Azure Data Lake Storage vs. Azure SQL Database

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Azure Data Lake Storage
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 is a highly scalable and cost-effective data lake solution for big data analytics. It combines the power of a high-performance file system with massive scale and economy to help you speed your time to insight. Data Lake Storage Gen2 extends Azure Blob Storage capabilities and is optimized for analytics workloads.N/A
Azure SQL Database
Score 8.1 out of 10
N/A
Azure SQL Database is Microsoft's relational database as a service (DBaaS).
$0.50
Per Hour
Pricing
Azure Data Lake StorageAzure SQL Database
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
2 vCORE
$0.5044
Per Hour
6 vCORE
$1.5131
Per Hour
10 vCORE
$2.52
Per Hour
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Azure Data Lake StorageAzure SQL Database
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Azure Data Lake StorageAzure SQL Database
Considered Both Products
Azure Data Lake Storage
Chose Azure Data Lake Storage
We decided long ago to develop for the Azure platform, so we only evaluate products from within Azure. And Azure Data Lake Storage is really the dominant offering within its space. But to give you a comparison, previously we used to use Azure SQL Database for our analytical …
Azure SQL Database

No answer on this topic

Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Azure Data Lake StorageAzure SQL Database
Database-as-a-Service
Comparison of Database-as-a-Service features of Product A and Product B
Azure Data Lake Storage
-
Ratings
Azure SQL Database
9.2
27 Ratings
5% above category average
Automatic software patching00 Ratings8.125 Ratings
Database scalability00 Ratings10.027 Ratings
Automated backups00 Ratings9.927 Ratings
Database security provisions00 Ratings9.027 Ratings
Monitoring and metrics00 Ratings9.026 Ratings
Automatic host deployment00 Ratings9.022 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Azure Data Lake StorageAzure SQL Database
Small Businesses
Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage
Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage
Score 9.7 out of 10
SingleStore
SingleStore
Score 9.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Azure Blob Storage
Azure Blob Storage
Score 8.7 out of 10
SingleStore
SingleStore
Score 9.8 out of 10
Enterprises
Azure Blob Storage
Azure Blob Storage
Score 8.7 out of 10
SingleStore
SingleStore
Score 9.8 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Azure Data Lake StorageAzure SQL Database
Likelihood to Recommend
8.1
(14 ratings)
9.1
(27 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(5 ratings)
User Testimonials
Azure Data Lake StorageAzure SQL Database
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft
Azure Data Lake is an absolutely essential piece of a modern data and analytics platform. Over the past 2 years, our usage of Azure Data Lake as a reporting source has continued to grow and far exceeds more traditional sources like MS SQL, Oracle, etc.
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Microsoft
Your upcoming app can be built faster on a fully managed SQL database and can be moved into Azure with a few to no application code changes. Flexible and responsive server less computing and Hyperscale storage can cope with your changing requirements and one of the main benefits is the reduction in costs, which is noticeable.
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Pros
Microsoft
  • Setting up Azure Data Lake Storage account, container is quite easy
  • Access from anywhere and easy maintenance
  • Integration with Azure Data Factory service for end to end pipeline is pretty easy
  • Can store Any form of data (Structured, Unstructured, Semi) in faster manner
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Microsoft
  • Maintenance is always an issue, so using a cloud solution saves a lot of trouble.
  • On premise solutions always suffer from fragmented implementations here and there, where several "dba's" keep track of security and maintenance. With a cloud database it's much easier to keep a central overview.
  • Security options in SQL database are next level... data masking, hiding sensitive data where always neglected on premise, whereas you'll get this automatically in the cloud.
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Cons
Microsoft
  • study for the certifications also to have them as a reference for work when you have any questions about applying a configuration to the equipment.
  • The Internet interface is simple and easy to use. Capacity is good and it's good that HP continues to innovate with this technology
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Microsoft
  • One needs to be aware that some T-SQL features are simply not available.
  • The programmatic access to server, trace flags, hardware from within Azure SQL Database is taken away (for a good reason).
  • No SQL Agent so your jobs need to be orchestrated differently.
  • The maximum concurrent logins maybe an unexpected problem.
  • Sudden disconnects.
  • The developers and admin must study the capacity and tier usage limits https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-subscription-service-limits otherwise some errors or even transaction aborts never seen before can occur.
  • Only one Latin Collation choice.
  • There is no way to debug T-SQL ( a big drawback in my point of view).
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Likelihood to Renew
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
This is best solution as a DBA one could expect from a service provider and as a cloud service, it removes all your hassles.
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Support Rating
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
We give the support a high rating simply because every time we've had issues or questions, representatives were in contact with us quickly. Without fail, our issues/questions were handled in a timely matter. That kind of response is integral when client data integrity and availability is in question. There is also a wealth of documentation for resolving issues on your own.
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Alternatives Considered
Microsoft
Azure Data Lake Storage from a functionality perspective is a much easier solution to work with. It's implementation from Amazon EMR went smooth, and continued usage is definitely better. However, Amazon EMR was significantly cheaper overall between the high transaction fees and cost of storage due to growth. The two both have their advantages and disadvantages, but the functionality of Azure Data Lake Storage outweighed it's cost
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Microsoft
We moved away from Oracle and NoSQL because we had been so reliant on them for the last 25 years, the pricing was too much and we were looking for a way to cut the cord. Snowflake is just too up in the air, feels like it is soon to be just another line item to add to your Azure subscription. Azure was just priced right, easy to migrate to and plenty of resources to hire to support/maintain it. Very easy to learn, too.
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Return on Investment
Microsoft
  • Instead of having separate pools of storage for data we are now operating on a single layer platform which has cut down on time spent on maintaining those separate pools.
  • We have had more of an ROI with the scalability as we are able to control costs of storage when need be.
  • We are able to operate in a more streamlined approach as we are able to stay within the Azure suite of products and integrate seamlessly with the rest of the applications in our cloud-based infrastructure
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Microsoft
  • Perfect for small and medium databases, being very cost effective.
  • As a Platform as a Service, there is no concern about patches, upgrades and end of life.
  • Be aware of security and network capabilities. The service cannot run in the VNET as Azure Virtual Machines do.
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