General availability: Azure SQL Database elastic pools

Azure SQL Database elastic pools are ideally suited for SaaS and line-of-business applications that need the performance, availability, and security isolation benefits of provisioning one database for each tenant or application. Each elastic database in the pool gets the resources it needs when it needs them, which eliminates the complexity of managing individual database performance. Elastic pools provide the best price performance for a group of databases while delivering performance elasticity for each database. Elastic pool features include:

• Autoscaling you control: Pools automatically scale performance and storage capacity for elastic databases on the fly. You can control the performance assigned to a pool, add or remove elastic databases on demand, and define performance of elastic databases without affecting the overall cost of the pool. For more information, please visit the When should an elastic database pool be used? documentation page.
• Intelligent management of your environment: Built-in sizing recommendations proactively identify databases that would benefit from pools and allow “what-if” analysis for quick optimization to meet your performance goals. Rich performance monitoring and troubleshooting dashboards help you visualize historical pool utilization. For more information, please visit the Monitor and manage an elastic database pool with the Azure portal documentation page.
• Performance and price that meet your needs: Basic, Standard, and Premium pools offer a broad spectrum of performance, storage, and pricing options. Pools can contain up to 400 elastic databases. Elastic databases can autoscale up to 1,000 elastic database transaction units (eDTUs).

Please note that in a few regions, elastic pools will remain in public preview for a limited time. For a list of these regions, please visit the SQL Database pricing page. For more information on elastic pools, please visit the What is an Azure elastic database pool? documentation page, the Azure blog, and the Elastic databases helps SaaS developers tame explosive growth video.