Microsoft Azure SQL Database Reviews

We use many different vendors in private equity because we own real estate, and we have numerous different data sources that we need to import. We are planning to move to Fabric soon because we have disparate data from different management systems as well as from our HR platform and various other sources, so we want to compile everything into one centralized location.

Our data engineers find Microsoft Azure SQL Database easy to work with, and my role as a product manager allows me to translate requirements to them in a straightforward way. We have excellent data engineers, so ease of use is the primary factor.

The effectiveness of Microsoft Azure SQL Database security features in meeting our compliance standards is crucial because we are SEC compliant, and that is one of our main criteria for compliance; otherwise, our investors would be very upset.

I have not used Microsoft Azure SQL Database intelligent performance features.

I am unfamiliar with Microsoft Azure SQL Database automatic tuning.

The challenge we face is that we need to implement an alerting system to notify us when issues occur, which is a problem for later. We are fortunate that we do not have many of those instances, but that is definitely a challenge we will need to address at some point.

I wish the customer service and technical support were a bit quicker, though I recognize that not everything can be solved within an hour or a day.

I have been using Microsoft Azure SQL Database for approximately three years.

I wish the customer service and technical support were a bit quicker, though I recognize that not everything can be solved within an hour or a day.

On a scale from one being the worst and ten being the best, I would rate my customer service and technical support a seven.

I give the customer service and technical support a seven based on the response rate, though the responses I have received are very good and have pointed me in the right direction. We have implemented our solutions; it is just about timing.

Prior to adopting Microsoft Azure SQL Database, we had servers on-premises, so fortunately when we moved to Azure, we did not need to handle that transition, though I cannot speak to that process as it occurred before my time.

My experience with deploying Microsoft Azure SQL Database has been pleasant and straightforward, but I have had excellent engineers to guide me on exactly where I should go and what I should be doing, so the process has been very positive for me.

Since we continue to use Microsoft Azure SQL Database year after year, I suppose we have seen a return on investment.

My experience with the pricing, setup costs, and licensing is that it is fortunately not my department; my VP handles that.

My VP is very firm about keeping everything within the Microsoft suite of products, so I do not even know if he evaluated other solutions before selecting Microsoft Azure SQL Database because we wanted to stay all Microsoft. So, you received a home run with that.

I would not know if Microsoft Azure Active Directory integration and Azure Key Vault have helped manage data security; I believe our data engineers would have that answer.

The compatibility with other SQL servers for transitioning legacy systems to Microsoft Azure SQL Database is probably moderately important, as they need something to work with. If it is something they need to learn, it is not the end of the world, but the less they have to onboard different systems, the better.

My data engineers would have better examples of how the features of Microsoft Azure SQL Database have benefited our organization than I would.

One thing I plan to do in the next year with Microsoft Azure SQL Database is create more of a sandbox and testing environment and maintain consistent refresh data between the two. Currently, we refresh monthly, which is insufficient for my testing needs and for training and onboarding. In the next year, we plan to establish a more streamlined workflow to create sandbox and test environments.

The advice I would give to another organization considering Microsoft Azure SQL Database is to evaluate what is most important to the organization and determine if it aligns with what Azure provides. Our company is fully committed to Microsoft, which is fortunate, but the key is to understand your actual needs; if you want more control and more ownership of the system, that is not necessarily the value proposition of this service. We want you to maintain it for us and manage everything for us, so I would recommend creating a thorough list of requirements. I would rate this product a seven overall.

Public Cloud

Microsoft Azure

Our main use case for Microsoft Azure SQL Database is mostly to serve as the backend for our enterprise applications.

The feature I like the most about Microsoft Azure SQL Database is that it's a managed service, which is the main reason we use it. As a global enterprise, we used to spend a lot of time maintaining SQL Server and SQL Databases. Using Azure SQL allows us to leverage our people's comprehensive power to focus on more important tasks than just upgrading the SQL and doing maintenance.

The effectiveness of Microsoft Azure SQL Database security features in meeting compliance standards is very important for us, as tracking the setup for our on-premises databases was very hard, especially when our team grew. Now, in combination with Azure Policies, we have strict control over the policies and setup of our databases, along with good results from vulnerability scanning and other tools that help us advance towards a well-managed environment.

