Preview
This article describes the change event streaming (CES) feature introduced in SQL Server 2025 (17.x) Preview.
To get started with the feature, see Configure change event streaming.
Note
Change event streaming is currently in preview for SQL Server 2025 and subject to change. For current supportability, see Limitations.
Overview
Change event streaming (CES) is a modern data integration capability that streams SQL Server data changes directly into Azure Event Hubs - an event streaming service. CES captures and publishes incremental changes of data to an Azure Event Hubs destination in near real-time. Captured changes include updates, inserts, and deletes (DML). Details of the data changes (such as the schema, previous values, and new values) are sent to Azure Event Hubs in the form of a CloudEvent. The CloudEvent is serialized to JSON (native) or Avro Binary, and then streamed into an Azure Event Hubs destination.
Use cases
Use CES to:
- Build event-driven systems on top of your relational databases, with minimal overhead and easy data integration.
- Synchronize data across systems. More specifically, synchronize data between microservices or keep distributed systems synchronized.
- Implement real-time analytics on top of your relational data.
- Audit and monitor. Track changes of sensitive data or logging specific events.
The main advantages for using an event streaming services such as Azure Event Hubs, and SQL Servers change event streaming are:
- Scalability: Event streaming services are designed to handle high-throughput and can scale independently from a database.
- Decoupling: Systems downstream from a database and streaming service are loosely coupled, enabling greater flexibility and easier maintenance.
- Multi-consumer support: Azure Event Hubs allows multiple consumers to process the same data stream, enabling varied use cases from a single source.
- Real-time integration: Enables seamless integration between OLTP systems and downstream systems for real-time data flow.
Use change event streaming
To use CES, create a streaming group that defines what tables you want to track, and how to access the streaming destination. The streaming group designates the endpoint, provides authentication details, defines partitioning (if any), and determines which tables to track. After CES is configured, all data changes made by INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE commands within the tables in the streaming group are streamed as CloudEvents towards the streaming destination.
In the context of CES, an object is the table that is being tracked. A streaming group defines all the objects (that is, tables) that are tracked.
To get started with the feature, see Configure change event streaming. For frequently asked questions, see Change event streaming FAQ.
Consume change event streaming events from Azure Event Hubs
To learn how to consume change events from Azure Event Hubs with a .NET Core console application that receives events from an event hub using an event processor, review Quickstart: Send or receive events using .NET
Limitations
To learn more, review limitations with the CES feature.