azure cosmos db vs sql server

 What is Azure cosmosdb and when to use it over Azure SQL?

Azure Cosmos DB is a globally distributed, multi-model database service provided by Microsoft Azure. It is designed to allow customers to elastically (and independently) scale throughput and storage across any number of geographical regions. It supports multiple data models (key-value, documents, graphs, and columnar) and offers comprehensive service level agreements encompassing throughput, latency, availability, and consistency learn.microsoft.com.

Azure Cosmos DB is particularly beneficial for web, mobile, gaming, and IoT applications that need to handle massive amounts of data, reads, and writes at a global scale with near-real response times. Its guaranteed high availability, high throughput, low latency, and tunable consistency are huge advantages when building these types of applications learn.microsoft.com.

Azure Cosmos DB is a NoSQL database, which means it does not rely on any schemas. It can support multiple data models using one backend, making it a good choice for any serverless application that needs low order-of-millisecond response times and needs to scale rapidly and globally learn.microsoft.com.

On the other hand, Azure SQL Database is a relational database management system (RDBMS) that provides high compatibility with Microsoft SQL Server. It is a good choice for applications that require complex queries, transactions, and strong consistency stackoverflow.com.

The choice between Azure Cosmos DB and Azure SQL Database depends on your specific needs:

If your application requires low latency, high availability, and the ability to scale globally, Azure Cosmos DB would be a better choice. It is particularly beneficial for applications that need to handle massive amounts of data, reads, and writes at a global scale with near-real response times learn.microsoft.com.

If your application requires complex queries, transactions, and strong consistency, Azure SQL Database would be a better choice. It is a good choice for applications that require relational data models and strong consistency stackoverflow.com.

It's also worth noting that Azure Cosmos DB can be used with Azure Synapse Link for near real-time analytics over operational data in Azure Cosmos DB. This creates a tight seamless integration between Azure Cosmos DB and Azure Synapse Analytics learn.microsoft.com.

In terms of cost, Microsoft Azure ensures that your data gets there, gets there fast and at a reasonable price point. It's potentially five to ten times more affordable than other services out there stackify.com.