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  1. Stackups
  2. Application & Data
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  4. Databases
  5. Azure SQL Database vs Oracle

Azure SQL Database vs Oracle

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Oracle
Oracle
Stacks2.6K
Followers1.8K
Votes113
Azure SQL Database
Azure SQL Database
Stacks585
Followers502
Votes13

Azure SQL Database vs Oracle: What are the differences?

Introduction

In this article, we will discuss the key differences between Azure SQL Database and Oracle. Azure SQL Database is a managed cloud service provided by Microsoft, while Oracle is a widely used relational database management system. Below are the key differences between these two platforms.

  1. Scalability: One major difference between Azure SQL Database and Oracle is scalability. Azure SQL Database offers elastic scalability, allowing you to easily adjust the resources allocated to your database based on demand. With a few clicks or automated scaling rules, you can dynamically increase or decrease the database resources. On the other hand, Oracle requires manual intervention for scaling and requires additional hardware resources.

  2. Pricing model: Azure SQL Database follows a fully managed, pay-as-you-go pricing model. You are charged based on the resources consumed by your database and have the flexibility to choose between different pricing tiers based on your needs. Oracle, on the other hand, follows a traditional licensing model where you need to purchase licenses based on the number of cores or users, which can be more complex and costly.

  3. High availability: Azure SQL Database offers built-in high availability, ensuring that your database is always accessible. It utilizes redundant copies of your data across different fault domains, providing automatic failover in case of any failures. Oracle also offers high availability features but requires additional configuration and setup, which can be more complex.

  4. Backup and restore: Azure SQL Database provides automated backups and point-in-time restore capabilities. It takes regular backups of your database and allows you to restore it to any point within a specific time period. Oracle also provides backup and restore features but requires manual setup and management of backups.

  5. Security: Azure SQL Database offers various security features, including built-in threat detection, firewall rules, and encryption at rest and in transit. It also has advanced security capabilities like dynamic data masking and row-level security. Oracle also provides similar security features but may require additional configuration and setup.

  6. Development and deployment: Azure SQL Database provides seamless integration with other Azure services and supports modern development practices like DevOps and CI/CD pipelines. It also supports platform as a service (PaaS) deployment model. On the other hand, Oracle has been traditionally used in on-premises environments and may require more effort for integration with other cloud services and modern deployment practices.

In summary, Azure SQL Database and Oracle differ in terms of scalability, pricing model, high availability, backup and restore capabilities, security features, and development and deployment options. Each platform has its strengths and considerations, and the choice depends on specific requirements and preferences.

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Advice on Oracle, Azure SQL Database

Daniel
Daniel

Data Engineer at Dimensigon

Jul 18, 2020

Decided

We have chosen Tibero over Oracle because we want to offer a PL/SQL-as-a-Service that the users can deploy in any Cloud without concerns from our website at some standard cost. With Oracle Database, developers would have to worry about what they implement and the related costs of each feature but the licensing model from Tibero is just 1 price and we have all features included, so we don't have to worry and developers using our SQLaaS neither. PostgreSQL would be open source. We have chosen Tibero over Oracle because we want to offer a PL/SQL that you can deploy in any Cloud without concerns. PostgreSQL would be the open source option but we need to offer an SQLaaS with encryption and more enterprise features in the background and best value option we have found, it was Tibero Database for PL/SQL-based applications.

495k views495k
Comments
Abigail
Abigail

Dec 6, 2019

Decided

In the field of bioinformatics, we regularly work with hierarchical and unstructured document data. Unstructured text data from PDFs, image data from radiographs, phylogenetic trees and cladograms, network graphs, streaming ECG data... none of it fits into a traditional SQL database particularly well. As such, we prefer to use document oriented databases.

MongoDB is probably the oldest component in our stack besides Javascript, having been in it for over 5 years. At the time, we were looking for a technology that could simply cache our data visualization state (stored in JSON) in a database as-is without any destructive normalization. MongoDB was the perfect tool; and has been exceeding expectations ever since.

Trivia fact: some of the earliest electronic medical records (EMRs) used a document oriented database called MUMPS as early as the 1960s, prior to the invention of SQL. MUMPS is still in use today in systems like Epic and VistA, and stores upwards of 40% of all medical records at hospitals. So, we saw MongoDB as something as a 21st century version of the MUMPS database.

