Azure SQL is a modern SQL platform that provides simple discovery, creation, and management by unifying SQL Server offerings in Azure. In this platform, you will see an overview of all Azure SQL offerings along with a guided create experience. You will also have a centralized management view of all your resources within the Azure SQL family. This view includes database resources (single databases, elastic pools, and database servers), managed instances, and SQL virtual machines.

Azure SQL helps you choose a database that is right for you. You can quickly identify the right resource based on your application needs with a simple, guided create experience. You can quickly navigate to and manage any of your SQL resources by searching or filtering on any available resource characteristic. SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines is now a first-class member of the Azure SQL family offering a suite of manageability features greatly enhancing the traditional IaaS experience. From lift-and-shift migrations to modernization of existing applications, to building modern cloud services, Azure SQL is the best and most economical cloud destination for your SQL Server workloads.

A centralized view of your SQL resources

The unified entry point serves as a centralized view for managing all Azure SQL resources. In this view you can find all the resources encompassed in the Azure SQL family.

A guided approach to creating SQL resources

The unified create experience offers an overview of our Azure SQL offerings and guidance on which resource is right for you based on your application profile and its needs. Details include the scenarios each SQL option best targets (i.e. migration to the cloud), a high-level description of what each resource type offers (i.e. great for SaaS applications), and the key capabilities offered (i.e. Hyperscale storage). You can understand all your options and feel confident that you are creating the right resource for your needs.

This experience also provides a streamlined way to find the SQL virtual machine image you want with a categorized, keyword-searchable list of all 60+ available images. This offers a simpler alternative to searching for your desired SQL VM image among the many hundreds of images offered in the Compute category of Azure Marketplace.

SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines

We are excited to add SQL Server on Azure VMs as a first-class member of the Azure SQL family. This new SQL virtual machine resource provides dedicated, easy access to the manageability features we offer. This SQL VM resource will also be the home of any new manageability features we develop in the future.

Any users of SQL Server in Azure VMs can take advantage of these management features. This includes those using self-installed custom SQL Server images who can access this experience by registering your VM with the SQL VM Resource Provider.

Looking to the future

In this first release we lay the foundation of our unified database platform and we make a commitment to unity and consistency across this platform. We plan on making several significant advancements built on top of this foundation in the future. For instance, the centralized management view gives us a future home to surface manageability features that can be configured across the entire family of resources for a truly scalable experience. Keep an eye out for new scalable manageability features, platform advancements, and new manageability features for SQL VMs.

Check it out now!

You can check out this new experience today, starting with the centralized management hub. If you are new to Azure, you can start now with a free trial. You can also view a demo of this experience in this video or read more about our entire offering to learn more.

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