Migrating from Microsoft Master Data Services
Microsoft Master Data Services has been part of SQL Server since 2008. Many organisations use it for reference data, mappings, hierarchies and business parameters. That era is ending. MDS is gone from SQL Server 2025, and on SQL Server 2022 it now breaks under routine patching. If you still run MDS, this page is for you.
What Microsoft has done
Section titled “What Microsoft has done”MDS is not included in SQL Server 2025. It is still supported on SQL Server 2022 and earlier, but only with security fixes. There are no new features, and recent updates show that testing is not always thorough. Mainstream support for SQL Server 2022 ends in January 2028 and extended support in January 2033. The real deadline comes sooner: the next SQL Server upgrade, or the next cumulative update that breaks something.
If you have already installed CU26 and MDS shows nothing, read what happened and what to do.
What organisations actually use MDS for
Section titled “What organisations actually use MDS for”Despite the name, MDS was never a full master data management tool. It had no matching, no duplicate handling and no golden record. What it did well was give business users a controlled place for data with no other home: account mappings between systems, classifications and hierarchies, credit limits, reporting structures, parameters and calculated values that must be stored and versioned. The business owns this data. It changes a few times a year, and it has to be right, because it feeds regulatory reporting and the data warehouse.
MDS and Grunddata, side by side
Section titled “MDS and Grunddata, side by side”| Feature | MDS | Grunddata |
|---|---|---|
| Models, tables, attributes | Yes | Yes |
| Excel add-in | Yes | Yes |
| Google Sheets | No | Yes |
| Version history on every change | Limited | Full (author, timestamp, message, restore) |
| API and OData | Limited | Yes |
| Hosting | On your SQL Server | Dedicated EU environment |
| Authentication | Windows/AD | Microsoft Entra ID |
| Future | Removed in SQL Server 2025 | Actively developed |
Your options
Section titled “Your options”Stay on MDS: works until the next patch or the next SQL Server upgrade. Every cumulative update is now a risk.
Move it to Excel: fast, but no validation, no version history, and no answer when the auditor asks who changed what.
Buy an enterprise MDM platform: solves a bigger problem than you have, at a bigger price, with a longer implementation.
Move to a system built for this data: that is Grunddata.
How a migration works
Section titled “How a migration works”A migration means mapping your MDS models to Grunddata models, moving the data and repointing the systems that read from MDS. We guide you through it. It is not a large replacement project. You move data from a system that is going away to one that is not.
Bring your MDS models to a trial environment. We help you map them, and you see your own data in Grunddata within days.
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