Difference Between Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Managed Instances
Azure is a cloud platform which is used for services like virtual computing, storage networking etc. It provides with solutions that include Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). Both, Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Managed Instances supports automatic backup and have built-in license model. Let us see on what aspects they are different in the article.
Azure SQL Database
Azure SQL Database comes under the category of platform as a service (PaaS) database engine. It was developed in 2010 by Microsoft Corporation. Upgrading, patching, backups, and monitoring is handled in SQL Database without any human interference. It comes under the category of relational, NoSQL, and in-memory databases.
Features:
Frequent Updates.
Data-loss prevention.
Security features such as – Vulnerability assessment, Threat detection, Data Encryption etc.
Advantages:
It requires no physical hardware.
It has variety of data options and is quite affordable.
It provides flexibility in upgrading the plans.
Disadvantages:
Confusion over database transaction units.
There is no Windows authentication support.
Linked servers are not supported.
Azure SQL Managed Instances
SQL Managed Instances is a cloud database service which fully functions as a Platform as a Service(PaaS). Azure SQL Managed Instances supports the connectivity through TCP protocol only and does nor support the connectivity through pipes.
Features:
Control of flow language keywords.
Online index operations
Database Collation
Partitioning
Advantages:
It boosts productivity.
It supports Cross Database Transactions.
Linked Servers are supported with which distributed database can be operated.
Disadvantages:
Time issues as the process takes more time to complete.
There is a limit on the number of databases which cannot be changed.
It does not support CLR.
Difference between Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Managed Instances
Parameters
Azure SQL Database
Azure SQL Managed Instances
Backup Commands
Automated backups are used.
Web browser tools are used for developing backup commands.
Auditing
One can not audit the SQL Database.
One can audit the Managed Instances.
Server Collation
It does not contain server collation.
It contains server collation.
CDC Support
CDC and S3 tier support is available.
This support is available.
CLR Support
It is supported.
It is not supported.
Cross Database Transactions
These are not possible.
These are possible.
Active Geo-replication
It is supported.
It is not supported.
Auto-Scale
It is only supported in serverless model.
It is not supported in Managed Instances.
Automatic Tuning
It is supported in SQL Database.
It is not supported.
Hyperscale Architecture
It is supported.
It is not supported.
SQL Server Profiler
It is not supported.
It is supported.
Linked servers
It is not supported.
It is supported.
Conclusion
There are many things which are similar in both. They both share the common code and also data management and query processing is also same. Both have their own pros and cons with their respective features.
