Choosing the Azure SQL DB Tier: Tales from the Trenches

Reitse Eskens

Azure offers a large number of database tiers, from basic to Hyperscale and a lot in between. But which tier suits your load? The key is to choose the right database for your load, but how can you determine that?

In this session, I’ll walk you through the different options that are available and tell you about the experiences I’ve had when working with them. I’ve been involved in a number of projects and most tiers and SKUs have been tried and tested.

Some were successful, some weren’t, but all depended on their loads and characteristics. To give each database a fair chance, I’ve been using a set of scripts to get a good comparison. A script that I will share with you, along with my way of using it.

Azure SQL DB performance comes at a price, so I’ll cover the costs as well to give a complete picture.