SQL Azure is used for the replication of a CRM database. if get information from this database and try to replicate it on other servers and other systems. I'm getting the transactional data information.
Software Developer at Generate Impact
Beneficial centralized authentication, scalable, and reliable
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of SQL Azure is centralized authentication because I'm using the domain, user name, and password, for Microsoft 365 account with multifactor authentication and the security has been working well."
- "I was using a user list for connecting a program in OTF for getting information. The connection in SQL Azure can improve by being easier because at the moment I have to use private certificates for user authentication. I had to do additional configuration to have the connections."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of SQL Azure is centralized authentication because I'm using the domain, user name, and password, for Microsoft 365 account with multifactor authentication and the security has been working well.
What needs improvement?
I was using a user list for connecting a program in OTF for getting information. The connection in SQL Azure can improve by being easier because at the moment I have to use private certificates for user authentication. I had to do additional configuration to have the connections.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using SQL Azure for approximately six months.
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Microsoft Azure SQL Database
June 2025

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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
SQL Azure is stable, I have not had any issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of SQL Azure is easy to do.
We have a lot of people in my organization using this solution. We have a large company.
How are customer service and support?
I have not used support.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of SQL Azure is difficult and complex. I have to use a lot of certificates, private keys, and public keys to establish a connection.
What other advice do I have?
SQL Azure is a really good tool. I recommend using this solution instead of a normal SQL server, its an improvement,
I rate SQL Azure a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
software engineer at a university with 11-50 employees
Great programming facility with good problem solving capabilities; very efficient
Pros and Cons
- "The solution is efficient and easy to use."
- "Lacks some tools on the SQL Server for data virtualization."
What is our primary use case?
Our core business is to make mathematical models for production and solutions. We don't develop or use software. The data comes with the Excel format stored in SQL and we write complex queries about the data and run it in our models. Our data is not sensitive and it's a matter of having a server for storage. I'm a software engineer.
What is most valuable?
SQL Azure is efficient and very easy to use. The programming facility is very good and the solution is great at solving problems.
What needs improvement?
SQL Azure could offer a lot more services and applications. I'd also like to see some tools that we could use on the SQL Server for data virtualization. That would be an improvement.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for 10 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We don't run critical data and haven't had any issues with the stability.
How are customer service and support?
We have a lot of experience and good programmers and IT administrators in the company, so we haven't needed customer support.
How was the initial setup?
Our implementation was straightforward and carried out internally. We have 10 users of this solution, the majority are in production and engineering, with a couple in software engineering.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Our license is pay-as-you-go and we pay around €200 per month. You need to keep an eye on this because with scaling the cost can increase quite quickly.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
This solution is more expensive than some others, but not as expensive as Amazon, Google and Oracle, which all have a lot of extra costs involved.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend this solution and rate it 10 out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Azure SQL Database
June 2025

Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Azure SQL Database. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
860,632 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Business Analyst at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Stable and scalable but could better integrate with Python
Pros and Cons
- "Emergency mode is quite useful."
- "I haven't explored SQL Azure's features much, but I would like to see some better integration with Python."
What is our primary use case?
I'm an end-user. I'm a business analyst, so I'm using SQL Azure to do analysis.
What is most valuable?
Emergency mode is quite useful.
What needs improvement?
I haven't explored SQL Azure's features much, but I would like to see some better integration with Python.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using SQL Azure for approximately two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
SQL Azure is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I think SQL Azure is scalable. Almost 200 people are using it in the commercial department.
How are customer service and support?
I can't say much about Microsoft support because the IT people are the ones who deal with the Microsoft support team. Whenever we have an issue, we put our IT team on it and leave everything to them. They try to handle it if they can or they might bring in some consultants from the Microsoft team.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I previously used Oracle, but I didn't spend much time with it, so I really can't say. I don't think Oracle has any capabilities that SQL Azure lacks, and it's not used in as many companies and institutions.
How was the initial setup?
Setting up SQL Azure isn't complex.
What other advice do I have?
I rate SQL Azure seven out of 10.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Founder at a tech services company with self employed
Stable, easy to provision and administer, and natural progression to SQL Server
Pros and Cons
- "The ease of provisioning and administration is most valuable."
- "It should have better profiling capabilities."
What is our primary use case?
We are using it for business intelligence and analytics.
What is most valuable?
The ease of provisioning and administration is most valuable.
What needs improvement?
It should have better profiling capabilities. Its price could also be lower.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for about two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We haven't had any outages yet, so it is pretty stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable. We haven't hit any limits yet, but we're not running huge workloads.
How are customer service and technical support?
We haven't had a need for technical support.
How was the initial setup?
It is easy. I'm busy setting up another one now.
