As we look across what is happening at Microsoft Build, we are excited to announce the preview of managed database services with Azure Database for MySQL and Azure Database for PostgreSQL. Like the other news coming out of this massive moment for Microsoft, these new database offerings are about helping customers do what they truly want with technology. As a company, we’re helping developers thrive in the modern cloud-first, mobile-first environment where intelligent apps are being built across many platforms. They need to be able to work with data where they want, and we’re meeting them where that data lives.
Azure Database for MySQL and Azure Database for PostgreSQL services are built on the intelligent, trusted and flexible Azure relational database platform. This platform extends similar managed services benefits, global Azure region reach, and innovations that currently power Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Data Warehouse services to the MySQL and PostgreSQL database engines. Starting at preview, customers can use the service to build and deploy their applications using MySQL version 5.6/5.7 and PostgreSQL version 9.5/9.6 in 11 regions across US, Europe, Asia and Japan.
The relational database platform is built with the scalable Azure Compute and Azure Storage foundational services that powers over 90% of fortune 500 companies in over 38 global Azure regions. This platform is:
Intelligent: Built-in monitoring, advisors and performance tuning insights to help you get the most performance out of your database
Flexible: Predictable performance and on-demand scaling without application downtime
Trusted: Built-in high availability, security, audit with full resource isolation
MySQL and PostgreSQL databases are popular choices amongst open source developers to build and deploy applications be it – web, mobile, content management system (CMS), customer relationship management (CRM), business, or analytical applications. These developers can now choose their favorite database engines delivered as a managed service on Azure that seamlessly integrate with most common open source programming languages such as PHP, Python, Node.js, and application development frameworks such as WordPress, Magento, Drupal, Django, Ruby on Rails. Therefore, whether you want to build a website using MySQL database or want to quickly build and deploy a geospatial web or mobile app with PostgreSQL, you can now quickly get setup using the managed service capabilities offered by Azure. In addition, app developers can continue to use the familiar community tools to manage their MySQL or PostgreSQL databases. The Azure Database for MySQL and PostgreSQL improves application developer productivity by bringing the following common differentiated benefits of the relational database platform services to all applications:
- Provision database server in minutes with built-in high availability that does not require any configuration, VMs or setup.
- Predictable performance with provisioned resources and governance.
- Scale Compute Units up/down in response to actual or anticipated workload changes without application downtime.
- Built-in security to protect sensitive data by encrypting user data and backups as well as data in-motion using SSL encryption.
- Automatic backups with storage for recovery to any point up to 35 days.
- Consistent management experience with Azure Portal, Command Line Interface (CLI) or REST APIs.
All these benefits are offered in a simple and inclusive pay-as-you-go pricing. These benefits not just provide you MySQL and PostgreSQL database engine choices, but a complete platform for app development, data management, business analytics and intelligent apps – one that can be used in a consistent way across both on-premises and the cloud.
The Azure Database for MySQL and PostgreSQL offers flexible service tiers – Basic, Standard, Premium, each with the ability to flexibly scale compute (Compute Units) and storage independently. Developers can get started using the Basic service tier for small-scale, infrequently used apps with variable IOPS. The standard service tier offers a broad range of scaling options with provisioned IOPS and is designed to be the go-to option for most workloads. Over the course of preview, we will introduce the Premium tier which will deliver IO and memory-optimized instances with the lowest IO latency. The service allows users to dynamically scale performance up or down anytime without application downtime. At the announcement of the service in preview, the service can scale up to 800 compute units and up to 1 TB of storage. These scaling limits will continuously increase through the preview timeframe.
We have worked with many customers in beta to ensure these new database services deliver exactly what our developers are looking for. As a result of this collaboration, we’re excited to share what our customers have to say about these services:
- “The biggest benefit of Azure Database for MySQL will be to have Microsoft manage and backup that resource for us so that we can focus on other aspects of the site. Plus, we will have the ability to scale up and down temporarily as traffic surges and then bringing it back down when it is not needed. That’s a big deal for us.”–Kevin Lisota, Web Developer, GeekWire
- “Hosting PostgreSQL on Azure will enable us to scale seamlessly worldwide, and all the services that we need from a development standpoint are just a few clicks away. ”–Irakliy Khaburzaniya, Chief Executive Officer, Credo360
- “Rather than taking hours and hours to do something that isn’t primary to our business, we will use Azure Database for PostgreSQL so we can eliminate that busy work.”– Eric Spear, Chief Executive Officer of Higher Ed Profiles
- “The ability to mix Azure and our open source technologies is definitely a big advantage for us…. Moving the geospatial database from our datacenter to the Azure Database for PostgreSQL service will save us money, allow for much more scalability, and lower our support overhead.”– Andy Grigg, Enterprise Architect, Somerset County Council.
- “Using Azure for our websites has made the ability to communicate with parents a non-issue. For example, our staff used to panic about snow days, and now everybody has forgotten that they were ever a problem because the site stays up. Put simply, it’s a win for us.”–Matthew Williams, Systems Analyst, School District 42 Maple Ridge—Pitt Meadows
We’re excited to release these services – please go and try the MySQL and PostgreSQL service today! We are committed to building a portfolio of database technology that addresses your unique needs and fits your style. To learn more about each service independently, check out Sunil Kamath’s blog post on Azure Database for PostgreSQL and Jason Anderson’s blog post on Azure Database for MySQL. We look forward to your feedback on MySQL and PostgreSQL service.