Simple MS Access DB with thin front end on MS Azure

Question

My Organisation currently has a simple MS Access application with a size currently around 5MB and future growth is expected to be around another 5-10 MB per year. They wish to have this migrated to the cloud so that a website can communicate with this Database and insert records. The user base is not expected to be very large (Max 50-80 users). The plan is to migrate the MS Access to Azure SQL and then the web application can connect to the Azure SQL going forward and insert records. A thin MS Access client that print reports and performs some processing/reports will sit on an on-premise server in the organization so that the department can use them when required. I trust that this plan will work. I would like to know how can my organization get access to Azure SQl and what are the requirements. The size of the DB can start at a minimum at the moment as we are currently talking about 10000 records. Since the budget is limited, I want to know the best route to plan this keeping in mind the security of data as it could contain sensitive information. Please guide us. Anil Puthalath

Answer 1

To create a resource in Azure, go to http://portal.azure.com, set up an login to log in. Next you will have to open a subscription, which you may have to associate with a credit card. (I'm a little foggy on that point, since I only use free credits that I get with my MSDN subscription.)

The subscription itself does not cost anything, as far as I know, but about every resource you create will be billed against your subscription.

There are lots of services, but search for Azure SQL, and then select Azure SQL Database. There are a couple of options, and I think that for you will will not need anything more than Standard. Maybe you can even do Basic, which is very cheap. Don't worry too much that your initial choice may be the best one. You can easily scale your database up and down - that's one of the joys with the cloud.

If you expect the application to be idle most of the time, you could consider a Serverless option. With Serverless, you only pay for the database when it is in use. A drawback, though, is that you may have to wait when you want start using it, as it takes a minute or two to load the database.

Since you will keep a client on-prem, a word of caution: make sure that the application is not chatty. If 100 rows are to be updated, send all 100 at once, and not one a time. When you have the client on-prem and the database in the cloud, there is always a latency. You may have a very high bandwidth, but the speed of light will always set a limit.

Answer 2

Thank you for your answers. I assume when the database is on the cloud external website can access that database table when required. How will the costing be done? For eg If 10 members get registered and the new data needs to be saved on the database then how is the charging done by Microsoft.

Initially, I may have to perform an ETL to load all the Access records and then a duplicate checking on the table needs to be done so that the same records are not entered twice while members enter new data via the website. Will all these operations be charged under subscription. Need to know the normal charges as the budget is a concern.

What are the best means to create a new table/object on SQL Azure and load data at minimum cost until the application is live? . Is there any way of getting free development hrs as part of the Azure setup?

Answer 3

If you have an MSDN subscription, you can get free credits of 150 USD per months. But that is about the only free option there is.

Then again, the cost for a database in Standard Edition is very timid. I don't have the costs, and may depend on the size, but I don't have any exact numbers. But rather below 20 USD per month than above.

The best way to find out is to go the portal and see what price indication you get.

Pricing in the cloud is by no means easy, because there are lot of options to have things charged by usage. Which is good if you don't use the system much. But not so good if you want to know a fixed sum.

It is also different from on-prem - you will have to pay when you set up, and you will have to pay when you have users using it for real. But Microsoft does not care if it is production or not. (Well, I guess with the free credits I mentioned above, production is permitted.)

Also, remember that you can scale up and down as your needs change.