Microsoft Azure SQL Database - Review 2022

Microsoft Azure SQL Database (whose pricing varies) is a fully managed and smartly designed, relational cloud database with broad SQL engine compatibility and more than than a dash of machine learning (ML). A strong sense of familiarity stems in role from an easily recognizable dashboard alike to all things Microsoft. That feeling also partly rises from the ease in using favorite applications without changing the code and using all of your preferred SQL tools without so much equally taking pause. ML delivers automatic help in performance (such as suggested indexing), reliability, and security. Developers and concern analysts volition likely honey this Database-as-a-Service (DBaaS) for all of those reasons. That's also why this offering earns an Editors' Choice in our DBaaS solutions review roundup, along with MongoDB Atlas.

Competitor IBM Db2 on Deject is easy to gear up up but Microsoft Azure SQL Database is simple to navigate. That's specially so if you accept spent any time on Microsoft products in general or on Microsoft Azure in particular which, I dare say, a good number of folks have. At last count, in that location are 4.i million databases, bringing the total size to 154 petabytes (Pb). There are 421,000 subscriptions pouring out 3 trillion batch requests per day. If a SQL database isn't what y'all're looking for, then Microsoft offers alternatives in other cloud-based products, such as Azure Cosmos DB, a distributed multi-model database; Tabular array Storage, a NoSQL key-value store for rapid development using semi-structured Large Information; and, Redis Cache, for high-throughput and low-latency, access to scale Azure apps. Microsoft Azure services also back up the MariaDB, MySQL, and PostgreSQL (aka Postgres) databases.

Pricing Model

Microsoft Azure SQL Database pricing is staged across Elastic Pool, Managed Case, and Single Database models. You'll find a customizable cost estimator here for all iii options. For example, I used the figurer to compute the costs of a single database in the S Central U.s.a., calculated in the vCore purchase model on the Full general Purpose Tier, in US dollars and priced by the hour.

The vCore pricing model is currently in preview and lets you scale compute, memory, and storage separately. Ane vCore equals one physical central processing unit (CPU), so I chose four in the price equation, which gave me 28 gigabytes (GB) retention at $1.xiii per hour. Likewise, storage is scalable and can be configured betwixt 5 GB and 4 terabytes (TB) at 1GB increments. The cost for that is $0.138 per GB per month. Backup storage is costless while vCore is in preview. Ditto for inputs/outputs (I/O). Note that the Business Critical Tier pricing is considerably higher. Four CPUs cost $2.9613 per hour and storage costs $0.30 GB per month, but backup storage and data I/O are all the same gratuitous while VCore pricing remains in preview. A Database Transaction Unit buy model consists of a bundle of 2GB compute and 2GB storage for $4.89 per month.

Azure Hybrid Use Benefit for SQL Server lets you use your on-premises Windows Server licenses to run Windows virtual machines (VMs) on Azure for less money. For example, it saves you up to 30 per centum on both the unmarried database and elastic pool options in the vCore model.

Database Transaction Unit of measurement (DTU) is the main pricing model, significant Microsoft bundles compute, memory, and storage. For example, in the Standard tier, x DTUs, which include 250 GB of storage, costs $0.0202 per hour. Extra data storage higher up that is priced at $0.085 per GB per month, while long-term backup storage is an boosted $0.046 per GB per month. You can get super cheap by choosing the basic five DTUs, which will cost yous $5 per calendar month.

Support plans start at $29 per month. SQL Database Threat Detection costs the same as the Azure Security Center standard tier at $15 per node per month; the two are besides integrated. A node is defined as one SQL database server.

Microsoft Azure SQL Database - Dashboard

Step by Footstep

The Microsoft Azure SQL Database portal is brilliantly designed. You can access a large variety of features straight from the browser. The setup procedure is simple and takes just a infinitesimal or two. There is no need to install anything but, similar Amazon Relational Database Service and Google BigQuery, you do demand a mothership account first. You lot won't demand a Microsoft Outlook email address, however, to set up a Microsoft account.

In one case yous have a Microsoft account ID and countersign, you can create an SQL Database with a free Microsoft Azure trial business relationship. Or you lot can purchase an account or use your existing account. Sign in with your Microsoft account. All of the settings y'all will need are on the left-hand side of the screen in the portal.

