Azure SQL Managed Instance Reviews

I work with Azure SQL Managed Instance, which is a managed instance. Azure SQL Managed Instance is basically a single database and is a fully managed isolated database. There is also an elastic pool in it, which is a single collection of databases that share a set of resources like CPU and memory. Regarding the different features, it has independent selection of compute or compute tiers like the provisioned one. In terms of service tier, it can be used for general purpose, business critical, as well as Hyperscale up to 128 terabytes. Regarding the advantages, it is highly available. It also has multimodal flexibility. We can store and process JSON, XML, graph, spatial, and vector databases for AI use. It has built-in intelligence which is used for automatic performance tuning and advanced security including Microsoft Entra ID for authentication, vulnerability management, and more.

The most important thing about Azure SQL Managed Instance, which I appreciate, is its serverless compute. It has cost efficiency and massive scalability. It also has elastic pools and Hyperscale tier. Regarding built-in security and high availability, it is 99.9% available. It has AI-driven security and advanced encryption. It has always encrypted, which keeps our sensitive data protected in transit as well as at rest. Even during memory query processing, all our data is encrypted. Regarding performance intelligence, it has automatic tuning, so it automatically creates the missing indexes. It has no infrastructure management, as PaaS services have zero touch maintenance. It also has automated backups.

I have integrated it with other Azure services, including Entra ID, as Azure SQL Managed Instance natively integrates with the Azure ecosystem because of its foundational cloud services. It has AI and machine learning integration, event-driven and serverless computing, and analytics and big data integrations. It also has identity and management integration for Entra ID and more.

Azure SQL Managed Instance is a fully managed isolated database with an elastic pool, which is a single collection of databases that share a set of resources like CPU and memory. Regarding the different features, it has independent selection of compute or compute tiers such as the provisioned one. In terms of service tier, it can be used for general purpose, business critical, as well as Hyperscale up to 128 terabytes. Regarding the advantages, it is highly available. It also has multimodal flexibility. We can store and process JSON, XML, graph, spatial, and vector databases for AI use. It has built-in intelligence which is used for automatic performance tuning.

The most important aspect of Azure SQL Managed Instance for me is its serverless compute. It has cost efficiency and massive scalability. It also has elastic pools and Hyperscale tier. Regarding built-in security and high availability, it is 99.9% available. It has AI-driven security and advanced encryption. It has always encrypted, which keeps our sensitive data protected in transit as well as at rest. Even during memory query processing, all our data is encrypted. Regarding performance intelligence, it has automatic tuning, so it automatically creates the missing indexes. It has no infrastructure management, as PaaS services have zero touch maintenance. It also has automated backups.

I have integrated it with other Azure services, including Entra ID, as Azure SQL Managed Instance natively integrates with the Azure ecosystem because of its foundational cloud services. It has AI and machine learning integration, event-driven and serverless computing, and analytics and big data integrations. It also has identity and management integration for Entra ID and more.

Regarding Azure SQL Managed Instance, I would like to see improvements in AI capabilities. If we want to utilize AI features, we need to provide the resources and offer instructions to receive proper answers. If that could be improved, it would yield many benefits. Additionally, performance and compute skills should be enhanced, security upgraded, automation backed, and more productivity tools developed for real-time architecture and tooling.

Currently, AI is booming, and I think features that enhance scalability and performance are essential. First, I believe there should be good scalability and architecture. The second aspect pertains to an agentic environment such as GitHub Copilot agent mode, web portal query editor, or Terraform coverage. Finally, security should also be a focus, particularly regarding event streaming transitions.

I have been working with Azure SQL Managed Instance for almost one year.

For the stability of Azure SQL Managed Instance, I would rate it as eight out of ten.

In terms of scalability, I would give a rating of ten out of ten.

I used AWS about three to four years ago, but I have not worked much with it since then.

In comparing Azure and AWS, I personally prefer Azure because of its features. The main difference is that Azure's SQL database is pure PaaS, while AWS is more about managed infrastructure. Azure supports storage up to almost 128 to 130 terabytes, while AWS has only 64 terabytes. In terms of compute tiers, Azure provides both provisioned and serverless options, while AWS has its provisioned and V2 models. On AI features, Azure has deep integration via the T-Tool, but AWS utilizes bedrock extensions. Although I do not see too many differences, I prefer Azure.

