Summary
One of the benefits of building an SQL Server VM on Azure is that you can quickly get started learning about the features of SQL Server while configuring a limited amount of infrastructure. Azure makes it possible to simulate complex network architecture with a few lines of code, which allows you to protect your data. SQL Server and Azure also offer a wide variety of performance features that allow you to understand the workloads on your system and troubleshoot problematic queries and workloads. In addition, SQL Server provides best-in-class security features to meet the most stringent encryption needs. In fact, newer security offerings such as Advanced Data Security are only available for SQL Server instances on Azure VMs and not on-premises as yet—an advantage over traditional SQL Server on-premises installation. In the next chapter, you will learn more details about running SQL Server on Linux VMs in Azure.