Yes, the article still gives good advice for SQL Server.
I was meaning in the more general sense - Oracle hadn't released 12c yet, Postgres was at 9.2, MariaDB just released 10.0. Lots of changes in the other DBs to make them more competitive.
One thing that has seemingly changed for SQL server 2016 is the licensing cost... $14,256 per core now??? Or is that only in a 2-pack? https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sql-server/sql-server-2016-p... (Open Level)