What about the implementation team?
I did it myself.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I would like it to be cheaper, but comparatively, it is reasonably priced.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We considered Postgres in AWS as well as AWS Redshift and AWS Athena.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend it. We're very happy with what we have. It is very familiar because of our experience with on-premise SQL Server. If you are used to working with SQL Server, it is a natural progression.
I would rate SQL Azure an eight out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. partner
Cloud Solution Engineer at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
Cost-effective, very scalable and reliable, and lets you easily migrate your on-premise SQL instance
Pros and Cons
- "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."
- "I'm not really a SQL DBA, so I can't go into the depths of the areas that need to be improved. They can maybe make it a bit easier to educate people on how to develop SQL Server in Azure. They can provide some free seminars and webinars and more training in general for easier migration. I know there is some stuff on Microsoft learning, but it would be helpful and useful to have more up-to-date content."
What is our primary use case?
We're slowly progressing through the delivery of our production system or landing zone in the cloud. Nothing is in production yet.
What is most valuable?
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.
What needs improvement?
I'm not really a SQL DBA, so I can't go into the depths of the areas that need to be improved. They can maybe make it a bit easier to educate people on how to develop SQL Server in Azure. They can provide some free seminars and webinars and more training in general for easier migration. I know there is some stuff on Microsoft learning, but it would be helpful and useful to have more up-to-date content.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been dabbling with it for the last couple of years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Based on our experience, it is very stable and very reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It has got Microsoft's backbone on it. It is very scalable. At this stage, we don't have many users because we're still busy migrating over to Azure cloud. In the next year, we'll probably have close to a million customers because that's what we've got on our books.
How are customer service and technical support?
I have interacted with them. They are very good for out-of-the-book solutions, but when we get to integrations with non-Microsoft applications, it can be a little bit more tricky. You also have to involve the vendor of that specific product to deal with problems related to integration, but, in general, Microsoft's support is pretty good. I've never found it to be poor in any way.
What about the implementation team?
For the number of customers we have, we probably only need three or four people, which is not a lot. If you look at it that way, it is actually quite cost-effective.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is beneficial in terms of cost because you are charged per data unit instead of licensing.
What other advice do I have?
I would absolutely recommend this solution to others. If they are going for Azure, they probably don't have a choice. I would advise others to get used to all the options and ideas of SQL PaaS, SQL managed instances, and SQL on VMs. They should get their head around which one is best for their company. They should make sure that it fits their company's vision of where they want to go with their databases because it may or may not be the best solution for everybody. That's why there are a couple of options, so just make sure to select the right one.
I would rate SQL Azure an eight out of ten. It is best in many ways. There is nothing better than this from Microsoft from the database aspect.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Chief Technology Officer & Vice President, Delivery at a recruiting/HR firm with 1-10 employees
Easy to scale, easy to deploy, good pricing, and has lots of out-of-the-box features
Pros and Cons
- "It is easily scalable, and it is faster than SQL Server. It is also less expensive than using SQL Server. It has the pay-as-you-go model, and the charges are based on the usage."
- "There are some limitations for cross-database queries and features. The migration of data from older systems should be easier. For deployment, there are too many options, which sometimes makes it difficult to figure out the best option. There is not enough information to help you to find the best option for deployment. There should be more documentation about this."
What is our primary use case?
We use it for benefits management in the healthcare domain.
How has it helped my organization?
It helps us deploy new applications very quickly. We have set up everything on Azure, including SQL Azure.
It has a lot of out-of-the-box features, which is useful. It is easy to move applications for disaster recovery or availability, and all these features are out of the box.
What is most valuable?
It is easily scalable, and it is faster than SQL Server. It is also less expensive than using SQL Server. It has the pay-as-you-go model, and the charges are based on the usage.
What needs improvement?
There are some limitations for cross-database queries and features. The migration of data from older systems should be easier.
For deployment, there are too many options, which sometimes makes it difficult to figure out the best option. There is not enough information to help you to find the best option for deployment. There should be more documentation about this.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for a couple of years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is easily scalable. We have around 60 to 70 users. We'll be increasing its usage. We are gradually moving to SQL Azure for all our requirements.
How are customer service and technical support?
Their technical support is prompt, but some of our issues have not been addressed, even though the team is trying. We didn't have a good experience with them for a couple of issues, but overall, they have been good.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We got everything ready-made in Azure because our all applications are in the .NET framework and SQL, so we found SQL Azure to be the most suitable option.
How was the initial setup?
It is straightforward, but if you're migrating data from SQL Server, it is quite time-consuming and not so easy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I am not aware of the exact pricing, but our monthly bill for Azure is around 80,000. It is less expensive than using SQL Server. It has the pay-as-you-go model, and the charges are based on the usage.
