Introduction
Managing data is a critical component of any business. Relational databases, and specifically Microsoft SQL Server, have been among the most common tools for handling that data for decades.
If we want to manage our data using the cloud, we can just use Azure virtual machines to host our own Microsoft SQL Server instances. Sometimes that's the right solution, but Azure offers another way that's often much easier and more cost effective. Azure SQL databases are a Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering, meaning much less infrastructure and maintenance to manage yourself.
To understand better, let's consider a scenario: you're a software development lead at Contoso Transport, a transportation logistics company.
The transportation industry requires tight coordination among everyone involved: schedulers, dispatchers, drivers, and even customers.
Your current process involves piles of paper forms and hours on the phone to coordinate shipments. You find that paperwork is often missing signatures and dispatchers are frequently unavailable. These holdups leave drivers sitting idle; as a result, some important shipments arrive late.
Customer satisfaction and repeat business are crucial to your bottom line, so your team decides to move from paper forms and phone calls to digital documents and online communication. Going digital enables everyone to coordinate and track shipment times through their web browser or mobile app.
You want to quickly prototype something to share with your team. Your prototype includes a database to hold driver, customer, and order information. Your prototype is the basis for your production app, so the technology choices you make now should carry over to what your team delivers.
Learning objectives
In this module, you learn:
- Why Azure SQL Database is a good choice for running your relational database.
- Which configuration and pricing options are available for your Azure SQL database.
- How to create an Azure SQL database from the portal.
- How to use Azure Cloud Shell to connect to your Azure SQL database, add a table, and work with data.