February 21, 2011 at 1:34 am
Hello -
Recently, I was asked about my thoughts on Microsoft's Azure platform option, and whether or not it would be worthwhile to look into. Frankly - I have enough issues with colo-hosts doing things correctly with my server setups, and the last thing I want to do is to trust my complete production data to a "Cloud" service.
However - on the flip side of that coin is the savings in $$$ and ROI.
So my question to you all is this:
1. Are any of your currently on the Azure platform for SQL and/or other apps, and
2. Do you have any regrets in having gone with this solution, or are you pleasantly satisfied with it?
Thank you all in advance for your feedback and input.
February 21, 2011 at 10:43 am
Rich Yarger (2/21/2011)
Hello -Recently, I was asked about my thoughts on Microsoft's Azure platform option, and whether or not it would be worthwhile to look into. Frankly - I have enough issues with colo-hosts doing things correctly with my server setups, and the last thing I want to do is to trust my complete production data to a "Cloud" service.
However - on the flip side of that coin is the savings in $$$ and ROI.
I was recently at SQL Saturday and went through a presentation on what's available in Azure. It's really just a database hosting service. If you're not hosting your app there as well, you have to internet expose your database and virtual server, as well, unless you're going to setup tunneling and the like.
There's a number of current limitations to Azure. One huge issue: Backup/Restore cannot be done there. You have to copy the DB to your local systems to do that. A couple of other big ones are the lack of encryption and no full text indexing. A personal one for me is that databases max off at 50 gigs worth of space, you can't do any automation at that server, and you have no DBCC control (think reindexing). You still have to maintain a local production SQL Environment.
So my question to you all is this:
1. Are any of your currently on the Azure platform for SQL and/or other apps, and
2. Do you have any regrets in having gone with this solution, or are you pleasantly satisfied with it?
Thank you all in advance for your feedback and input.
I can't see moving any of my current apps to Azure, nor any of my previously ones. Most shops I've worked at want to keep control of the hosting, and if you're going to do that, you might as well keep the db's in house as well. If, however, you're coding to a cloud app and need only a light backend database layer, it might be a worthy consideration. It's just not robust enough yet to replace full environments for the majority of heavy apps I've been involved in.
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February 21, 2011 at 10:50 am
In addition to what Craig said, you pay for bandwidth, so factor in the cost of doing a backup, deploying code, testing on Azure, etc.
The "savings" might not be anywhere near what you expect. When I can buy Azure for my servers on my systems, it looks more attractive. Right now I think it can work well for some distributed apps where you want to put out some lookup data or take small transactions from lots of people, but only in simple ways.
February 21, 2011 at 10:54 am
Steve Jones - SSC Editor (2/21/2011)
In addition to what Craig said, you pay for bandwidth, so factor in the cost of doing a backup, deploying code, testing on Azure, etc.The "savings" might not be anywhere near what you expect. When I can buy Azure for my servers on my systems, it looks more attractive. Right now I think it can work well for some distributed apps where you want to put out some lookup data or take small transactions from lots of people, but only in simple ways.
Good point, Steve, and I forgot to mention that. The numbers that were thrown around during the presentation were $10/gigabyte of storage/month (so 50 gig is ~$500/month), $0.10/gigabyte upload, and $0.15/gigabyte download. You don't get hit with the upload/download charges if you're hosting the webapp there too for whatever the webapp demands. You'll still pay for doing your backups and the like.
Never stop learning, even if it hurts. Ego bruises are practically mandatory as you learn unless you've never risked enough to make a mistake.
For better assistance in answering your questions[/url] | Forum Netiquette
For index/tuning help, follow these directions.[/url] |Tally Tables[/url]
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