Choosing Azure Database Services - What are the options? | eG Innovations (2024)

Microsoft Azure offers a choice of relational and non-relational database services to support a wide range of application needs and demands. Built-in intelligence helps automate management tasks like high availability, scaling, and query performance tuning to provide users with services that ensure applications are always available and performant. Many services offer essentially limitless database scale and SLAs (Service Level Agreements) usually range between 99.9-99.999% availability.

Today I will give a brief overview of the most popular database options available on Azure and where to find more information.

Purpose-built Azure Database Options

1. Purpose-built Azure Databases – Azure Cosmos DB

Azure Cosmos DB is a globally distributed, multi-model database service offered by Microsoft Azure. It is designed to provide high availability, scalability, and low-latency access to data for applications. Unlike traditional relational databases, Cosmos DB is a NoSQL database, which means it can handle unstructured and semi-structured data types.

Best for:

• Delivering real-time personalization
• High-quality, global app experiences at scale
• Handling peak sales periods with ease
• Leveraging real-time, IoT (Internet of Things) telemetry streaming data

Pros:

Fully managed with a 99.99% Availability SLA. Globally distributed, multi-model database service that supports various data models (document, key-value, graph, column-family). Offers low-latency, automatic scaling, and multiple consistency models. As a native Azure cloud technology end-to-end support from Microsoft support services can be expected to be high.

Cons:

Can be relatively expensive for large-scale deployments. Not suitable for complex relational queries, compared to traditional relational databases, Azure Cosmos DB has limited querying capabilities and does not support ad-hoc queries. Many organizations find that the frontend SDK / APIs for Azure Cosmos DB have a steep learning curve, requiring a good understanding of NoSQL databases and document-oriented storage.

2. Purpose-built Azure Databases – Azure SQL

Azure SQL refers to a family of cloud-based database services on Azure. These services are designed to help organizations manage their relational database workloads in the cloud efficiently and securely. Azure SQL offerings are based on Microsoft SQL Server, a widely used relational database management system. Microsoft Azure Cloud offers broadly 3 different options to deploy Microsoft SQL server on Azure: SQL Server on Azure VM (IaaS), Azure SQL Database (PaaS) and Azure SQL Managed Instance (PaaS). To learn more about the options, see: Azure SQL Deployment Options: Making the Right Choice. Information on migration paths to Azure SQL is provided by Microsoft, here : SQL Server to Azure SQL Database: Migration overview – Azure SQL Database | Microsoft Learn.

Best for:

• High-performance transactional applications
• Finance, sales order management, systems of record
• Processing streaming data to uncover app insights
• Simplifying complex data landscapes
• Those looking to migrate to cloud managed services with in-house Microsoft SQL Server usage and workforce skills

Pros:

The PaaS options offer managed relational database services based on Microsoft SQL Server and include automatic backups, scaling, high availability, and security features. Suitable for various workloads, including transactional and analytical. As a very popular traditional database choice, it is relatively easy to find skilled staff with experience of this database technology.

Cons:

The PaaS options offer limited customization compared to self-managed SQL Server instances and certain advanced features are not available. For those who need to go beyond these limitations SQL Server on Azure VM may be a viable option, see: Azure SQL Deployment Options: Making the Right Choice.

Learn more about how to monitor, troubleshoot and optimize Azure SQL, here: Troubleshoot Azure SQL Database Performance.

Information on planning and executing a migration form on-prem SQL Server to Azure SQL is provided, here: Planning and Baselining a Migration to Azure SQL | eG Innovations.

Open-Source Azure Database Options

1. Open-Source Azure Databases – Azure Database for PostgreSQL

Azure Database for PostgreSQL is a fully managed PostgreSQL database service popular with open-source developers building scalable and secure enterprise-ready apps. PostgreSQL is an open-source relational database management system (RDBMS) and is known for its robustness, extensibility, and advanced features. It is often referred to simply as “Postgres.”. PostgreSQL’s differentiators include its advanced extensibility, support for complex data types, rich feature set, open-source nature, and strong community involvement. As open-source technology comes with all the associated pros and cons, some of the problems associated with the support of open-source technologies are resolved by virtue of using a paid for fully managed variety such as this offering from Azure.

Best for

• Open-source, enterprise app development
• Rich and personalized digital marketing experiences
• Secure and scalable e-commerce solutions
• Finance management apps
• Scalable web and mobile apps

Pros:

As a fully managed database service for the popular open-source PostgreSQL relational database system this service provides automated backups, scaling, and security features. The zone-redundant high availability automates maintenance, patching, and updates. Provisioning can be done in minutes and the service can independently scale compute or storage.

Cons:

As PostgreSQL is an open-source rather than a Microsoft technology, support for issues using and optimizing the use of the database itself from Microsoft will of course be somewhat limited compared to a native Azure and Microsoft technology such as Cosmos DB or Azure SQL. Only migrations to the same or a higher version are supported.

2. Open-Source Azure Databases – Azure Database for MySQL

Azure Database for MySQL is a fully managed community MySQL database service delivering high availability, mission-critical performance, and elastic scaling for open-source developers building mobile and web apps.

Best for

• Secure and scalable e-commerce solutions
• Scalable web and mobile apps
• Rich and personalized digital customer experiences
• High-performance and secure finance management apps
• Low-latency gaming experiences

Pros:

MySQL’s differentiators include its open-source nature, ease of use, strong performance, scalability, active community support, cross-platform compatibility, replication and high availability options, data security features, storage engine flexibility, and popularity in web application development.