I think the question of how Microsoft Azure SQL Database can be improved is a good one, but to be honest, I need to ask my operations teams as I'm not sure what the best area for enhancement would be.

Rather than thinking about the flaws, I would enhance Microsoft Azure SQL Database with more AI or perhaps even cheaper prices; everybody would prefer everything to be cheaper. However, I don't see any real flaws, especially since it helped me prove that it's a good service, so I'm a really happy user.

The idea is to make it cheaper, as always. Cost is indeed an area for improvement, but it's a general observation.

I would say that we started using Microsoft Azure SQL Database quite early, about seven years ago, during our first attempt to migrate databases and start building new applications using Azure SQL.

My experience with customer service and technical support is dependent on the issue. For simple queries, it usually goes smoothly, but more complex issues tend to lead to tough discussions and often require escalation to our Microsoft contact due to slower response times. When we need support, it's typically urgent as we have a capable team, and backend issues require quick resolution from the provider.

Neutral

My company did not consider other solutions before choosing Microsoft Azure SQL Database, as it was a natural advancement given that we are based on Microsoft products. After thirty years of using Microsoft products, it just made sense, especially since everything integrates seamlessly into Entra ID, making it difficult to switch to other clouds.

Describing my experience deploying Microsoft Azure SQL Database, I find it easy because we run our infrastructure as code, with templates aligning with our policies and standardized architectural blocks. For us, it's like a vending machine; someone orders a database, and they get a consistent database every time, only tweaking the SKU or some minor settings for specific requirements.

The biggest return on investment for us when using Microsoft Azure SQL Database is that it's a managed service, which means we don't need to manage upgrades ourselves. This is crucial for an enterprise like ours that primarily does manufacturing. This is vital as we can maintain the same number of people in our operations teams even as our company grows quickly.

Regarding trying to use another solution while using Microsoft SQL, could you clarify whether you mean Microsoft or Azure alternatives?

We are exploring options like PostgreSQL or other databases while using it, but our team's extensive experience with Microsoft products keeps us primarily using Microsoft SQL. After seeing announcements about new features that might bring some PostgreSQL functionalities into Microsoft's ecosystem, I am excited to explore those options further.

My advice to other companies considering Microsoft Azure SQL Database is to try it and realize how much it alleviates the burden of managing SQLs, especially since something typically goes wrong in critical situations. Azure SQL significantly reduces the number of failures, and I'd recommend using Azure Migrate to assess databases and test with the first solution, even checking pricing as you might be pleasantly surprised; it's a really worthwhile solution. I would rate this review an eight out of ten.

Hybrid Cloud

Microsoft Azure

Regarding Microsoft Azure SQL Database, I work with that product. For one of our projects, we need to use this Microsoft Azure SQL Database. We are using this Microsoft Azure SQL Database to store our data solution.

Azure Active Directory is something we are frequently using for our login to our application for the customer and for any application. Using Azure Active Directory is a great feature for securing our connectivity for any clients or users connecting to our data.

Regarding the transitioning option with SQL Server, using Microsoft Azure SQL Database is more costly than if we are using any other service because retrieving data and putting the throughput is a costlier part. Pricing is the only concern I see as a disadvantage for Microsoft Azure SQL Database. The only thing that concerns me today is the pricing connected with Microsoft Azure SQL Database; everything else is all right.

Regarding Microsoft Azure SQL Database, I have worked with the product for around one year or a longer period of time.

Regarding the stability of Microsoft Azure SQL Database, it is stable.

I find it easy to scale Microsoft Azure SQL Database.

I would rate support for Microsoft Azure SQL Database as nine out of ten.

Positive

I have already used Oracle database earlier in my career, which is different from Microsoft.

In terms of installation, it is not complicated, actually; it is quite simple.

I purchased it from Azure only.

The pricing for Microsoft Azure SQL Database is a bit high.

If we compare Microsoft Azure SQL Database to Oracle, the pricing would be different. Oracle products are less expensive if we compare them to Microsoft Azure SQL Database.

