Web Edition vs Business Edition

Question

Is there any difference between the Web Edition and Business Edition of SQL Azure other than the maximum supported database sizes? I'm assuming the naming has some significance but all of the information I find simply talks about the max db size. I want to know if there are any other differences such as SLA, replication, scalability, etc.

Any clues?

Answer 1

just size.

If you'd like details on the SLA for SQL Azure you can find it at: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=fa4f7fed-b17f-4cf5-b80f-531b9b681b5c&displaylang=en

Answer 2

So why differentiate Web vs Business? Confusing if you ask me.

Answer 3

Might as well ask them to explain the naming of all the variations of Windows 7.

Answer 4

Common features for both Web Edition and Business Edition include:

• Self-managed DB, auto high availability and fault tolerance
• Support existing tools like Visual Studio, SSMS, SSIS, BCP

Web Edition Relational Database includes:

• Up to 5 GB of T-SQL based relational database*

Business Edition DB includes:

• Up to 50 GB of T-SQL based relational database*
• Additional features in the *future* like auto-partition, CLR, fanouts etc

=== For more information ===

~ Measuring SQL Azure Consumption
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/pricing/#sql 

---

--- Martin POON -- Software Architect -- SQL Server MVP, MCP, MCTS, MCITP ~~ http://msMVPs.com/blogs/MartinPOON

Answer 5

Ah, so the key is the 'future'. Sounds like someone has a plan to offer features that would differentiate the two. Thanks Martin.

Answer 6

Martin, have you seen anything around CLR in the roadmap? 

That is the main feature that is missing before we can even look at migrating SQL over to Azure.

thanks,

Geoff

 

 

Answer 7

I haven't heard anything firm, but SQL Azure continues to "borrow" features for on-premise SQL Server (like spatial data types). I've heard that sandboxing of applications will be available in the next version of SQL Server and that the idea of Sandboxing applications will likely come to the BPOS suite as well.

If that pattern follows, then I would expect to see if in SQL Azure. The question will be 'when'.

Answer 8

Hi, just curious.

What if we need more space in term of size for example 200GB or 1 TB?

Answer 9

For that I'd recommend you look into partitioning your SQL Azure database. This not only allows you to exceed the physical size limit, but helps increase your potential capacity/throughput. Other options include using Azure Storage to handle BLOB storage and keeping only the data in the cloud that is necessary for a given application.

Answer 10

Hi Brent, right that's indeed one of the solution.

But the thing is, it is so expensive to do table partitioning in term of effort both in application development as well as database side.

Answer 11

IMHO is depends on the need and usage. Regardless, I believe that successful cloud projects will depend on us changing our application architecture approaches. We need to approach problems in the cloud differently then we do when delivering an on-premise solution.

If you have need for 200-1024gb in the cloud, I'd really look at if all that information is necessary for your cloud hosted application and if so, does it have to be co-located with the application.