Microsoft Azure SQL Database: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 05:09, 1 July 2016

Revision as of 05:10, 1 July 2016

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{{third-party|date=July 2013}}

'''Microsoft Azure SQL Database''' (formerly '''SQL Azure''', '''SQL Server Data Services''', '''SQL Services''', '''Windows Azure SQL Database''') is a [[cloud computing|cloud-based]] [[software as a service|service]] from [[Microsoft]] offering data-storage capabilities. The aim is for users to just communicate with a T-SQL endpoint rather than managing database storage, files, and high availability. In this regard, it is a similar offering to [[Amazon Relational Database Service]]). Early versions operated as key-value pair tables accessed via a [[RESETREST]]-based [[API]], and offering only a subset of the data types offered by the [[Microsoft SQL Server]] on-premises product. Using these versions was not similar to using the SQL Server database engine and led to relatively low adoption rates.

Current versions of Azure SQL Database share a common code base with [[Microsoft SQL Server]]. This database engine allows users to make [[relational database|relational]] queries against stored data, which can either be [[structured data|structured]] or [[semi-structured data|semi-structured]], and [[unstructured data|unstructured document]]s.<ref name="faq">{{cite web | url = http://www.microsoft.com/azure/faq.mspx#sql | title = Microsoft SQL Services FAQ | publisher = [[Microsoft]] | accessdate = 2009-04-16}}</ref> SQL Database features querying data, search, data analysis and data synchronization.<ref name="faq"/>