The initial setup process for Azure is user-friendly. When I access its setup page, Azure appears to be more straightforward and friendly compared to AWS. Additionally, Azure is less expensive than AWS. While AWS has advantages in multi-engine freedom and ecosystem maturity, I prefer Azure due to its cost benefits and features. It has elastic pools for multi-tenancy, presenting its own advantages and disadvantages.

I set up the Azure environment by myself. When I was learning Azure, I built various projects and set up everything personally by following Udemy courses. After joining the company, I found they had already set up everything.

I find Azure SQL Managed Instance cost-effective, evidenced by significant ROI. It offers many advantages, including substantial reductions in hardware requirements. We do not have to pay extra for software over-provisioning because Azure SQL is serverless and elastic pool configuration allows us to pay only for the precise usage on a second-by-second basis. Regarding labor reallocation, there is approximately 30 to 40 percent productivity gain from reallocating labor. It also mitigates risks and prevents downtime. Therefore, it has considerable ROI along with automatic security redemptions.

The pricing aspect is provided by my company, so I do not have much information. However, I know it is approximately five dollars per month for the basic tier, fifteen dollars per month for the standard tier, and around five hundred dollars per month for the premium one. I am not very certain as it is administered by my company.

If asked for advice, I recommend going with Azure SQL Managed Instance over AWS. I suggest Azure because of its hybrid benefits. Upon initial registration, it offers approximately 150 to 200 dollars in credits. Azure also provides a built-in multi-tenant structure with elastic pools, AI embedding integrations, and does not upgrade regularly, which contributes to its stability. Overall, I would rate Azure SQL Managed Instance as nine out of ten, primarily due to its ongoing development and upgrades related to AI integration.

If you have an application that will probably require a database engine or database solution like SQL, and probably your solution is being deployed within Azure environment, there's no need of creating a new server, probably a server instances, such as a virtual machine within your Azure environment, and then probably install or start installing a new SQL on it.

It is a little bit cumbersome when it comes to manageability. You don't need to, you have to take the headache off yourself because Microsoft has a complete solution already, which is Azure SQL Managed Instance, within the Azure infrastructure, whereby you can deploy your SQL instances and then point your solution to it and then it's scalable.

You can start small and then grow big later. It has a lot of advantages. You don't need to worry about the security, you don't need to worry about the patching. Microsoft does that for you. At the same time, you don't really need to worry about the licensing because for instance, if you have a license assurance, you can bring in your license to that environment to reduce the cost.

I have been working with automated backups in Azure SQL Managed Instance. Once the instance is being provisioned, I immediately enable the backup on it and then I've been using Azure Backup automation for so many years, which covers both Azure virtual machine, SQL instances and some other solutions within the Azure environment. It is a kind of automation that is very easy to use and then it's going to take care of your environment.

Let's say for instance, when it comes to the restore, restoration, probably there's a problem or probably you want to do a kind of restore test. The solution is very, very good. It's capable of doing that because I still remember I've done a lot of restoration within the infrastructure on several occasions. I'm also doing something else too within the environment. I can restore to another geo-location within the Azure environment as well.

Let's say for instance, my infrastructure is being provisioned within the West Europe and I want to do a kind of restoration to another geographical location, I can do that.

I am working with multi-layered security features in the Azure environment. The company has different departments, the infrastructure team, the IT security teams and then the database team itself. We have some set of people that manage the entire database. My own responsibility is to make it available, provision it, make it available, give access to the database guys and their application guys to work with.

When it comes to security, I have my own side of it, while the database guys also have their own side of it, especially when you are talking about the database. It is a shared responsibility. I'm not the only one handling that. We run vulnerability checks on a regular basis, on a quarterly basis, to see if there's anything that we need to probably close within the infrastructure.

In terms of capability, Azure SQL Managed Instance is capable of doing so many things. Most especially, even though if your application is sitting on a VM or probably on-prem server. Azure SQL Managed Instance has the capability to be integrated with it.

Let's say for instance, you do want to have an existing application server within on-prem or within an Azure VM, virtual machine server, and you want to integrate it together with Azure SQL Managed Instance, it has the capability to do that for you.

It's one of the major benefits to be precise because for instance, if you have your virtual machine and then you have your SQL installed on it, it means that virtual machine must be patched on a monthly basis. The SQL must be patched on a monthly basis as well. You have to think about the SQL admin database, database admin password, because if that has been compromised, there will be a problem. But if you are using SQL instances within Azure environment, you don't need to bother yourself on that. The access to that environment is going to be a kind of Active Directory access. It is highly secure.

