Azure SQL is Microsoft’s PAAS SQL database service (not to be confused with running your own SQL Server on an IAAS Virtual Machine). It provides a highly scalable, cloud based SQL database that can support up to 500 GB of storage.
In addition, Microsoft has redesigned its service tiers focusing on providing dedicated performance to customers who need it while reducing the price and cost of entry for those basic database users.
Microsoft has just announced new pricing changes to the Azure SQL offering:
- Premium and Standard price reductions: Final pricing will reflect up to 50% savings from previously-published pricing. Updated pricing will help more customers benefit from higher performance and greater business continuity.
- New S0 performance level: Within the Standard service tier, we will offer a new S0 performance level. This new lower cost entry point will enable more customers to benefit from the features in the Standard tier. Performance levels provide a defined level of throughput that can be easily dialed up or down, based on performance demands.
- Hourly billing: Azure SQL Database will move to hourly billing for the new service tiers. This will provide customers with greater flexibility to shift between service tiers and performance levels, based on demand patterns, to gain cost-effective, reliable performance.
In addition, the SLA for the service will be 99.99% availability.