I'm not using the Automatic Tuning feature directly. The biggest benefit from Microsoft Azure SQL Database is that we are choosing to use an Azure VM, where we are using our own database instead of using SQL Server; we have migrated from Microsoft Azure SQL Database to our internal SQL database. I don't think there are any features left to add to Microsoft Azure SQL Database; I see everything is there. All self-documentation is okay; I have no concerns about this. The review rating for Microsoft Azure SQL Database is 9 out of 10.

Hybrid Cloud

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Azure SQL Database serves as our main database for our application and microservice infrastructure.

What I appreciate most about Microsoft Azure SQL Database is that the infrastructure is managed by Microsoft, which means we do not need to worry about patching, relieving significant time from our engineers.

Transitioning from a traditional on-premise SQL database to Microsoft Azure SQL Database is beneficial because features such as auto-indexing allow us to scale during peak seasons and scale back on demand, which is very useful for handling our spiky peak traffic based on seasonal factors, avoiding the need to purchase more hardware as required with traditional setups. Moving to the cloud saves us not only engineering hours for operations but also helps us manage our spiky website traffic more effectively.

I would change Microsoft Azure SQL Database by removing the four terabyte limit and reconsidering how the database cores relate to the storage.

I have been using Microsoft Azure SQL Database for four years.

My experience with Microsoft Azure SQL Database's automatic tuning has revealed that while we have been using it, we realized the SQL database index that was created was somehow reverted a few days later, likely because of the nature of how our application behaves due to random and spiky web traffic. This may indicate the index was added but reverted later, which was likely caused by our application behavior contributing to this outcome.

I have not used the intelligent performance features of Microsoft Azure SQL Database. Microsoft Azure SQL Database's security features, including Defender for Database, meet our compliance standards as it helps us check all our permissions, roles, and accounts, alerting our team in the event of any changes made, and ensuring we address vulnerabilities detected by Defender for SQL Database.

Regarding customer service and technical support from Microsoft, we are currently on a mission-critical support plan, and the engineers provide timely advice. In one incident involving website outages due to high database I/O, the engineers helped pinpoint the exact problem and guided us on how to resolve it.

Positive

Before choosing Microsoft Azure SQL Database, I was using an on-premises legacy system.

My experience with the deployment process of Microsoft Azure SQL Database is straightforward, as we are using Entity Framework to deploy our database changes and Terraform for the infrastructure. Using Entity Framework to deploy our database schema has been good without any problems.

The biggest return on investment for us when using Microsoft Azure SQL Database is the time savings since we do not need to manage SQL database updates regularly as it is now fully managed by Microsoft.

My only concern regarding the pricing, setup cost, and licensing of Microsoft Azure SQL Database is that we have a large database size but limited compute requirements, which has forced us to move towards a higher core just to meet our database sizing requirements. We will be checking with the SQL database team on how to transition from our current setup to eventually a hyperscale database.

My advice for other companies considering Microsoft Azure SQL Database is to understand their database requirements and, if they have a larger data size, to consider Managed Instance before committing to SQL Database. I rate this product a nine out of ten.

Public Cloud

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Azure SQL Database serves as our database after we migrated a database to the cloud and we're checking it out to see if that will be somewhere we want to go with a lot more of our applications.

Managed Instance is the feature of Microsoft Azure SQL Database that I like the most.

I have not yet used Microsoft Azure SQL Database intelligent performance features.

My experience with Microsoft Azure SQL Database automatic tuning is intermediate, but it has definitely helped because it takes a lot of the guesswork out of manually going through and finding what could be causing some bottlenecks.

I assess the effectiveness of Microsoft Azure SQL Database security features in meeting compliance standards as pretty good.

Microsoft Azure Active Directory integration and Microsoft Azure Key Vault have helped me manage data security.

The compatibility with SQL Server for transitioning legacy systems to Microsoft Azure SQL Database is very important because it gives us assurance that what we experience today, we can get the same performance on the other side.

One example of how these features have benefited my organization is backup and recovery, which is almost identical to how we do it because as DBAs, your most important job is to make sure the data is available.

Microsoft Azure SQL Database could improve by providing more support for Availability Groups within Managed Instance.

We have been using Microsoft Azure SQL Database for eight months now.

One challenge we faced deploying Microsoft Azure SQL Database was refreshing the databases because we keep copies of them and refresh them to other environments.

I would describe my experience with customer service and technical support as excellent, from the few times we have had to reach out.

