Updated: July 16, 2020 (March 6, 2017)

Data Storage and Access

Before joining Directions on Microsoft, Rob worked at Microsoft for 14 years where he designed technologies for Microsoft products and... more

Azure offers several database management and data storage options that can be used with applications hosted on Azure and elsewhere. Microsoft’s SQL Server on-premises product can be hosted in an Azure Virtual Machine ([VM] using an Infrastructure as a Service [IaaS] model), while Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Data Warehouse offer SQL Server technology in a Platform as a Service (PaaS) model. Nonrelational storage is available in several formats, and other services support NoSQL and data transformation across disparate data sources.

New Azure services are often introduced and typically remain in a 50% reduced price preview state with no service level agreement for three months to a year before becoming generally available for production. (See the illustration “Data Storage and Access Services Dates“.)

SQL Server Offerings in Azure

Microsoft offers multiple SQL Server database deployment options, including SQL Server on-premises:

SQL Server in Azure VMs
Azure SQL Database, an Azure-hosted

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