1. Introduction to Azure SQL Database
Joe Abbott, Consultant

2. Joe Abbott Consultant
@GrumpyDataGuy

4. About Joe Abbott Consultant at Pragmatic Works
SSIS, SSRS, Power BI, SQL, DAX…
10+ years working in the Actuarial field
Speak at user groups, webinars, SQL Sat.
Grew up in Green Bay, WI

5. Agenda What is Azure SQL Database? Why would I use it?
What is Azure? Cloud?
Why would I use it?
How does it compare to other SQL Server platforms?
How do I use it?
What are some common features?
How much does it cost?

6. Azure and Cloud Services What is Azure?

7. What is Azure?
Microsoft Public Cloud Regionally Available

8. Cloud Services

9. Cloud Models Unit of Deployment IaaS – Virtual Machines
PaaS – Application Code and Data (Azure SQL Database lives here)
SaaS – Service consumed by End Users (delivered via a Cloud Service)

10. Pizza Models Vitaly Karasik 2014 article on LinkedIn

11. Azure SQL Database What is it? Why use it?

12. What is Azure SQL Database?
VS.
Azure SQL Database shares a common code base with SQL Server and, at the database level, supports most of the same features.
Comparison of Features

13. What is Azure SQL Database?
SQL Database in Azure
Cloud version of SQL
Managed Database Service
Fully Compatible SQL 2017 Database
PaaS (Platform as a Service)
“Database as a Service”
“Pizza Delivered”
Very developer friendly database.
What do all of these things mean in practice?
Azure SQL Database is a SQL Database running on the Azure (Distributed Computing) Platform.
It runs a fully compatible SQL 2017 Database on a Managed Service (think server instance)
Basically this makes for a very Developer friendly database.

14. Why use Azure SQL Database?
How does SQL Database in Azure compare to other SQL Server Platforms?
It is important to remember that It doesn’t fit every situation, and it is not your only option for Azure SQL presence.

15. SQL Server Flavors
On Premises SQL Server on Physical Hardware SQL Server on Virtualized Machines (private cloud) Azure (Microsoft Public Cloud) SQL Server in Azure Virtual Machine Azure SQL Database
Since we know it is a SQL Database, one of the best ways to see how it fits in your SQL Architecture is to compare it with other SQL Server platforms

16. SQL Server Cloud Continuum graphic…

17. This is the scenario most of us are the most familiar with.
We can call this our baseline.
This actually may still be the best scenario for intense high performance single database instances.

18. Many IT shops have been doing this for years to share hardware costs.
Virtualization started with non-db Servers (web servers etc)
As virtualization matured, SQL became a part of server virtualization.
Allows the cost of many smaller Database Instances to be shared across common hardware.
Still requires IT team to manage Virtualization hardware/software and Shared Disk Storage (SANs – Storage Area Networks)

19. Moves Server Virtualization to Microsoft Datacenters
IT keeps control of SQL Server Instance and OS
IT no longer needs to maintain Virtualization environment. (Network, Servers, Storage, etc.)

20. Database as a Service
The service is fully managed
Microsoft is managing the “SQL Server” instance, you only control the Database.
Including Patches, Updates, new capabilities.
Kinda like Office 365 with the latest version of Excel when they are released.

21. Many Companies will have some kind of hybrid approach
Unless the company is small and only has a handful of Data (which probably make them (you) a good fit for Azure),
You probably aren’t going to forklift your entire architecture to Azure overnight.
Most migrations are going to happen over time for apps that make sense.

22. Why use Azure SQL Database?
VS.

23. Cloud SQL DBs (Azure IaaS vs PaaS)
SQL Sever in VMs (IaaS)
Full Control of SQL Instance & OS
Quickly Migrate to Azure
Large DB w/Highly Customized Environment
Azure SQL Database (PaaS)
Saved Admin Costs of SQL Server & OS
May require code rewrite
Smaller DBs ( < 1 TB) (max up to 4 TB)
VS.

24. Why use Azure SQL Database?
Possible Scenarios
Primarily a Development shop
No DBA or Infra Team
New App Development
Require a fast “time to market”
Multitenant application
Many small DBs with access provided outside the company network
Small Reporting App
Pump the data to the cloud, hook up Power BI
Why use it? Classic Consulting answer, “It Depends”…navigate decision tree accordingly.
No More Servers – Hurricane blows away my building, no data lost, App still runs.

