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Azure SQL Managed Instance vs vCloud Air comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Azure SQL Managed Instance
Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)
19th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
4.1
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Relational Databases Tools (30th)
vCloud Air
Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)
21st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS) (21st)
 

Featured Reviews

FataiAkinwande - PeerSpot reviewer
Chief IT Consultant at d3astech
Managed database service has simplified hybrid integration and strengthened automated backups
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.
it_user613995 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director Solutions Architect - EMEA & APAC at Blue Medora
With the VPC, you can run your workloads in an active state, use it for development work and for hosting SQL/Exchange Servers in IaaS; RaaS/DaaS for DR activities.
All three components of the vCloud Air are equally valuable and important, i.e., IaaS, DaaS and RaaS. I like the Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) offering compared to the Dedicated Cloud. It gives me the flexibility to utilize the pay-as-you-go option. You can run your workloads in an active state at reasonable prices. I have seen lots of companies use it for their development work, as well as for hosting SQL and Exchange Servers, i.e., in the active-passive mode instead of Replication (RaaS). Disaster Recovery is also a great feature that is affordable and easy to use. Disaster Recovery is a great component of the vCloud Air, where you can protect the on-premises cloud infrastructure, by providing self-service recovery options using the vSphere Replication. Some of the features that really stand out and I have used in my projects are: * Direct Connect: It provides high speed and private line connectivity. * Offline Data Transfer: For encrypted bulk data transport.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Security-wise, Azure SQL Managed Instance is absolutely robust, and governance-wise, the manageability of Azure SQL Managed Instance is very good."
"I can tell you categorically that the ROI, the return on investment is very, very high and it's very commendable."
"The Cloud DRaaS solution provided the organization with new levels of flexibility and cost control, together with rapid expansion capability."
"This is the part that should be making admins and CIOs smile."
"VMware Workstation has an interesting feature to manage vSphere infrastructure (and also stand-alone ESXi hosts) that is really powerful and useful, for example to avoid to install the vSphere client (or the integration plugin) just to open one VM console or to change the power status for some VM."
 

Cons

"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."
"Azure SQL Managed Instance can be improved by adding more scalability options."
"It’s a really good idea, but the current implementation is very limited: you can simply see your VMs and just open the VM console."
"I feel the user interface/portal can be improved further. I did experience timeout issues and the UI was performing slowly at times."
"I don’t think it is quite where EC2 is with regard to capabilities and features but VMware is investing a lot in vCloud Air."
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Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Azure SQL Managed Instance?
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 option...
What is your primary use case for Azure SQL Managed Instance?
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...
What advice do you have for others considering 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...
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Sample Customers

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Lumeta, LifeSite, Clear Tec Solutions, National Physician Services, Queens University of Charlotte, California Natural Resources Agency, Pacific Disaster Center, Seventy Seven Energy Inc., Columbia Sportswear , CSS Corp
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS), MongoDB and others in Database as a Service (DBaaS). Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.