Microsoft announced the general availability of new Azure SQL Database service tiers, raising the bar for database-as-a-service with business-class functionality and features.
The database service is available in three tiers- Basic, Standard and Premium. Microsoft had previewed the database service tiers in April.
An official blog from Microsoft said these tiers address the need of today’s demanding cloud applications by providing predictable performance for the light- to heavy-weight transactional applications.
The new database tiers also promise higher uptime SLA –previously at 99.9%, now 99.99%–one of the highest in the database-as-a-service industry, the blog said. The service also comes with point-in-time-restore, with built-in backups and up to 35 days of data retention.
Featuring active geo-replication and standard geo-replication, the service ensures continuous data replication to geographically dispersed secondaries.
Another improvement is on the database sizes. The new tiers now offer maximum database size of up to 500 GB, as opposed to the previous size at 150 GB.
Other major changes in the offerings include new S0 performance level within the Standard service tier. The company has also announced price reductions in its Premium and Standard models. Final pricing reflects up to 50% savings from previously-published GA pricing.
Starting today, Azure SQL Database will move to hourly billing in the new service tiers, Microsoft said.
Companies like Samsung, ESRI, Callaway Golf, and Pottermore are already using Azure SQL Database as a relational database service platform to help grow their cloud-based businesses, the blog said.