Positive

We were using a similar solution previously, which was SQL Server on-premise.

Latency and how strong support would be if something goes wrong stood out in my evaluation process before selecting Microsoft Azure SQL Database.

We have seen a return on investment.

I would say I am at a basic experience level with the pricing, setup costs and licensing because while I am the administrator for the service, I do not provision the services and worry about the cost.

When it comes to licensing costs, it is a lot cheaper when you have Managed Instance versus a standalone SQL server.

Use the tools that Microsoft provides to assess your current environment if you are considering using Microsoft Azure SQL Database. I would rate this overall review as a nine.

Public Cloud

Microsoft Azure

My main use case for Microsoft Azure SQL Database is hosting an in-house application to serve different business streams.

The feature I like the most in Microsoft Azure SQL Database is the recovery point of time to recover the database when needed.

These features have benefited my organization by improving response time in seconds and milliseconds, and this will improve customer experience and satisfy the commercial team as well.

Microsoft Azure SQL Database can be improved by getting recent recommendations from Microsoft's side to be applied on a quarter basis, such as the latest batch update.

In a POC, I have been using Microsoft Azure SQL Database for one or two years.

What worked with Microsoft Azure SQL Database is good, but the challenge I faced is that it does not fit for a large-scale or tier-one business application.

I would evaluate customer service and technical support for Microsoft Azure SQL Database as very good.

On a scale from one to ten, I would rate service and technical support an eight because it needs improvement, especially for accelerating support or solving a problem immediately or having expertise available around the clock, because there might be a mid-tier experience from the support team, and in some cases, we need to involve an expert immediately to solve our cases.

Positive

Prior to adopting Microsoft Azure SQL Database, I was using another solution such as PostgreSQL and Oracle databases in place, and we have open sources as well in place, such as Mongo SQL or Mongo database.

I would describe my experience with deploying Microsoft Azure SQL Database as good.

I have seen a return on investment with Microsoft Azure SQL Database.

The return on investment I can share is that it improves customer experience, and improving customer experience means getting more customer base to use our products, and this is ROI for using such products.

Before selecting Microsoft Azure SQL Database, I considered other solutions such as Oracle and PostgreSQL.

I have not yet used Microsoft Azure SQL Database's intelligent performance features.

My experience with Microsoft Azure SQL Database's automatic tuning is that the database should be optimized and tuned very well, either by doing something to enhance the performance or by consulting support teams to give advice to be applied, such as the latest patch set, or to analyze queries to get optimizer feedback to be applied immediately in order to get applications tuned all the time.

I assess the effectiveness of Microsoft Azure SQL Database's security features in meeting compliance standards as compliant with our security rules.

I have not seen Azure Active Directory integration and Azure Key Vault help manage data security.

The capability with SQL Server for transitioning legacy systems to SQL Databases is important to me as we depend on a famous database technology such as Oracle, but we need to mix and match our technologies in terms of databases and SQL as well, such as Azure SQL, in order to have heterogeneous environments, not depending on one solo vendor. We are trying to move a mid-tier or a small tier to Microsoft Azure SQL Database.

My advice to other organizations considering Microsoft Azure SQL Database is to move a mid-tier or a small team to Microsoft Azure SQL Database. I give this review an overall rating of seven.

Public Cloud

Microsoft Azure

I provision the database, perform all the necessary security checks, and then provide access to the application teams that will consume it.

Microsoft Azure SQL Database is effective for availability, scalability, and security. The Software as a Service model is more effective and easier to access in terms of security, as Azure provides security at the security layer, reducing the risk of breach. Autoscaling is fantastic, automatically scaling up or down depending on usage parameters set. The database's security features depend on the pricing tiers chosen.

Pricing could be improved to make Microsoft Azure SQL Database more accessible. A reduction in price might encourage more users and bring more profit. Instead of a 20% or 30% reduction immediately, a gradual reduction could attract more users.

I have worked with Microsoft Azure SQL Database for approximately six years.

I haven't encountered any downtime issues. Changing parameters automatically scales up or down the database without any interruptions.

I have never encountered any challenges regarding stability. The database is very stable and straightforward.

The database is extremely scalable, allowing seamless scaling up or down with a simple change in parameters. It's a perfect ten out of ten in terms of scalability.

