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Azure

Azure SQL Managed Instance

Modernize SQL Server applications with a managed, always-up-to-date SQL instance in the cloud.
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OVERVIEW

Easily migrate your SQL Server apps to the cloud

Part of the Azure SQL family, SQL Managed Instance is an intelligent cloud database service combining the broadest SQL Server engine compatibility (back to SQL Server 2008) with the benefits of a fully managed, up-to-date platform as a service. With your successful assessment on Azure Migrate or Azure Data Studio, confidently modernize your custom and vendor-provided apps to Azure.
  • Stop worrying about updates, upgrades, or end of support. SQL Managed Instance is built on the SQL Server engine, so it's always up to date with the latest SQL features and functionality.
  • Meet your mission-critical requirements up to five times faster while paying up to 93 percent less than AWS RDS.1 Learn how SQL Managed Instance outperformed across three different benchmarks, spanning transactional and analytics workloads.
  • Accelerate application modernization with the latest managed SQL Server capabilities in the cloud. Keep using familiar tools and SQL Server features like cross-database queries, linked server, and support for Windows authentication with an entire SQL Server instance within a managed service. Move your custom and vendor-provided apps without worrying about compatibility or performance changes—SQL Managed Instance maintains the highest SQL Server compatibility levels.
  • Boost productivity and operate more efficiently by letting the fully managed service perform time-consuming and complex tasks on your behalf. Take advantage of built-in high availability, accelerated database recovery, and automated backups to help ensure that your data is available when you need it, and use AI-powered automatic tuning to optimize performance. Get the best of SQL Server with the financial and operational benefits of a platform as a service.
  • Achieve isolation at both the compute level and the network level. Ensure that your instances and databases don't share virtual machines with other customers. Keep workloads fully contained within a secure native virtual network, and get the benefits of the public cloud while remaining isolated from the public internet.
FEATURES

Maximize performance, cost, and data security

Broad SQL Server engine compatibility

Accelerate modernization to Azure with the broadest SQL Server engine compatibility.
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Savings of up to 55 percent

Save up to 55 percent compared to pay-as-you-go pricing when applying Azure Hybrid Benefit to your SQL Server licenses.2
Learn more

Hybrid flexibility

Bring cloud connectivity and Azure innovation on premises with the link feature and Azure Arc–enabled data services.
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Secure your data

Safeguard your data with layers of protection, intelligent threat detection, and native virtual network support.
Learn more
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PRICING

Pricing for the always-up-to-date SQL instance in the cloud

Explore pricing options and find the one that fits your workload.
See SQL Managed Instance pricing
Security

Embedded security and compliance

34,000
Full-time equivalent engineers dedicated to security initiatives at Microsoft.
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15,000 
Partners with specialized security expertise.
 
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>100
Compliance certifications, including over 50 specific to global regions and countries.
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Learn more about security on Azure
Apps

Migrate to Azure SQL Managed Instance and confidently use your apps

Explore Microsoft partners that offer certified apps for SQL Managed Instance.
Browse apps on Azure Marketplace
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CUSTOMER STORIES

Trusted by companies of all sizes

  1. Logo of Descartes with a stylized sail-like icon above the letter 'A'.
  2. Logo of Wolters Kluwer featuring a multicolored grid icon next to the company name.
  3. A green and white sign with the letters MCS.
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Logo of Descartes with a stylized sail-like icon above the letter 'A'.
“With Azure, we have the flexibility to quickly scale up resources as needed with just the click of a few buttons.”
Raimond Diederik, Executive Vice President of Information Services, Descartes
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Logo of Wolters Kluwer featuring a multicolored grid icon next to the company name.
“Azure SQL Managed Instance strikes the right balance by providing an agile and scalable solution, while allowing us to rapidly deploy a highly available and geographically redundant solution at scale.”
Terence Danker, Principal Enterprise Architect, Architecture & Engineering Services (AES), Global Business Services, Wolters Kluwer
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A green and white sign with the letters MCS.
“We used Azure to meet our business goals for a more flexible database, more operational efficiency, and improved ability to deliver the healthcare information our customers need as quickly as they deserve.”
Sigfredo García Irizarry, Assistant Executive Vice President of IT Administration, MCS
Back to CUSTOMER STORIES section
RESOURCES