25. Why use Azure SQL Database?
Real-World Example
In 2010, there was a new startup company
2 employees
Decided to use “the Cloud”
Launched app and overnight had 25,000 users
Within 3 months they hit 1 million users
That Company is...
They got all of the capacity they needed, when they needed it, which in many cases was overnight.

26. Azure SQL Database Creating your first Database How do I use it?

27. How do I use Azure SQL Database?
Step 1
Provision a database in the Azure portal (
Resource Group, Server (Logical Server), Database Name
Select Service Tier
Step 2
Set up a Server Firewall Rule in Portal
Step 3
Connect to your new shiny Database!
All of the existing Server SQL Tools are available
Resource Group is a container for Resources (Sever, Database, etc.) and is required.
The SQL Database service creates a firewall at the server-level.
This prevents external applications and tools from connecting to the server or any databases on the server unless a firewall rule is created to open the firewall for specific IP addresses.

28. Azure SQL Database Features
Scale on Demand
Change Service Tier quickly and easily
Elastic Data Pools
Many DBs on a single Azure SQL Database server sharing eDTUs
High Availability built in by default
SLA – Microsoft Guarantee at least 99.99% connectivity
Disaster Recovery available with “just a few clicks”
Active Geo-Replication
Elastic Data Pools is a cost-effective solution for managing and scaling multiple databases that have varying and unpredictable usage demands.
The databases in an elastic pool are on a single Azure SQL Database server and share a set number of resources (elastic Database Transaction Units (eDTUs)) at a set price.

29. Azure SQL Database Features
Built in Backups
Point in Time recovery/restore available automatically
Performance Monitoring/Tuning
Automatic tuning >>> Recommended way to Performance Tune
Intelligent Insights >>> Recommended way to Monitor Performance
Azure SQL Database Automatic tuning provides peak performance and stable workloads through continuous performance tuning utilizing Artificial Intelligence.
Intelligent Insights uses built-in intelligence to continuously monitor database usage through artificial intelligence and detect disruptive events that cause poor performance.

30. Show me more in the Azure Portal!
Demos
Change Service Tier
Scale up/down on demand
Implement Active Geo-Replication
Setting up my Secondary Database
Restore an Azure SQL Database
Backup to a prior day

31. How much does it cost? Service Tiers Database Transaction Units (DTU)
Basic, Standard, Premium
Database Transaction Units (DTU)
CPU, Memory, Read-Write rates
Microsoft invented a new way to pay…Pay-by-performance-level.
DTU = Database Transaction Units, which is a blend of CPU, memory, and read-write rates
Some refer to DTU as “Database Throughput Unit”

32. How much does it cost?

33. Pricing Example Azure SQL Database – Single Database
Service Tier: Standard, S3
Included Storage: 250 GB
Extra Storage: 774 GB
Total Storage: 1 TB (1,024 GB)
Extra Storage = 1,024 GB – 250 GB = 774 GB
Extra Storage Cost: $0.085/GB/month
$147.18/month
+ $0/month
+ $65.79/month
= $212.97/month

34. NEW (Preview) – vCore Pricing
Service Tiers
General Purpose, Business Critical
Select Compute
Number of vCores (up to 24 vCores available in Gen4)
Select Storage
Max data size
4 TB for General Purpose
1 TB for Business Critical
This model allows you to independently scale compute and storage resources.

35. NEW (Preview) – vCore Pricing
This model allows you to independently scale compute and storage resources.

36. Azure SQL Database Security
Azure SQL Server Firewall Rules …also has optional Database-level Firewall…
SQL Database Auditing and Intelligent Threat Detection
Data encryption at rest – Transparent data encryption (TDE)
Data encryption in motion – Always Encrypted
Dynamic data masking
Row-level security
Azure Active Directory integration and multi-factor authentication
Compliance Certifications --- Trust Center

37. Conclusion What is Azure SQL Database? Why would I use it?
How do I use it?
Common features.
How much does it cost?
Thank you for your time!

38. Joe Abbott
@GrumpyDataGuy

39. References
technical-overview
features
paas-vs-sql-server-iaas/
Channel 9: SAIIK: PaaS vs IaaS - Navigating the Decision Tree: Azure SQL DB vs SQL Server in a VM