Microsoft has released a number of SQL Server Cumulative Updates and Service Packs over the past several weeks. For SQL Server 2014, these include:
June 20, 2016 SQL Server 2014 RTM CU14 (12.0.2569)
June 20, 2016 SQL Server 2014 SP1 CU7 (12.0.4459)
July 11, 2016 SQL Server 2014 SP2 RTM (12.0.5000)
SQL Server 2014 RTM CU14 will be the last cumulative update for the SQL Server 2014 RTM branch, and it is now an “unsupported service pack”. If you are still on the RTM branch, you should be be planning on moving to either SP1 or preferably SP2. SQL Server 2014 SP2 RTM has all of the fixes that are in SQL Server 2014 SP1 CU7, so there is no need to wait for SQL Server 2014 SP2 CU1 in order to “catch up” to the previous branches. It also has a number of new features and performance improvements (which you can read about here), so I think people are going to want to move to the SP2 branch relatively soon.
You can find the official Microsoft Build list for SQL Server 2014 here:
For SQL Server 2012, we have these updates:
July 18, 2016 SQL Server 2012 SP2 CU13 (11.0.5655)
July 18, 2016 SQL Server 2012 SP3 CU4 (11.0.6540)
As always, I think you are better off to be on the latest Service Pack for whatever version of SQL Server you are using. For SQL Server 2012, the RTM and SP1 branches are both considered “unsupported service packs”. You need to be on either SP2 or SP3, preferably SP3.
You can find the official Microsoft Build lists for SQL Server 2012 SP3 and SP2 here:
Finally, if you or your organization are still reluctant to deploy SQL Server Cumulative Updates, you should read the current official guidance from Microsoft about this. One of the key points is “we now recommend ongoing, proactive installation of CU’s as they become available”. This does not mean that you just blindly deploy a cumulative update to Production the day it is released. Rather, you should have a good testing and deployment plan that you go through before you deploy to Production. You can read the full Microsoft guidance here:
Announcing updates to the SQL Server Incremental Servicing Model (ISM)