SQL Managed Instance resources

  1.
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Guide

SQL Server migration

Learn how to migrate your SQL Server databases to SQL Managed Instance with this comprehensive guide.
Read the guide
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E-book

Professional Azure SQL Managed Database Administration

Download this e-book to get expert tips and best practices for managing your SQL Managed Instance.
Download the e-book
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Report

The Economic Value of Migrating On-Premises SQL Server Instances to Azure SQL Solutions

Read this report to understand the economic benefits of migrating your on-premises SQL Server instances to SQL Managed Instance.
Read the report
Back to RESOURCES - Analyst reports tab section
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Frequently asked questions

  • When you migrate from SQL Server to SQL Managed Instance, you want to be sure your apps will run in the cloud without the need to make any changes. Having a higher degree of SQL Server engine compatibility means less refactoring and one less thing to worry about. The degree of compatibility is controlled by database compatibility levels, and SQL Managed Instance is set to the highest compatibility level by default, which is on par with the latest version of the SQL Server engine. In fact, SQL Managed Instance was built on the SQL Server 2016 engine, making it compatible with SQL Server engines ever since. A commitment to not retire older SQL Server engine code also makes SQL Managed Instance backward-compatible with SQL Server engines dating to 2008. Before migrating to SQL Managed Instance, use Azure Migrate or Azure Data Studio to conduct a comprehensive assessment of your data estate to confirm that your databases are ready for the cloud.
  • See the list of supported features. For differences in syntax and behavior between SQL Managed Instance and on-premises SQL Server, see T-SQL differences.
  • Learn about Microsoft service updates and new features in Windows 10 version 21H1.
  • SQL Managed Instance offers the same performance levels per compute and storage size as SQL Database. If you want to consolidate data on a single instance or you simply need a feature supported exclusively in SQL Managed Instance, migrate your data by using export and import (BACPAC) functionality.
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Next steps

Choose the Azure account that’s right for you

Pay as you go or try Azure free for up to 30 days.
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Azure solutions

Azure cloud solutions

Solve your business problems with proven combinations of Azure cloud services, as well as sample architectures and documentation.
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Business Solutions Hub

Find the right Microsoft Cloud solution

Browse the Microsoft Business Solutions Hub to find the products and solutions that can help your organization reach its goals.
Explore Microsoft solutions
  1. [1]
    Price–performance claims based on data from a study commissioned by Microsoft and conducted by Principled Technologies in April 2022. The study compared performance and price performance between a 16 vCore, 64 vCore and 80 vCore Azure SQL Managed Instance using premium-series hardware on the business-critical service tier and the db.m6i.32xlarge, db.r5b.4xlarge and db.r5b.16xlarge offerings for Amazon Web Services Relational Database Service (AWS RDS) on SQL Server. Benchmark data is taken from a Principled Technologies report using recognized standards, HammerDB TPROC-C, HammerDB TPROC-H and Microsoft MSOLTPE, a workload derived from TPC-E. The MSOLTPE is derived from the TPC-E benchmark and as such is not comparable to published TPC-E results, as MSOLTPE results do not comply with the TPC-E Specification. The results are based on a mixture of read-only and update-intensive transactions that simulate activities found in complex OLTP and analytics application environments. Price–performance is calculated by Principled Technologies as the cost of running the cloud platform continuously divided by transactions per minute or per second throughput, based upon the standard. Prices are based on publicly available US pricing in South Central US for Azure SQL Managed Instance and US East for AWS RDS as of April 2022 and incorporates Azure Hybrid Benefit for SQL Server, excluding Software Assurance and support costs. Performance and price–performance results are based upon the configurations detailed in the Principled Technologies report.
  2. [2]
    Savings based on eight vCore Managed Instance Business Critical in East US Region, running 730 hours per month. Savings are calculated from full price (license included) against base rate (applying Azure Hybrid Benefit for SQL Server), which excludes Software Assurance cost for SQL Server Enterprise edition, which may vary based on EA agreement. Actual savings may vary based on region, instance size, and performance tier. Prices as of May 2022, subject to change.