Updated: July 15, 2020 (June 2, 2016)

Comparing SQL Server Features On-Premises with Azure Offerings

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

Feature	Description	SQL Server 2016 On-Premises	SQL Server 2016 in Azure VMs	Azure SQL Database	Azure SQL Data Warehouse
Tenancy	The location and hosting environment	Customer premises	Microsoft data center (multitenant VM hosting)	Microsoft data center (multitenant hosted platform)	Microsoft data center (multitenant hosted platform)
Product updates	Customer performs SQL Server updates and maintenance	Yes	Yes	No	No
OS updates	Customer performs OS updates and maintenance	Yes	Yes	No	No
Physical updates	Customer performs hardware updates and maintenance	Yes	No	No	No
Performance scaling	Scaling technique to increase performance to address workload demands	Scale up to higher spec hardware	Scale up to higher performing VM	Scale up to higher tier and performance level	Scale compute and storage resources

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