Amazon RDS vs. SQL Azure

Comparing Cloud Database Offerings

Ike Ellisike@ellisteam.net

Agenda

• Similarities• Architectural Differences• Pricing• Backup & Restore• Scaling• Database Size• Feature Set• Tooling• Disaster Recovery• Future Roadmap

Similarities

Web Portal

Your App

Change Connection String

Architecture

SQL Azure Architecture SQL Server 2008/Denali*

Amazon RDS Architecture

• Spins up a dedicated Virtual Machine• Less Cloudy• Built on MySQL/Oracle

WINNER: Azure

• More cloud for the cloud– Elastic– Service-Oriented

Pricing

Main SQL Azure Pricing

Main Amazon RDS Pricing - MySQL

Amazon RDS Pricing - Oracle

Both – Additional Charges

• SQL Azure– Bandwidth – Ingress/Egress

• Amazon– Storage– Bandwidth – Ingress/Egress

Amazon Create Database Screen

Windows Azure Create Database Screen

WINNER: Both

Amazon Backup Screen #1

Amazon Backup/Restore #2

SQL Azure Backup/Restore – Database Copy

…but hope for the future

WINNER: Amazon RDS

• But Azure has a bright future.

Two Types of Scaling

Amazon RDS Scale Up

SQL Azure Scale Up

Hope for the future – Dedicated Resources

Amazon RDS & SQL Azure Scale Out

• Home grow both solutions• Custom Sharding– EnzoSharding

• Hope for Future with SQL Azure– Federations

WINNER: Draw

• SQL Azure wins Scale Out• Amazon RDS wins Scale Up

Database Size

• SQL Azure

• Amazon RDS

• Future: SQL Azure promises to bump it up.

Winner: Amazon RDS

General Feature Set

• Amazon RDS = Full MySQL/Oracle instance• SQL Azure = Subset of SQL Server Features– Kinda disappointing– Whole bunch of cloudy features• Data Sync• Marketplace• Odata• Silverlight Management Tool

Winner: SQL Azure

Tooling

Amazon RDS Tooling

MySQL WorkBench

All the Oracle Tools

SQL Azure Tooling• SQL Server Management Studio (No Designers)– SSIS, BCP, SQLCMD, etc

• Database Manager (Project Houston – Silverlight)

Tooling Winner: SQL Azure (with caveat)

• MySQL guys will like the same tooling• SQL Azure has a ton of tools plus opens up

their platform to non-SQL developers with the Silverlight tool

Disaster Recovery

Amazon RDS Disaster Recovery

Double the price.

SQL Azure Disaster Recovery

• Future Roadmap – Different Data Centers

Disaster Recovery Winner: SQL Azure

• SQL Azure’s DR is all-inclusive

SQL Azure Future Roadmap

• Very transparent• 30 sessions on SQL Azure at TechEd this year, many of

them publicly downloadable• SQL Azure Team Blog is very vocal and open• SQL Azure Reporting Services• SQL Azure Federations• Backup/Restore• Data Sync• CLR/XML Indexes/Designers/New Tooling/New

Migration

Amazon RDS Future Roadmap

Roadmap Winner: SQL Azure

• Roadmap is clear and the future looks bright

Overall Winner: Draw - Ugh

Contact Ike

• Email: ike@ellisteam.net• Twitter: @ike_ellis• Blog: blog.ellisteam.net• Website: http://www.ellisteam.net• Phone: 619.922.9801• User Group: http://www.sdtig.com