Azure Database Offerings

An in-depth examination of database offerings in Azure is outside the scope of this book, but I want to touch on two key database services in Azure: Azure SQL Database and Cosmos DB. Note that there are other offerings for databases such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, and MariaDB, which are offered as fully managed, enterprise-ready community versions of Database as a Service in Azure. There are more, but I am going to focus on what I consider the two main offerings that many organizations leverage.

Azure SQL Database

Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database offering where data is stored in tables that are made up of rows and columns based on a strict schema. Rows represent items, whereas columns represent attributes. Each table has a primary key, which must be unique within the table and can be used to quickly locate data, along with other indexed values that are often used for referencing or searching. Microsoft SQL Server is available in various SKUs and utilizes...