Once on the portal, utilise Connexion Libraries to choose the language and operating system drivers you want to use to connect with Azure SQL Database or Microsoft SQL Server. Click New to spin up a new database through the Azure Market place. In that location you'll cull the pricing tier, proper noun the database, identify a source and so on to set up the database in the deject. You're not actually setting upwardly infrastructure so it's painless to practise.

You tin can populate it with existing data sets available through the portal, or create a blank database and load your own data. If you are migrating data from Microsoft Excel to SQL Database, then you tin do information technology in one step past using the SQL Server Import and Export Magician, SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), or the OPENROWSET role. You'll want to use Managed Case if you are migrating a big number of existing SQL Server databases or moving legacy applications from on-premises or VMs to SQL Database. If y'all find any of this overwhelming or confusing, and then ask your database administrator (DBA) to assistance you prepare it up. But users with at least some experience with databases will likely find this procedure easy to follow. If all you have done before is employ spreadsheets, though, and then you'll probable need a hand forth the style, either from your DBA or from Microsoft support.

Microsoft Azure SQL Database - Quickstart Tutorials

Every bit to my testing journey, once on the portal, I clicked "All Resources" on the left-hand side of the screen to get to the examination account Microsoft provided me. From the Resources list, I clicked "SiteEE," 1 of the Azure SQL databases. The next screen presented me with a list of Quickstart tutorials, which are worth your time to explore. Yet, the arrangement is intuitive, and many users will easily exist able to observe their way on their own. Y'all can also chop-chop launch an app by clicking the "Create a DevOps Project" push button on this screen.

But back to my test database. My SiteEE dashboard puts everything at my fingertips from the Action log, Query Editor, and a listing of feature settings, to a diverseness of operation visualizations, database properties and threat alerts.

In a few clicks, I set up a geo-replicated secondary in case my primary suffers an outage. This lets me control failovers and so I stay in compliance with regulations and internal policies. Y'all can brand as many of those as you want, but exist careful every bit information technology will impact your costs.

Information technology was just every bit easy for me to do everything else from viewing vulnerability assessments to scaling upwardly or down with a slide bar to control my resource utilize and costs. There'due south a toll computer there, also, similar to the one IBM Db2 on Cloud has, so I can see budget impact from my scaling changes immediately.

Microsoft Azure SQL Database - All Resources

The Toolbox

You lot tin can utilize all your favorite SQL tools with this database. App Services makes it easy to bring along apps without changing anything in the code. Auto learning in Azure SQL Database tin recommend information indexing and other performance improvements.

Data Clarification feature and Dynamic Data Masking are both helpful in making certain your data is compliant with strict privacy regulations, such as compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and in providing an audit trail. The Geo-replication feature even allows you lot to control location of failovers and to restore in the aforementioned region every bit the master.

Further, SQL Server Management Studio is a standalone software app used to configure and manage all Azure SQL Database components. And the free tool, Microsoft SQL Operations Studio, tin be used to manage Azure SQL Database on macOS and Linux.

Microsoft Azure has l regions around the globe and 140 country locations. That heavily outnumbers most cloud providers. Information technology means users will find it easy to place apps shut to their data and their customers to improve performance and decrease lag, and to be in better compliance with regional regulations.

Microsoft Azure SQL Database - Geo-Replication

You can check out the full SLA for Azure SQL Database, simply in a nutshell, they guarantee at least 99.99 percent uptime. A diverseness of support plans are available, ranging from $29 per month to a $1,000 per calendar month.

SQL Database automatically performs total, differential, and transaction log backups for point-in-time restores (PITRs) at no extra charge. The first full fill-in is scheduled immediately after a database is created. And so full database backups are weekly, differential database backups occur every few hours, and transaction log backups are done every 5 to 10 minutes. Users can determine geographical areas for fill-in and restore data copies.

Overall, Microsoft Azure SQL Database is 1 of the easiest deject databases to apply. It's likewise excellent in helping you with GDPR compliance and lag controls by offer more region offerings than any of its competitors.