Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Microsoft Azure SQL Database (formerly known as SQL Azure, SQL Server Data Services, SQL Services, and Windows Azure SQL Database) is a managed cloud database (PaaS) cloud-based Microsoft SQL Servers, provided as part of Microsoft Azure services. The service handles database management functions for cloud based Microsoft SQL Servers including upgrading, patching, backups, and monitoring without user involvement.^[1]

Azure SQL Database

Developer(s)	Microsoft
Initial release	2010; 14 years ago (2010)
Available in	English
Type	Managed cloud database
Website	azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/azure-sql/database/

Overview

Azure SQL Database supports multi-modal storage of structured, semi-structured, and non-relational data.^[2]

Azure SQL Database includes built-in intelligence that learns app patterns and adapts them to maximize performance, reliability, and data protection.

Key capabilities include:

• Learning of the host app's data access patterns, adaptive performance tuning, and automatic improvements to reliability and data protection.^[3]
• Scaling on demand.^[4]
• Management and monitoring of multi-tenant apps with isolation benefits of one-customer-per-database.^[5]
• Integration with open-source tools such as cheetah (Command-line interface utility),^[6] sql-cli,^[7] Visual Studio Code,^[8] and Microsoft tools like Visual Studio,^[9] SQL Server Management Studio,^[10] Azure Management Portal, PowerShell, and REST APIs.
• Data protection^[11] with encryption, authentication,^[12] limiting user access to the subset of the data, continuous monitoring and auditing to help detect potential threats and provide a record of critical events in case of a breach.

Popular use cases

• Relational data storage for cloud-based applications and websites
• Business and consumer web and mobile apps
• Manage databases for multi-tenant apps (software-as-a-service)
• Quickly create dev and test databases to speed up development cycles
• Scale production business services quickly and at a known cost
• Containerize data in the cloud for isolation and security
• Reduce database administration overhead through increased automation

Design

Azure SQL Database is built on the foundation of the SQL server database and therefore, kept in sync with the latest version^[2] of it by using the common code base. Since the cloud version of the database technology strives to decouple it from the underlying computing infrastructure, it doesn't support some of the context specific T-SQL features^[13] available in the traditional SQL server. However, the rest of the features are the same with incompatibilities spelled out by Microsoft.^[14] Azure SQL Database is also similar to Microsoft's SQL Managed instance offering, with some differences.^[15]

Timeline

• 2009 – Service announced^[16]
• 2010 – Service went live^[17]
• 2014 – New version announced and rebranded from Windows Azure to Microsoft Azure^[18]
• 2015 – Major Architectural Revision
• 2016 – Elastic Pools Introduced^[19]
• 2017 - Azure SQL Database Managed Instance launched
• 2019 - Introduced Azure SQL Database Hyperscale, Serverless, and Instance Pools^[20]

Deployment Models

Azure SQL Database is offered in two deployment models, as a Standalone database or an Elastic database pool (with shared storage and compute resources).

See also

• Microsoft Azure
• Oracle Cloud Platform
• SQL Server
• Amazon Relational Database Service
• Relational Database
• Cloud computing
• Software as a service

References

1. WilliamDAssafMSFT. "What is the Azure SQL Database service? - Azure SQL Database". learn.microsoft.com. Retrieved 2023-04-07.
2. WilliamDAssafMSFT. "What is the Azure SQL Database service? - Azure SQL Database". learn.microsoft.com. Retrieved 2023-04-07.
3. Rabeler, Carl (March 3, 2023). "Azure SQL Database Learns & Adapts". Microsoft Azure. Retrieved 2016-11-03.
4. Rabeler, Carl (March 3, 2023). "Azure SQL Database Scales on the fly". Microsoft Azure.
5. Rabeler, Carl (October 13, 2016). "Builds Multi-tenant Apps with Azure SQL Database With Isolation and Efficiency". Microsoft.
6. "wunderlist/cheetah". GitHub. Retrieved 2016-11-03.
7. "sql-cli". npm. Retrieved 2016-11-03.
8. "Use Visual Studio Code to connect and query - Azure SQL Database & SQL Managed Instance". Microsoft. Retrieved 2023-03-29.
9. "Add a connection to Azure SQL Database - Visual Studio (Windows)". Microsoft. 2022-09-27. Retrieved 2023-03-29.
10. "Use SQL Server Management Studio". Microsoft. 2023-03-03. Retrieved 2016-11-03.
11. Rabeler, Carl (March 3, 2023). "Azure SQL Database Secures and Protects". Microsoft.
12. Slater, Phil. "Maximizing Security and Flexibility: Azure SQL Server Authentication Methods". heliumit.uk. Retrieved 2023-09-05.
13. croblesm. "Resolving T-SQL differences-migration - Azure SQL Database". learn.microsoft.com. Retrieved 2023-04-07.
14. Byham, Rick (2022-12-16). "Azure SQL Database Transact-SQL differences". Microsoft Azure.
15. danimir. "Compare the database engine features of SQL Database and SQL Managed Instance - Azure SQL Database & SQL Managed Instance". learn.microsoft.com. Retrieved 2023-04-07.
16. "SQL Data Services announces plans to accelerate core relational database features". Microsoft Azure. March 10, 2009. Retrieved 2016-11-03.
17. "SQL Azure - The Year in Review". Microsoft Azure. January 4, 2011. Retrieved 2016-11-03.
18. Kelly, Eron (November 5, 2014). "Preview for greater SQL Server compatibility coming soon to Azure SQL Database". Microsoft Azure. Retrieved 2016-11-03.
19. Wissner, Tiffany (May 11, 2016). "Azure continues to be the best place for Software as a Service". Microsoft Azure. Retrieved 2016-11-03.
20. markdefalco. "History of Azure SQL (2 of 61)". learn.microsoft.com. Retrieved 2023-04-07.

External links

• Official website
• Microsoft Azure Security Technologies
• What is Azure SQL Database?