540k views540k
Comments
Abigail
Abigail

Dec 10, 2019

Decided

We wanted a JSON datastore that could save the state of our bioinformatics visualizations without destructive normalization. As a leading NoSQL data storage technology, MongoDB has been a perfect fit for our needs. Plus it's open source, and has an enterprise SLA scale-out path, with support of hosted solutions like Atlas. Mongo has been an absolute champ. So much so that SQL and Oracle have begun shipping JSON column types as a new feature for their databases. And when Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) announced support for JSON, we basically had our FHIR datalake technology.

558k views558k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

Oracle
Oracle
Azure SQL Database
Azure SQL Database

Oracle Database is an RDBMS. An RDBMS that implements object-oriented features such as user-defined types, inheritance, and polymorphism is called an object-relational database management system (ORDBMS). Oracle Database has extended the relational model to an object-relational model, making it possible to store complex business models in a relational database.

It is the intelligent, scalable, cloud database service that provides the broadest SQL Server engine compatibility and up to a 212% return on investment. It is a database service that can quickly and efficiently scale to meet demand, is automatically highly available, and supports a variety of third party software.

Statistics
Stacks
2.6K
Stacks
585
Followers
1.8K
Followers
502
Votes
113
Votes
13
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 44
    Reliable
  • 33
    Enterprise
  • 15
    High Availability
  • 5
    Expensive
  • 5
    Hard to maintain
Cons
  • 14
    Expensive
Pros
  • 6
    Managed
  • 4
    Secure
  • 3
    Scalable

What are some alternatives to Oracle, Azure SQL Database?

MongoDB

MongoDB

MongoDB stores data in JSON-like documents that can vary in structure, offering a dynamic, flexible schema. MongoDB was also designed for high availability and scalability, with built-in replication and auto-sharding.

MySQL

MySQL

The MySQL software delivers a very fast, multi-threaded, multi-user, and robust SQL (Structured Query Language) database server. MySQL Server is intended for mission-critical, heavy-load production systems as well as for embedding into mass-deployed software.

PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL is an advanced object-relational database management system that supports an extended subset of the SQL standard, including transactions, foreign keys, subqueries, triggers, user-defined types and functions.

Amazon RDS

Amazon RDS

Amazon RDS gives you access to the capabilities of a familiar MySQL, Oracle or Microsoft SQL Server database engine. This means that the code, applications, and tools you already use today with your existing databases can be used with Amazon RDS. Amazon RDS automatically patches the database software and backs up your database, storing the backups for a user-defined retention period and enabling point-in-time recovery. You benefit from the flexibility of being able to scale the compute resources or storage capacity associated with your Database Instance (DB Instance) via a single API call.

Microsoft SQL Server

Microsoft SQL Server

Microsoft® SQL Server is a database management and analysis system for e-commerce, line-of-business, and data warehousing solutions.

SQLite

SQLite

SQLite is an embedded SQL database engine. Unlike most other SQL databases, SQLite does not have a separate server process. SQLite reads and writes directly to ordinary disk files. A complete SQL database with multiple tables, indices, triggers, and views, is contained in a single disk file.

Cassandra

Cassandra

Partitioning means that Cassandra can distribute your data across multiple machines in an application-transparent matter. Cassandra will automatically repartition as machines are added and removed from the cluster. Row store means that like relational databases, Cassandra organizes data by rows and columns. The Cassandra Query Language (CQL) is a close relative of SQL.

Memcached

Memcached

Memcached is an in-memory key-value store for small chunks of arbitrary data (strings, objects) from results of database calls, API calls, or page rendering.

MariaDB

MariaDB

Started by core members of the original MySQL team, MariaDB actively works with outside developers to deliver the most featureful, stable, and sanely licensed open SQL server in the industry. MariaDB is designed as a drop-in replacement of MySQL(R) with more features, new storage engines, fewer bugs, and better performance.

RethinkDB

RethinkDB

RethinkDB is built to store JSON documents, and scale to multiple machines with very little effort. It has a pleasant query language that supports really useful queries like table joins and group by, and is easy to setup and learn.

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