Cons:

You might choose not to use MySQL when your application demands specialized features like complex analytics, graph data management, high-volume writes, global distribution, enterprise-grade support, or compatibility with specific data formats that MySQL might not handle as well. MySQL is generally considered a non-optimal choice for the largest enterprises and big data use cases.

3. Open-Source Azure Databases – Azure Database for MariaDB

Azure Database for MariaDB is a fully managed community MariaDB database service delivering high availability and elastic scaling for open-source developers. MariaDB is a community-developed, commercially supported fork of the MySQL relational database management system, intended to remain free and open-source software under the GNU General Public License.

The most significant advantages of MariaDB over MySQL are speed and performance. When it comes to replication and performing queries, MariaDB is faster than MySQL. In addition, MariaDB can easily supports a high concurrent number of connections without significant performance degradation

Best for

• Secure and scalable e-commerce solutions
• Scalable web and mobile apps
• Rich and personalized digital customer experiences
• High-performance and secure finance management apps

Pros:

Azure Database for MariaDB offers a 99.99 percent financially backed service-level agreement (SLA) for high availability. Azure offers the ability to scale up or down during peak seasonal load times. Azure provides point-in-time restore and geo-restore capabilities for Azure Database for MariaDB.

Cons:

Only certain MariaDB release versions are supported in Azure. Azure Database for MariaDB has some limitations, such as scaling down storage.

4. Open-Source Azure Databases – Azure Cache for Redis

Azure Cache for Redis is an in-memory data store service on Microsoft Azure that enhances application performance by providing fast data retrieval for frequently accessed data. Usually used to provide increased speed and scale for web applications, it is backed by the open-source Redis server. The recently released Web App Pattern for Java includes an architecture that leverages Azure Cache for Redis alongside Azure Files and Azure Database for PostgreSQL that demonstrates its use well (see diagram in Announcing the Reliable Web App Pattern for Java – Microsoft Community Hub).

Best for

• Application caching

Pros:

Adding Azure Cache for Redis can increase data throughput by over 800 percent while increasing latency performance by over 1,000 percent. It can be a good way to efficiently scale applications and improve user experience without the expense of rearchitecting your underlying database. As a fully managed service it is a quick and easy way to implement a cache. For cloud hosted applications it makes a lot of sense to use a cloud hosted cache.

Cons:

Limited to use cases where data can be stored in memory. Data durability is not as high as disk-based storage. There are many tiers to select from in Azure and only higher tiers support some features such as geo-replication capabilities and of course as you go up the tiers, the higher the cost.

Learn more about what Redis is and how to monitor, troubleshoot and optimize Redis, here: Redis Performance Monitoring Tools.

Other Azure Database Options

Microsoft Azure offers several other managed database services aimed at those looking to migrate proprietary database technologies off on-premises infrastructure and into a managed cloud database service, options include:

• Oracle on Azure – for those looking to migrate Oracle Database workloads. This option offers 100 percent compatibility and operating system-level access.
• Azure Managed Instance for Apache Cassandra – for those looking to migrate from Apache Cassandra, offering to modernize Cassandra data clusters with a managed instance in the cloud and lower operational overhead for critical Apache Cassandra workloads by hosting on a scalable and fully managed platform while retaining control over configuration options. Azure also offers an alternative cloud path for Cassandra users via Azure Cosmos DB for Apache Cassandra which is a managed and serverless distributed database that supports Apache Cassandra data.
• MongoDB Atlas on Azure, a fully managed database-as-a-service that runs MongoDB Enterprise and offers full support for all MongoDB features. An alternative migration route is also offered via Azure Cosmos DB for MongoDB, a managed and serverless distributed database that supports MongoDB data.

The Benefits of eG Enterprise Monitoring for Azure Database Options

eG Enterprise offers support for most popular databases and associated technologies, some of the benefits of choosing eG Enterprise to monitor your Azure hosted database and Azure database services, include:

• A single console that can monitor Azure databases alongside databases hosted on-premises or in another cloud such as Amazon AWS or Alibaba.
• Avoid vendor lock-in with eG Enterprise’s transferable licensing. If you find you have chosen the wrong Azure database option for your use case, you can migrate your licenses alongside your database to any of the other database technologies we support, whether that is on AWS, back on-prem or a different Azure service.
• The built in AIOps engine and technologies that provide out-of-the-box metric thresholds and alerting with no need to manually configure metric thresholds or alerts. The AIOps engine also provides auto-baselining and anomaly detection and will alert the administrator to concerning or unusual behavior of databases.
• Ready-to-go dashboards and reports on your Azure landscape.
• Automated root-cause diagnostics which will pinpoint the root-cause of issues and differentiate database issues from those in applications using the databases or in the underlying infrastructure used to host or access the database.
• Azure cost and billing monitoring and alerting, monitor costs alongside database usage to optimize for value and performance. Avoid unnecessary or unwanted costs.

Learn more

• For information on monitoring databases with eG Enterprise please see: Top Database Monitoring Tools | eG Innovations
• For information on eG Enterprise’s comprehensive monitoring of Azure, please see: Azure Cloud Monitoring Tools for IaaS, PaaS, SaaS
• A worked step-by-step guide to troubleshooting Azure SQL issues using eG Enterprise is available that will give you an idea of how eG Enterprise can be used to troubleshoot databases in general, see: Troubleshoot Azure SQL Database Performance | eG Innovations.