Azure SQL deployment options
When we talk about Azure SQL, we are referring to a family of products in Azure that is built on Microsoft's popular SQL Server database engine (Figure 11.2). This family of products offers two deployment categories based on the use case of the customer – Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) (Figure 11.2).
In the IaaS category, we have the option to implement SQL Server on an Azure VM. This is similar to what most organizations already do on-premises, only that the VM is hosted in Azure instead of on-premises data centers. The advantage of this option is that the customer has control of the OS and the SQL database engine. This means that the customer has a greater level of flexibility to apply customizations. The downside to this option is that the customer is responsible for managing the OS and the SQL database engine going forward. This means that responsibilities such as OS and SQL Server upgrades, patching...