What other advice do I have?
If you are migrating from older systems, you should know that CLR is not supported in SQL Azure. Data migration can also be a challenge.
I would rate SQL Azure a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Senior Database Administrator at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
A very stable and highly scalable solution that has cut down the size of our data center by 80%
Pros and Cons
- "Cost savings are the most valuable. The DR/high availability is also valuable. The failover group with the built-in DR/high availability features is probably one of the easiest things."
- "Its automation can be improved. SQL Server Agent was a very big part of the on-prem tools. While moving from on-prem to the cloud, redoing some of such tools was very cumbersome in Azure. There was a whole new set of technologies and methodologies. It should have easier automation-type features to be able to implement such tools. It should have almost a SQL agent type of substance built into that."
What is our primary use case?
It is simply our relational database.
How has it helped my organization?
It has cut our costs. That's the big thing.
What is most valuable?
Cost savings are the most valuable. The DR/high availability is also valuable. The failover group with the built-in DR/high availability features is probably one of the easiest things.
What needs improvement?
Its automation can be improved. SQL Server Agent was a very big part of the on-prem tools. While moving from on-prem to the cloud, redoing some of such tools was very cumbersome in Azure. There was a whole new set of technologies and methodologies. It should have easier automation-type features to be able to implement such tools. It should have almost a SQL agent type of substance built into that.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is very stable. It has been in our production environment for three and a half years, and we have had only one significant outage.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Its scalability is pretty high. Its ability to scale is very good. We're actually in the process of migrating on-prem to Azure, and its scalability is very easy.
In terms of the number of users, there are probably a hundred technical people who are leveraging the technologies. They are developers, administrators, and the BI group.
How was the initial setup?
The setup was pretty straightforward. The networking aspect was non-intuitive, and it was probably the biggest stumbling block when we initially set it up.
What about the implementation team?
We have our DevOps processes that we follow in our deployment, so we establish those initially, and there was a significant amount of testing done prior to putting it into production. On a scale of one to five, it was probably a three in terms of time and effort to get it all implemented.
For its maintenance, there are probably five or six of us, but one person can also maintain it if required.
What was our ROI?
I don't have specific numbers, but we were able to cut down the size of our data center by 80%.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I have an annual spend number, and it is in the hundred thousand dollar range. There are no additional costs to the standard licensing fees.
Even though you have to look at the cost numbers of what you're going to be charged on a monthly basis, what you have to also remember is that your application may need a lot of rewriting and things like that. You get charged not just for the monthly costs but also for the transactions that occur. If your access to the data layer is not so efficient, your costs will go up because you're pulling far more data than you potentially need. These are hidden costs that nobody ever considers. If your application is not written very efficiently, you may actually increase your costs over on-prem versus cloud.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We are a Microsoft shop. The biggest thing that we probably looked at was AWS. We also looked at some of the Oracle cloud solutions, but we went with Azure only because it just integrates with all of our stuff, and it cuts our costs.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate SQL Azure an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
Associate Manager at a consultancy with 501-1,000 employees
Good interface and support, yet cheaper than most cloud environment solutions
Pros and Cons
- "The interface is awesome."
- "I would like to see integration with Snowflake."
What is our primary use case?
We are in infrastructure development. We are using this solution with Power BI to consume the data.
We are creating on top of this SQL server. It will be consumed by Power BI for the customers, where they can customize their reports.
What is most valuable?
I am delighted to use this solution.
The most valuable feature is the moment of data. It's infused data where we can pull the data and post it immediately.
Also, it can connect to different sources. It's a storage mechanism where you can consume the data and post it into the target systems.
The interface is awesome. It's ready and easy to use.
What needs improvement?
It is difficult to find any disadvantages when I can only see advantages in using SQL Azure.
When you have a subscription, the subscription itself is not secure. You have to add the user into the directory and you will be able to use it.
I would like to see integration with Snowflake.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using SQL Azure for a couple of months.
We are using the 2017 version.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's a scalable product. We have eight members in our organization who are using this solution.
We have plans to continue using this solution.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support is good and always available.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, we did not use another product.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward and the installation is simple.
It only requires you to get a subscription. Once you have downloaded it, you can create it as a resource and you can already use it.
The number of members required to maintain this solution is dependant on the server.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
They have standard subscriptions that are not the entire version. If you have a full version of your subscription then you have the entire version that you can download.
When you no longer need it, you can just stop the services. You can reduce the amount you pay, which is an advantage. Essentially, it's a pay and use mechanism.
It's reasonably priced and when you compare it with other products in the cloud environment, it's cheaper.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate SQL Azure a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

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