1. Accounting for Azure in Your Data Architecture
PASS Data Architecture Virtual Chapter
Steve Hughes Practice Lead, Magenic
March 21, 2013

2. Agenda Quick Intro Data Storage Data Integrity Business Continuity
Wrap Up

3. Steve Hughes Principal Consultant with Magenic
Over 15 years with SQL Server
PASS Regional Mentor for US-NorthEast Region
Contact Info
Blog:

4. Data Storage Options Azure Storage Service Table (structured) Storage
Blob (unstructured) Storage
Azure SQL Database
SQL Server in the cloud
Relational Database
Azure HDInsight
Microsoft’s Hadoop Distribution in Azure
Big Data
Out of Scope for Today

5. Azure Storage Service – Table Service
Essentially NoSQL database
Structured data
Non-relational
No support for joins
Total Account Storage: 100TB
OData and LINQ support
URL Format: Account>>.table.core.windows.net/<<Table>>
Storage Account
Table
Entity
Steve
Books
ISBN=“”
Title=“”
Author=“”
Movies
YearReleased=“”

6. Azure Storage Service – Blob Service
Unstructured Storage
Pictures
Files
VM images
Blobs can be over 100GB
Storage capacity of 100TB
HTTP or HTTPS access to data
URL Format: Account>>.blob.core.windows.net/<<Container>>/<<Blob>>
Storage Account
Container
Blob
Steve
Pictures
IMAGE001.JPG
IMAGE002.JPG
TextFiles
NameList.CSV

7. Azure SQL Database Relational data storage
SQL Server as a Service (Platform as a Service)
“5 Minute Setup time”
From create server to functional database
Develop online, with SSMS, or with Visual Studio – SQL Server Data Tools
LCD Database Development

8. Data Storage Costs Azure Storage Service
1 TB, Geo Redundant ~ $100/month
1 TB, Locally Redundant ~$75/month
1 million transactions $0.10/month
Azure SQL Database
100 GB ~$175/month
100 GB outbound data ~$12/month
Inbound data is free

9. Pick the Best Storage Type for Your Data
Table Storage
Structured
Non relational
Key Value Pairs
Low Cost
Blob Storage
Unstructured
Images, Files
SQL Database
Relational
Higher Cost

10. Data Integrity Considerations
Cloud services will fail, plan for it
Types of Issues
Loss of connectivity
Transient faults
Time outs
Resiliency patterns are a must

11. Sidebar: Performance in Azure
Caching Is Required
For Good Performance

12. Business Continuity High Availability
All storage options have high availability built in
Multiple copies within each data center
Disaster Recovery
Duplicate environment
Backup on SQL Database
BACPAC with SQL Database copied to Blob Storage
Database copy
99.9% uptime
Take note of outages
How does it really compare to what you have today?

13. Other Data Tools to Consider in Azure
Windows Azure SQL Data Sync
Used to synchronize data between Azure SQL Databases or to on-premise databases
Currently in Preview
Windows Azure Virtual Machines
Can host SQL Server with data files on blob storage
SQL Reporting
Still too expensive for simple use - ~$120/month entry level
Supports RDL, similar to SSRS native reporting

14. Resources and Q&A Resiliency and Design Patterns
Brent Stineman’s Blog
Azure storage:
SQL Azure:
Caching:
Azure Storage Explorer:
SQL Database Backup and Restore: