Azure SQL Server Offerings Benefits and Limitations

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

Azure-hosted SQL Server offerings, including SQL Server in Azure Virtual Machines (VMs), Azure SQL Database, and Azure SQL Data Warehouse, all deliver the most common SQL Server database and development features and management tools. However, they differ in control of the hosting environment and availability of advanced features, and they have limitations and risks that may not be acceptable for some applications.

Benefits

Benefits for deploying databases in Azure services, as compared to SQL Server on-premises, include the following:

Ease of management. For Azure VMs, subscribers can provision VMs (from a gallery or their own images) with required computing resources and software preinstalled and ready for configuration and use. However, customers are responsible for the maintenance and management of all software within the VM instance. For Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Data Warehouse, Microsoft manages and updates the underlying servers, OSs, and SQL Server software. This removes most of the overhead associated with installation and maintenance of the host OSs and server applications, and customers are responsible only for the database management.

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