Planned release date for the next version of SQL Server Has Microsoft published a roadmap for the next version, identifying a planned release date? 

If not, how long do you think before the next version becomes production ready?
No, there is no public information about when SQL Server 2016 will be released, and in general this is always true for the next version, until they make the release target date public.

The general mantra is "when it's ready" - for this release, it will certainly be some time in the 2016 calendar year, but anything more specific than that would be guesswork at this point. 

The people who know more specifics would only know target dates (e.g. gold, RTM, GA) today, and those dates definitely don't guarantee anything, and they are not able to share those publicly (otherwise they already would have).

Also, this type of question is not generally useful here, because it will be completely obsolete once the date is made public (and even more so once the date passes and the product is available). I am leaving it up because this can serve as the canonical "this question is unanswerable" duplicate target whenever this question comes up again (for this release or a future release).

And during my edit I thought it may be useful to post a list of the release dates of past releases (you might see a pattern here, at least for the three most recent releases, to help shape hypothetical expectations):


SQL Server 2016 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; - 2016-06-01
SQL Server 2014 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; - 2014-04-01
SQL Server 2012 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; - 2012-03-06
SQL Server 2008 R2 &nbsp;- 2010-04-21
SQL Server 2008 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; - 2008-08-07
SQL Server 2005 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; - 2005-11-07


And also a pointer to the post I maintain showing the releases of SQL Server 2016 builds to date (and which will be updated when RTM dates are announced):


Latest Builds of SQL Server 2016
Announcement of SQL Server 2016 GA Dates