Azure SQL Database Improves SLAs for Critical Workloads

Azure SQL Database, Microsoft’s hosted database service, is improving service level agreements (SLAs) for Business Critical and Premium tiers. The changes will interest customers with highly critical applications using the single database deployment option. The existing SLA increases from 99.99% to 99.995%, which decreases downtime by 26 minutes per year. The SLA is limited to databases configured for zone-redundant storage (ZDS), which is the highest cost deployment option. Also introduced is a new Business Continuity SLA for customers who need the ability to recover quickly from catastrophic events. This SLA is also limited to Business Critical–tier databases using ZDS. It provides a five-second recovery point objective (RPO) and a 30-second recovery time objective (RTO). The SLA is for recovery, not failover, because replicated secondary databases are updated asynchronously, which introduces the potential for data loss. Microsoft promises up to a 100% monthly cost credit (in increments) if the SLA is not maintained but for the cost of only the secondary databases. Azure SQL Database is covered in the Azure Roadmap at https://www.directionsonmicrosoft.com/azure/database-development/data-storage-access/sql-database-azure. Microsoft’s SLA for Azure SQL Database is available at https://www.directionsonmicrosoft.com/roadmap/ref/sql-database.