Difference Between Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Managed Instances

Azure is a cloud platform which is used for services like virtual computing, storage networking etc. It provides with solutions that include Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). Both, Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Managed Instances supports automatic backup and have built-in license model. Let us see on what aspects they are different in the article.

Azure SQL Database

Azure SQL Database comes under the category of platform as a service (PaaS) database engine. It was developed in 2010 by Microsoft Corporation. Upgrading, patching, backups, and monitoring is handled in SQL Database without any human interference. It comes under the category of relational, NoSQL, and in-memory databases.

Features:

• Frequent Updates.
• Data-loss prevention.
• Security features such as – Vulnerability assessment, Threat detection, Data Encryption etc.

Advantages:

• It requires no physical hardware.
• It has variety of data options and is quite affordable.
• It provides flexibility in upgrading the plans.

Disadvantages:

• Confusion over database transaction units.
• There is no Windows authentication support.
• Linked servers are not supported.

Azure SQL Managed Instances

SQL Managed Instances is a cloud database service which fully functions as a Platform as a Service(PaaS). Azure SQL Managed Instances supports the connectivity through TCP protocol only and does nor support the connectivity through pipes.

Features:

• Control of flow language keywords.
• Online index operations
• Database Collation
• Partitioning

Advantages:

• It boosts productivity.
• It supports Cross Database Transactions.
• Linked Servers are supported with which distributed database can be operated.

Disadvantages:

• Time issues as the process takes more time to complete.
• There is a limit on the number of databases which cannot be changed.
• It does not support CLR.

Difference between Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Managed Instances

Parameters	Azure SQL Database	Azure SQL Managed Instances
Backup Commands	Automated backups are used.	Web browser tools are used for developing backup commands.
Auditing	One can not audit the SQL Database.	One can audit the Managed Instances.
Server Collation	It does not contain server collation.	It contains server collation.
CDC Support	CDC and S3 tier support is available.	This support is available.
CLR Support	It is supported.	It is not supported.
Cross Database Transactions	These are not possible.	These are possible.
Active Geo-replication	It is supported.	It is not supported.
Auto-Scale	It is only supported in serverless model.	It is not supported in Managed Instances.
Automatic Tuning	It is supported in SQL Database.	It is not supported.
Hyperscale Architecture	It is supported.	It is not supported.
SQL Server Profiler	It is not supported.	It is supported.
Linked servers	It is not supported.	It is supported.

Conclusion

There are many things which are similar in both. They both share the common code and also data management and query processing is also same. Both have their own pros and cons with their respective features.