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Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs vCloud Air comparison

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 12, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Azure SQL Database
Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
140
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
vCloud Air
Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)
22nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS) (22nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Azure SQL Database is 9.0%, down from 12.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of vCloud Air is 2.7%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Database as a Service (DBaaS) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Azure SQL Database9.0%
vCloud Air2.7%
Other88.3%
Database as a Service (DBaaS)
 

Featured Reviews

Matthew Parker - PeerSpot reviewer
Ai Team Lead at Phoenix Software
Integrates with familiar tools and supports reliable data storage for AI applications
Microsoft Azure SQL Database can be improved overall by being able to compete with some of the features that come from things such as PostgreSQL. From my team's perspective in terms of building AI applications, more native integrations with some of the newer AI data types, such as vectors for storing embeddings, would be beneficial. I think all of that is coming. It is just a big product, so I think it is naturally a little bit behind the curve. However, that is not necessarily a bad thing because a lot of customers, because it has been around for so long, they trust it and they are willing to wait until those features become available.
it_user613995 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director Solutions Architect - EMEA & APAC at Blue Medora
With the VPC, you can run your workloads in an active state, use it for development work and for hosting SQL/Exchange Servers in IaaS; RaaS/DaaS for DR activities.
All three components of the vCloud Air are equally valuable and important, i.e., IaaS, DaaS and RaaS. I like the Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) offering compared to the Dedicated Cloud. It gives me the flexibility to utilize the pay-as-you-go option. You can run your workloads in an active state at reasonable prices. I have seen lots of companies use it for their development work, as well as for hosting SQL and Exchange Servers, i.e., in the active-passive mode instead of Replication (RaaS). Disaster Recovery is also a great feature that is affordable and easy to use. Disaster Recovery is a great component of the vCloud Air, where you can protect the on-premises cloud infrastructure, by providing self-service recovery options using the vSphere Replication. Some of the features that really stand out and I have used in my projects are: * Direct Connect: It provides high speed and private line connectivity. * Offline Data Transfer: For encrypted bulk data transport.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"It's easy to work with large amounts of data, query it, and bring it back to a visualization tool to show it to the end users."
"Its cost benefit is most valuable because you are charged per data unit instead of licensing. You can easily migrate your on-premise SQL to the cloud with a managed instance. That's what it is designed to do. It is easy to take your on-premise or older SQL instance and move it to the cloud. It makes it easy to get off your on-premise SQL and start utilizing the cost benefit of the cloud."
"We have used SQL for a long time. Azure SQL has helped teams across the organization to use SQL's full potential. I can't say what the cost savings were precisely, but I believe it has reduced the total cost of ownership."
"SQL Azure is perfectly scalable."
"Microsoft Azure SQL Database has significantly reduced our total cost of ownership by eliminating the need for a dedicated environment to host SQL."
"Great auto-scaling and security features."
"Your return on investment from SQL Azure would depend on your business applications. The solution will give you more scalability, and more functionality, and would reduce costs from on-premises to cloud databases, so there are a lot of cost reductions."
"The product is quite stable. The performance is great and it's reliable."
"This is the part that should be making admins and CIOs smile."
"The Cloud DRaaS solution provided the organization with new levels of flexibility and cost control, together with rapid expansion capability."
"VMware Workstation has an interesting feature to manage vSphere infrastructure (and also stand-alone ESXi hosts) that is really powerful and useful, for example to avoid to install the vSphere client (or the integration plugin) just to open one VM console or to change the power status for some VM."
 

Cons

"The problem is the automated configuration."
"The solution can be improved by reducing the cost so more users can be added."
"There are some limitations for cross-database queries and features."
"I am very happy with Microsoft Azure SQL Database; I don't think there's anything in particular I would change, except to make it cheaper."
"The user interface (UI) could be more flexible."
"While the cost versus benefit debate continues, Microsoft Azure SQL Database has been cost-driven for a very long time rather than value-driven."
"Microsoft Azure SQL Database would benefit from enhanced documentation, along with ongoing improvements to scalability and cost-effectiveness."
"Lacking in technical documentation."
"I don’t think it is quite where EC2 is with regard to capabilities and features but VMware is investing a lot in vCloud Air."
"It’s a really good idea, but the current implementation is very limited: you can simply see your VMs and just open the VM console."
"I feel the user interface/portal can be improved further. I did experience timeout issues and the UI was performing slowly at times."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of the solution is reasonable."
"The solution is more cost-effective than Google BigQuery. Compared to Google BigQuery, downloading data can be more expensive."
"When you go with SQL Azure Database, you can create a small database, which is around $4 to $5 per month for development purposes."
"The licensing for this solution is based on subscription."
"It's reasonably priced and when you compare it with other products in the cloud environment, it's cheaper."
"Offers options for paying the license on a yearly or a monthly basis."
"I find that they are relatively expensive, especially when compared to AWS, where the prices are notably lower."
"It is expensive. Snowflake and PostgreSQL are cheaper than this. Google is also cheaper than Azure. Its licensing is on a pay-as-you-go basis. It is based on usage and storage."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Construction Company
8%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business64
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise66
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SQL Azure?
I think Microsoft Azure SQL Database is affordable, not expensive. Regarding migration, I am just keeping a professional service charge for that.
What needs improvement with SQL Azure?
The automatic tuning feature in Microsoft Azure SQL Database impacts database performance sometimes. What happens with Microsoft Azure SQL Database's automatic tuning is that when SQL queries are e...
What is your primary use case for SQL Azure?
I am a system integrator using Microsoft Azure SQL Database for my customers. The major use case for Microsoft Azure SQL Database is that most of my clients have a lot of applications, so they are ...
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Sample Customers

adnymics GmbH, LG CNS, Centrebet, netfabb GmbH, MedPlast, Accelera Solutions, Sochi Organizing Committee, realzeit GmbH
Lumeta, LifeSite, Clear Tec Solutions, National Physician Services, Queens University of Charlotte, California Natural Resources Agency, Pacific Disaster Center, Seventy Seven Energy Inc., Columbia Sportswear , CSS Corp
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS), MongoDB and others in Database as a Service (DBaaS). Updated: October 2026.
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