SQL Azure
Microsoft Azure SQL Database (formerly SQL Azure, SQL Server Data Services, SQL Services, and Windows Azure SQL Database) is a managed cloud database for app developers that makes building and maintaining applications easier and more productive.
A cloud database is a database that runs on a cloud computing platform, and access to it is provided as a service. Managed database services take care of scalability, backup, and high availability of the database. Azure SQL Database is a managed database service which is different from AWS RDS which is a container service.
Microsoft Azure SQL Database includes built-in intelligence that learns app patterns and adapts to maximize performance, reliability, and data protection.
It was originally announced in 2009 and released in 2010.
Key capabilities include:
Azure SQL Database shares the SQL Server 2016 codebase. It is compatible with SQL Server 2014 and 2016 and most of the features available in SQL Server 2016 are available in Azure SQL Database. A list of incompatibilities is published by Microsoft.
2009 – Service announced
2010 – Service went live
2014 – New version announced
2015 – Elastic Pools announced
Azure SQL Database is offered either as a Standalone database or Elastic database pool, and is priced in three tiers: Basic, Standard and Premium. Each tier offers different performance levels to accommodate a variety of workloads.
The resources available for Standalone databases are expressed in terms of Database Transaction Units (DTUs) and for elastic pools in terms of elastic DTUs or eDTUs. A DTU is defined as a blended measure of CPU, memory, and data I/O and transaction log I/O in a ratio determined by an OLTP benchmark workload designed to be typical of real-world OLTP workloads.
Databases are available as Standalone databases or in database pools which allow multiple databases to share storage and compute resources.
It is also available as a limited service offering with a trial Web site or Mobile service and eligible for use with an Azure trial subscription.
Azure SQL DB Performance Tests
BuildBetter, SQL Azure Elastic Pool
Beringer Associates, Steady Mitch
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