During my years of experience, I've never encountered an issue with Microsoft Azure SQL Database that I couldn't resolve, so I haven't needed to contact customer support.

Positive

The initial setup is very easy, given that all parameters and requirements from the application units are in place.

The pricing of Microsoft Azure SQL Database is not cheap, affecting user uptake. A gradual reduction in price could improve accessibility and user numbers, making it easier for users to adopt the solution.

I have previous experience with 3PAR and StoreOnce from HPE.

I advise users to adopt Microsoft Azure SQL Database, as it simplifies life for users and applications. Applications can connect from anywhere, and it reduces headaches for administrators and infrastructure teams. The disaster recovery plan and backup features are easily enabled. The overall rating is nine out of ten, considering pricing concerns.

Public Cloud

Microsoft Azure

My main use case for Microsoft Azure SQL Database is to connect source data for our APIs and hydrate different things for that.

I appreciate Microsoft Azure SQL Database because I enjoy SQL. It works well out of the box, and I know what I'm getting. The product functions as expected without requiring much maintenance.

Microsoft Azure SQL Database benefits my company on a day-to-day basis as it serves as an excellent place to store our database and data. I would appreciate the ability for all teams to operate on one database instead of several different systems. Microsoft Azure SQL Database is one of those solutions that helps consolidate our infrastructure, though unfortunately it is not the only solution we use.

I think Microsoft Azure SQL Database can be improved, but I do not use it frequently enough to identify significant pain points.

In my area of expertise, I have been working for about three years, and in my current position, I have been using Microsoft Azure SQL Database for only about one year.

Regarding reliability, I would generally consider Microsoft Azure SQL Database quite reliable in maintaining uptime and availability.

My impressions of Microsoft Azure SQL Database's ability to scale workloads are positive. I think it works very well with no complaints.

Microsoft's expertise in SQL Server is very good when considering cloud database options. I have not used the support myself, but the documentation is very up-to-date. If I ever need to look something up, it is quite easy to find.

Positive

We have different solutions implemented across our organization. I know that we have some relational and some non-relational options, which is probably part of the reason for having multiple systems. The main differences between those solutions and SQL would be the relational versus non-relational aspect. We use a lot of legacy software, so that probably plays into some compatibility aspect. Beyond that, I am not certain about other differences.

Other than the relational versus non-relational distinctions, I am not entirely clear on why we maintain these different solutions.

The migration and deployment process of Microsoft Azure SQL Database is quite straightforward. If I ever encounter issues, Copilot is quite helpful, as is the documentation. I would not say it is very complicated.

From my point of view, the biggest return on investment with Microsoft Azure SQL Database is that it is great to store our customer data and everything for our different products and be able to access that easily as we want to. I do not know what we put into it, so I am not certain what that looks like from an ROI perspective. However, it works smoothly, I have no complaints, and it is a good database solution.

Microsoft Azure SQL Database has probably helped reduce my company's total cost of ownership.

I have never looked at the pricing, setup costs, and licensing for Microsoft Azure SQL Database.

I am not considering switching away from Microsoft Azure SQL Database or conducting a proof of concept of another solution.

I would rate Microsoft Azure SQL Database as a five on a scale from one to five in terms of ease of use.

I assess Microsoft Azure SQL Database's ability to integrate with other Microsoft applications as excellent, with no complaints.

I have not had hands-on experience with Microsoft Azure SQL Database working with AI. I know that functionality exists, and part of what I am trying to focus on at Ignite this year is learning how I can integrate different AI solutions and workflows with Microsoft Azure SQL Database.

I am not using the automatic tuning feature in Microsoft Azure SQL Database.

I do not know what impact Microsoft Azure SQL Database's security features have on my data protection strategies, if any.

I am not using the data encryption feature on Microsoft Azure SQL Database, or at least not knowingly.

I have not used the backup and restore functionalities of Microsoft Azure SQL Database. Our database engineers have touched that before, but I have never used it. It seems to work as intended.

We are still using other solutions alongside Microsoft Azure SQL Database.

My advice for other companies that are considering Microsoft Azure SQL Database is to go for it, especially if you are using other Microsoft products. It seems to integrate with everything very well, and it just works.

I have rated this review a nine out of ten overall.