Choosing between SQL Server in Windows Azure VM & Windows Azure SQL Database
Windows Azure gives you a choice in where to host your SQL data, with both SQL Server running in a VM (henceforth referred to as SQL/VM), and Windows Azure SQL database
(henceforth referred to as SQL DB). SQL/VM and SQL DB come from a single code base, and each offering has its own strengths when it comes to cloud deployment. In this article we will build upon the earlier blog post on SQL Server in Windows Azure Virtual Machine vs. SQL Database and provide a simple decision tree to help choose the best SQL database solution in Windows Azure for your application/service.
This post is focused on SQL Engine rather than BI and reporting. Future posts will looking into BI/Reporting choices in more detail
Why choose Azure for SQL?
Choosing the right database solution
Decision tree - In this decision tree, the following key application/service specific decision points are examined:
- New or existing application/service
- Application/Service requirements
- Database size Willingness to (Re)architect/partition for economies of scale