For starting, Azure SQL Managed Instance is a little bit affordable, but at the long run, you pay more. Majorly, I use Active Directory as the access management. I use Active Directory as a security measure. If you don't have Active Directory account, you cannot log in.

Azure SQL Managed Instance does not require any installation. Just provision it. It's an IT service within Azure environment. Azure SQL Managed Instance is very scalable. In terms of stability, Azure SQL Managed Instance is 99.9% stable.

The only red flag I could point out is you don't have 100% control of your data. You don't have 100% control of that particular server because it is Microsoft that has access to it. For instance, if you are working with a government organization that doesn't want their data to be resided outside the country, it will not work. You cannot use it because there's no way the data is going to be resided somewhere outside a particular country.

Let's say for instance, I'm having an engagement with a Lagos state government with a particular product that need to be deployed and then I can never propose such kind of environment for them because Lagos state will never allow their data to be resided elsewhere except within their data center. In that case, you can't use it.

Technology evolves every day and then as technology moves, I move as well. Currently, with what I'm seeing on Azure SQL Managed Instance, it's somewhat perfect, but they still need to do more.

But if I'm going to probably figure out what could be the added features within the environment, maybe probably the SA admin should be released to the users within the SQL infrastructure team, SQL team, that is the database team members. Because currently, nobody has access to the SQL admin. The SA admin is one of the greatest accounts. Although Microsoft put a provision for that, your Active Directory account can perform the same function that SA admin can do, because you're not running the SQL within your own VM or physical server. Microsoft controls that. Aside from that, because to me, I don't even see it as a problem because there's a provision for that. In the absence of that SA admin, your Active Directory account can be probably elevated to perform the same function. I don't see anything that's probably against it.

I'm still working on Microsoft Azure SQL Managed Instance.

I'm very, very happy with the technical service from Microsoft, but once in a while, you always face some challenges and I believe the challenges are not coming from Microsoft itself. It's always coming from the partner that handles it.

At times, in some cases, if you raise a ticket, the ticket goes to the tech experts. Some of the tech expert guys keep delaying most of those requests. In some cases, I end up resolving the issue myself because you can't wait. Although I've had some complaint with Microsoft when it comes to that. At a point, I don't route my tickets to tech expert anymore.

There's always ROI, especially it depends on the use case. There's always a return on investment when it comes to SQL instance within Azure. The reason behind that is that it's very hard for your database to be hacked. You might be probably careless if you are running it within your own infrastructure, maybe probably an attacker comes in and then they jeopardize everything you've been working on.

But for you to have it within Azure environment, because of the security features, because of access, and then access that you have within it, is very hard for external people to come in and then probably tamper with your data. It's highly secure. In terms of security, I give it to it. I can tell you categorically that the ROI, the return on investment is very, very high and it's very commendable.

I'm an integrator. My company consumes the solution within the product.

Integration is quite straightforward. Let's say for instance, within the Azure environment, I have some application being built with Power Apps because my company consumes Power Apps very well. The application teams are the ones using the Power Apps and then the Power Apps is being integrated with Azure SQL Managed Instance.

The integration is very good. There was no problem. They have never complained to me that they have any issue.

My environment is actually a hybrid environment. I have on-prem servers, I have some servers within Azure and then I also have an SQL instances as well being provisioned within the Azure environment. All these database servers communicate within one another and then in terms of replication of data, it's quite good. There is no problem. We are very good. It's fantastic.

The only red flag I could point out is you don't have 100% control of your data. You don't have 100% control of that particular server because it is Microsoft that has access to it. If you are working with a government organization that doesn't want their data to be resided outside the country, it will not work. You cannot use it because there's no way the data is going to be resided somewhere outside a particular country.

Let's say for instance, I'm having an engagement with a Lagos state government with a particular product that needs to be deployed and then I can never propose such kind of environment for them because Lagos state will never allow their data to be resided elsewhere except within their data center. In that case, you can't use it. This is basically the major concern that I see with the product.

I have given this product an overall rating of eight out of ten.

My main use case for Azure SQL Managed Instance is for storing information related to insurance and claims in the staging database to avoid using Dataverse because it is more expensive.

