5 Reasons Why You Must Consider Azure SQL Database Over SQL Server

If your company has relied on Microsoft SQL Server until now (and continues to do so), here are five reasons why you must consider moving your data to the cloud in Microsoft Azure SQL Database (commonly referred to as Azure SQL).

With the advent of cloud technology, it has become much cheaper, faster, and more convenient for companies to handle, store, manage, and analyze their data. Large chunks of data that once demanded expensive physical server infrastructure is now being managed in the cloud. Microsoft is one of the pioneers of cloud computing technology and services, and it is constantly working to improve and upgrade its offerings.

Here’s why we prefer the Azure SQL database over SQL server:

1. Azure SQL is elastic

Unlike your SQL Server where your database is the only consumer of the physical resources, Microsoft Azure SQL is multi-tenant, meaning multiple clients could use physical resources that house Azure SQL Database. On that note, sometimes, companies need multiple databases due to complex applications. In such cases, Azure SQL allows developers to automatically provision computing resources for a group of databases and view the estimated prices in real-time. This way, new resources are proportioned in real-time as and when the database requires them.

2. Azure SQL offers 99.99% uptime

With Azure SQL, you are guaranteed 99.99% uptime for your database as Microsoft promises you that the server housed in Microsoft’s cloud will be up and running for 99.99% of the time. With an in-house SQL Server that would be probably managed by your company’s IT team, issues like power outages, maintenance operations, and critical hardware failures could wreak havoc on your data availability. With Microsoft, even crucial activities such as maintenance, patching, upgrading, and repairing do not affect your data availability. Thus, you can bank on Microsoft’s Azure SQL Database for its reliability.

3. Azure SQL comes with expert help

When using SQL Server, you are on your own as your in-house IT team is responsible for setting up, managing, and maintaining your database server. However, when you switch to Azure SQL, you can receive help from Azure-certified engineers on various areas like production workloads, business-critical functions, enterprise-wide IT support, and more at a moment’s notice. Prompt technical support reinforces the reliability of Azure managed services.

4. Azure SQL is time-saving and cost-effective

As a company, with Azure SQL Database, you no longer need to worry about installing and setting up your database server, nor will you have to worry about hardware acquisition, upgrades, maintenance, and repairs. Since Microsoft takes care of such areas already, you can focus on other aspects of your business. Also, Azure SQL is cost-effective because Azure pricing plans are created to suit businesses of all sizes; you can even get started with $4.99 per database per month with 150 GB of storage (for each database).

5. Azure SQL is convenient to use

If your company has been using SQL Server until now and continues to do so, your engineers already have the knowledge necessary to get the most out of Azure SQL Database. There is no coding necessary at all to use Azure SQL. Hence, with your knowledge of SQL Server, you can manage multiple databases efficiently in Azure SQL. Yes, Azure SQL Database may have a more complicated architecture due to it supporting multiple tenants, but its foundation is the same as that of SQL Server.

There are several other benefits of moving your databases to the cloud, but those are some of the most prominent ones. If you still depend on on-premises infrastructure for housing your databases, now you know that a migration to the cloud will certainly be advantageous for your business!

If you want to know how Azure would benefit your business in particular, feel free to contact our Microsoft-certified cloud experts now!