Azure SQL Database Overview

Azure SQL Database is a multitenant relational database service hosted in Azure. The service offers many of the most common features and APIs of on-premises SQL Server database management systems, including support for the Transact-SQL (T-SQL) query language and popular development tools, but it removes the need to deploy or maintain the OS or SQL database software. Because of the commonalities, organizations can leverage existing developer skills and migrate on-premises applications to the cloud, or they can create hybrid applications that are deployed in both places.

The service is designed for organizations seeking a lower-cost solution than a full SQL Server deployment or for use with applications that have variable capacity requirements (such as online retail sales) or external-facing requirements (such as sharing data with off-site users). The service provides quick deployment and easy scalability and management, but it has limited database sizes that range from 250GB to 1TB.It also lacks some business intelligence (BI) and integration services when compared to SQL Server.