Azure SQL Database Tutorial

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Let’s learn an end-to-end tutorial on Azure SQL Database, Its history, features, benefits, etc.

Azure SQL Database Tutorial

Azure SQL Database is a managed cloud database that uses the SQL Server database engine in the Azure Cloud platform. It becomes easier for the developers/programmers to develop their products as there is less involvement in the maintenance part of the product.

What Is Azure SQL Database

In another way, Azure SQL Database is a platform as a service (PaaS) database that can help you to perform different database activities such as DB backups, upgrading, monitoring, etc. without your involvement. Microsoft takes care of all these activities.

It supports modern cloud applications with managed database service.

History of Azure SQL

Azure SQL was originally announced in the year of 2009 but actually, it got released on the year of 2010.

Flavors Of SQL Server In Azure

There are different flavors of SQL servers that Azure provides us and those are as below

Let’s discuss here Microsoft Azure SQL Database Step By Step.

Key Features Of Azure SQL Database

There are many essential features available for Windows Azure SQL Database. We will discuss here a few key features of Windows Azure SQL Database that are available.

1- Highly Secure

One of the important features of the Microsoft Azure SQL Database is that it is highly secure. As we all know when it comes to our data, security is key and is very important.

Microsoft provides advanced security mechanisms with extra layers of protection with the help of Authentication with Active Directory integration, different data encryption facilities, audit logs, data masking, etc.

Another important feature in terms of, security is, that the Azure SQL Database provides an Adaptive threat detection feature that actually helps you to identify harmful attempts and Suspicious activities.

2- Scalability and Resource Management

Microsoft Azure SQL Database scalability helps to provide the information on what you need for growth. The important point here is it provides you support with Elastic Pools where you can push your large databases for cool performance and the Elastic Pool also helps you to manage the resources based on the rising and falling of your business needs.

The Elastic Pool feature also helps you to manage the changes that happen in the Workload and also it makes sure all the databases are performing well keeping costs in mind.

Microsoft Provides 4 workloads and those are Basic, Standard, Premium, and Premium RS which help you to create robust and high-performing applications and cool databases with zero downtime.

3- Performance Tuning

Microsoft provides you with inbuild performance tuning with the Azure SQL database that provides you the best performance for your database. It always monitors and manages the changes that are actually needed immediately to make sure that your databases are performing well.

It has batch mode memory grant feedback, batch mode adaptive joins, and interleaved execution

Different batch processing features like interleaved execution, batch mode memory grant feedback, and batch mode adaptive joins help to enhance the performance.

4- Responsive SLA-based support 

Microsoft Azure SQL Database supports the responsive SLA-based support that actually helps you to keep the resources up at all times which is a key factor for a business.

5- V12 Portability

V12 Portability is another excellent feature provided by the Azure SQL Database. You can consider it as a core benefit of the Azure SQL database that allows you to move a database to the cloud and from the cloud and off it or into such services as IaaS and PAAS.

In earlier days, it was quite challenging to migrate the SQL server to the Azure SQL database but now Microsoft provides many tools that help you quickly migrate the SQL server DB to Azure SQL.

6- Query Store 

Query Store helps you to track the performance and history of the databases across many different hardware, different platforms, or service tiers. It helps you to track your database performance metrics.

The query store feature can get you the historical data that will give you the desired information about the database which helps the organization to make different decisions on databases.

These are a few of the Key Features Of Windows Azure SQL Database.

Advantages of Azure SQL database

  • Azure SQL comes with High-Speed performance and with very Minimal Downtime.
  • Another big advantage is Azure SQL is scalable in nature.
  • The pricing structure of Azure SQL is the pay-as-you-go, model, meaning pay that much how much you are actually using.
  • Azure SQL is highly available. This is another big advantage of Azure SQL.

SQL Azure Costs

For an entry-level, You have to pay $4.99 per database per month with maximum storage set at 150 GB per database.

Check out the Azure SQL Pricing now for complete information.

If you are happy with all the features and benefits of the Azure SQL database, you can create an Azure SQL database now.

FAQs

What is Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Microsoft Azure SQL Database is an excellent, scalable, durable, intelligent database service that is built for the Cloud. Microsoft takes care of resource management, Storage Size, Infrastructure, etc.

Another important part is, the scale of the resource on-demand automatically and it’s always up-to-date and AI-Driven.

Azure SQL Database Is Paas or Iaas

Someone might ask you if the Azure SQL database is an example of what type of service.

Microsoft Azure SQL Database is a Platform as a service (Paas) that is built on a set of hardware and software that is hosted, owned, and managed by Microsoft. Not only that, but Microsoft also takes care of the patching, backups, monitoring, etc. You do not need to worry about that part.

Basically, Azure SQL Database is a Paas offer from Microsoft. Whereas, remember that the SQL server inside the Azure Virtual Machine is an IAAS offer.

Azure SQL database is an example of what type of service

Azure SQL database, a relational database, and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), consists of a set of hardware and software which is hosted, owned, and managed by Microsoft. You do not need to take any headaches for the environment and infrastructure as Microsoft takes care of this part.

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Wrapping Up

In this article, we discussed an end-to-end tutorial on Azure SQL Database. Thanks for reading this article !!!