I use Azure SQL Managed Instance to store claim information, which allows me to save the data there. Typically, I have a retention period of 30 days in my own Dataverse. Once the data is moved from Dataverse to Azure SQL Managed Instance, I immediately delete that data from Dataverse. The retention period in Azure SQL Managed Instance is eight years, and I display that data on Dataverse by using the OData API in the virtual table.

The best features Azure SQL Managed Instance offers, in my opinion, are scalability, security, database size, and costing. It is much cheaper than Dataverse storage and other competitor products.

Cost stands out to me most among scalability, security, database size, and cost. I have found the security features in Azure SQL Managed Instance to be robust and effective in my experience.

Azure SQL Managed Instance has positively impacted my organization by reducing a significant impact on our budgeting for the financial year.

Azure SQL Managed Instance can be improved by adding more scalability options.

I need to have more flexibility in terms of scalability with Azure SQL Managed Instance. In sizing, I need some options available so that it can be scaled up or scaled down based upon my requirements.

I have been using Azure SQL Managed Instance for the last three years, but at this location I have been using it for the last one year.

I have been able to save somewhere close to 45% in cost since using Azure SQL Managed Instance.

My advice for others looking into using Azure SQL Managed Instance is that if they have some SaaS applications such as Dataverse or any other SaaS applications like BPM or ServiceNow, wherein their SaaS application-based database has higher costs incurred to it, they should definitely select Azure SQL Managed Instance so that they can save on keeping the data there. Organizations often have a larger retention period; for instance, in the insurance domain, you have a retention period set to eight years for any record saved within the SaaS application. With those kinds of retention periods, you need to ensure that it is in a cheaper storage option, yet it should be a robust storage option.

Security-wise, Azure SQL Managed Instance is absolutely robust, and governance-wise, the manageability of Azure SQL Managed Instance is very good. You can manage it from a console as well as from user interfaces. I am not aware of the AI capability as I have not yet explored it, so I cannot comment on that.

I don't have any experience working with Azure SQL Managed Instance's AI capability regarding its accuracy and reliability of output. I would rate this review an 8 overall.

My main use case for Azure SQL Managed Instance is to obtain a PaaS solution for SQL for different projects where we need SQL capabilities, but where we do not want to manage ourselves and spend time and resources on performing the low-level task maintenance of a SQL server.

I have had several projects with different requirements. For example, I stored security data about users and the SQL database, as well as product information that will be retrievable by different companies using the product. These are mainly typical SQL use case scenarios.

In my opinion, the best features Azure SQL Managed Instance offers are the native SQL server capability, the ability to integrate with VNets, which restricts it to company or product usage, built-in high availability, automated patching, and version management, since it is a PaaS solution. The cost is quite reasonable and easy to predict.

High availability and automated patching have worked quite well because we do not have to manage them as they are built into the solution. For high availability, there is a built-in failover, so if anything happens to the server, it is automatically brought back up in a different data center or location, all done behind the scenes. Regarding patching, it is fully handled by Microsoft, so we are always security compliant and never have to worry about that.

Azure SQL Managed Instance has positively impacted my organization because we save a lot on resources, particularly on hiring people with skills to manage SQL servers. Everything is done for us by Microsoft in that regard, and developers use it as a normal SQL database without having to care about what is behind that and how it is served, run, and scaled.

I cannot think of many areas of improvement for Azure SQL Managed Instance. Perhaps the scaling speed can be improved, so when you scale up to new instances, the time it takes to spin them up can be reduced. Additionally, the maintenance windows and some granularity in terms of setting up the maintenance windows can be helpful.

I have been using Azure SQL Managed Instance for around five to six years on and off.

Azure SQL Managed Instance is stable.

Azure SQL Managed Instance's scalability is quite good as it is a managed solution and PaaS, so it can scale automatically. Though it can be a bit slow, otherwise it works.

The customer support for Azure SQL Managed Instance is the usual Microsoft support, neither great nor bad.

I previously used other non-managed instances in Azure for SQL.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is quite good because Microsoft provides tools to calculate the pricing upfront, so it is predictable.

Before choosing Azure SQL Managed Instance, I did not evaluate other options.

I would rate Azure SQL Managed Instance an eight out of ten. I chose eight out of ten because there are some areas for improvement and, as it is a SQL server, there are always better options out there. My advice to others looking into using Azure SQL Managed Instance is to give it a try as there are not many other solutions available. My overall rating for this product is eight.