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Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs vCloud Air comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 12, 2024

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

Microsoft Azure SQL Database
Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
138
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
vCloud Air
Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)
23rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS) (21st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Azure SQL Database is 9.1%, down from 13.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of vCloud Air is 2.5%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Database as a Service (DBaaS) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Azure SQL Database9.1%
vCloud Air2.5%
Other88.4%
Database as a Service (DBaaS)
 

Featured Reviews

Matthew Parker - PeerSpot reviewer
Ai Team Lead at Phoenix Software
Integrates with familiar tools and supports reliable data storage for AI applications
Microsoft Azure SQL Database can be improved overall by being able to compete with some of the features that come from things such as PostgreSQL. From my team's perspective in terms of building AI applications, more native integrations with some of the newer AI data types, such as vectors for storing embeddings, would be beneficial. I think all of that is coming. It is just a big product, so I think it is naturally a little bit behind the curve. However, that is not necessarily a bad thing because a lot of customers, because it has been around for so long, they trust it and they are willing to wait until those features become available.
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

"It is very fast in replicating the data from one database to another; we do some extractions from multiple databases to a target database that we use for visualization, and it has a good speed."
"My impression is that this solution is quite stable."
"Azure Portal is most valuable."
"It's easy to work with large amounts of data, query it, and bring it back to a visualization tool to show it to the end users."
"It's user-friendly. Compared to other solutions, it's based more on clicks, not on scripts. It's easy to manage."
"The most valuable features of SQL Azure are its reliability and quick scalability."
"As compared to its competitors, such as Oracle, it is affordable and reasonable."
"SQL Azure is perfectly scalable."
"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."
"This is the part that should be making admins and CIOs smile."
"The Cloud DRaaS solution provided the organization with new levels of flexibility and cost control, together with rapid expansion capability."
 

Cons

"There is so much information that it becomes confusing at times. The information can be more friendly. They could also provide additional training, especially at the beginning."
"Microsoft Azure SQL Database is not cheap."
"The initial setup was very complex."
"The price is a little higher."
"The Microsoft Azure SQL Database is not the latest version of Microsoft SQL Server; it's a really old engine that does not have the newest features, is very slow, and too expensive, so I really don't think it's a good solution for most cases, except when you specifically need to put your data on the cloud."
"It's not a feature, but the solution only offers a certain amount of memory and that's limiting. The scalability should be extended to more than two terabytes."
"The underlying Windows OS is highly scalable but has a very large resource requirement."
"Microsoft Azure SQL Database could improve by having better tooling in terms of connecting to other database platforms and better capabilities around programmable interfaces. There should be more fine-tuning on the storage layer. I would like to see T-SQL improvements to automatically translate features from other database platforms for easier migration, as well as some improvements around column store and native capabilities like those in Iceberg and PowerK built into the SQL Server product."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"With one being expensive and five being competitive, I would give the product a four out of five as it's relatively competitive. It is also important to note that pricing is based on usage."
"Microsoft services are costly, which is the only problem we face. So, pricing is an area of improvement."
"It requires a license. As compared to its competitors, such as Oracle, it is affordable and reasonable."
"Compared to other providers, the pricing is definitely on the affordable side."
"The price could be slightly cheaper."
"The solution is moderately expensive."
"We have had some issues with the licensing of the solution."
"The pricing is flexible and can be adapted based on our requirements but the pricing options are complex especially if we are using a VM."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
19%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Construction Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business62
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise65
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SQL Azure?
I am not involved in the pricing part of Microsoft Azure SQL Database, so I have not heard anything.
What needs improvement with SQL Azure?
I have not worked much on Microsoft Azure SQL Database's ability to power next-generation AI applications. I cannot suggest anything about improvements in Microsoft Azure SQL Database because I am ...
What is your primary use case for SQL Azure?
I find the data migration part for Microsoft Azure SQL Database very good for connecting one database to another database. For the integration with other Microsoft applications, we are using SQL Se...
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Overview

 

Sample Customers

adnymics GmbH, LG CNS, Centrebet, netfabb GmbH, MedPlast, Accelera Solutions, Sochi Organizing Committee, realzeit GmbH
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: September 2026.
913,806 professionals have used our research since 2012.