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November 3, 2025

  Analyst Report

Azure SQL Managed Instance’s New Authentication Option to Help with Migrations

My Atlas / Analyst Reports

963 wordsTime to read: 5 min
Andrew Snodgrass by
Andrew Snodgrass
Andrew Snodgrass by
Andrew Snodgrass

Andrew analyzes and writes about Microsoft's data management, business intelligence, and machine learning solutions, as well as aspects of licensing... more

  • SQL Managed Instance adds support for native Windows logins, removing the last barrier to migrating legacy apps.

  • It opens the door to use the service as a cloud failover destination or for read-only applications like reporting and BI.

  • Customers can use the service as an alternative to SQL Server on Azure VMs, although higher costs may outweigh the benefits.

Windows login mode is a new user authentication option for Azure SQL Managed Instance that removes the last major barrier for using the service to host legacy SQL Server database applications that rely on Active Directory (AD) logins. SQL Managed Instance finally supports native Windows principals (also called AD user logins) that are often used by legacy applications that were originally built on-premises. Now customers can migrate those applications to SQL Managed Instance without major modification and take advantage of Azure’s quick deployment, scale, and global distribution.

SQL Managed Instance

It closely mimics on-premises SQL Server instances and provides a practical way to migrate SQL Server applications with complex database requirements, such as the need to group a collection of databases in one location, have shared security controls, or to fail over as a group. SQL Managed Instance provides instance-level features, like cross-database queries, security features, network isolation, and private IP addresses.

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