sqldb-update overview

Author: stevestein

articles/azure-sql/azure-sql-iaas-vs-paas-what-is-overview.md

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 ---
 title: "What is Azure SQL?"
 titleSuffix: " "
-description: "Learn how to choose among the deployment options within the Azure SQL family of services: Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance, and SQL Server on an Azure VM." 
+description: "Learn about the different options within the Azure SQL family of services: Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance, and SQL Server on an Azure VM." 
 services: sql-database
 ms.service: sql-database
 ms.subservice: service
@@ -12,21 +12,19 @@ keywords: SQL Server cloud, SQL Server in the cloud, PaaS database, cloud SQL Se
 author: stevestein
 ms.author: sstein
 ms.reviewer: 
-ms.date: 08/22/2019
+ms.date: 05/27/2020
 ---
 # What is Azure SQL? 
 
-Azure SQL is a family of managed, secure and intelligent SQL Server database engine services provided by the Azure cloud. Azure offers the widest range of deployment options for SQL from edge to cloud, supporting a wide variety of application patterns and control requirements to meet the most demanding migration and modernization initiatives.
+Azure SQL is a family of managed, secure, and intelligent SQL Server database products.
 
-The services that comprise the Azure SQL family: 
-
-- **Azure SQL Database**: Support modern cloud applications on an intelligent, managed database service that includes serverless compute. 
-- **Azure SQL Managed Instance**: Modernize your existing SQL Server applications at scale with an intelligent fully managed instance as a service, with almost 100% feature parity to the SQL Server on-premises you're used to. 
-- **SQL on Azure VMs**: Lift-and-shift your SQL Server workloads with ease and maintain 100% SQL Server compatibility and operating system-level access. 
+- **Azure SQL Database**: Support modern cloud applications on an intelligent, managed database service, that includes serverless compute. 
+- **Azure SQL Managed Instance**: Modernize your existing SQL Server applications at scale with an intelligent fully managed instance as a service, with almost 100% feature parity to the SQL Server on-premises you're used to. Best for most migrations to the cloud.
+- **SQL Server on Azure VMs**: Lift-and-shift your SQL Server workloads with ease and maintain 100% SQL Server compatibility and operating system-level access. 
 
-Azure SQL is built upon the same familiar SQL Server engine, so you can migrate applications with ease and continue to use the tools, languages and resources you're familiar with. Your skills and experience transfer to the cloud, so you can do even more with what you already have. 
+Azure SQL is built upon the familiar SQL Server engine, so you can migrate applications with ease and continue to use the tools, languages, and resources you're familiar with. Your skills and experience transfer to the cloud, so you can do even more with what you already have. 
 
-Learn how each deployment option fits into Microsoft's Azure SQL data platform to match the right option for your business requirements. Whether you prioritize cost savings or minimal administration, this article can help you decide which approach delivers against the business requirements you care about most.
+Learn how each product fits into Microsoft's Azure SQL data platform to match the right option for your business requirements. Whether you prioritize cost savings or minimal administration, this article can help you decide which approach delivers against the business requirements you care about most.
 
 
 ## Overview
@@ -53,10 +51,10 @@ Azure constantly monitors your data for threats. With Azure SQL, you can:
 
 There are several factors that can influence your decision to choose between the different data offerings:
 
-- [Cost](#cost) - Both PaaS and IaaS option include base price that cover underlying infrastructure and licensing. However, with IaaS option you need to invest additional time and resources to manage your database, while in PaaS you are getting these administration features included in the price. IaaS option enables you to shut down your resources while you are not using them to decrease the cost, while PaaS version is always running unless you drop and re-create your resources when they are needed.
+- [Cost](#cost) - Both PaaS and IaaS option include base price that covers underlying infrastructure and licensing. However, with IaaS option you need to invest additional time and resources to manage your database, while in PaaS you get these administration features included in the price. IaaS enables you to shut down resources while you are not using them to decrease the cost, while PaaS is always running unless you drop and re-create your resources when they are needed.
 - [Administration](#administration) - PaaS options reduce the amount of time that you need to invest to administer the database. However, it also limits the range of custom administration tasks and scripts that you can perform or run. For example, the CLR is not supported with single or pooled databases, but is supported for a SQL Managed Instance. Also, no deployment options in PaaS support the use of trace flags.
 - [Service-Level Agreement](#service-level-agreement-sla) - Both IaaS and PaaS provide high, industry standard SLA. PaaS option guarantees 99.99% SLA, while IaaS guarantees 99.95% SLA for infrastructure, meaning that you need to implement additional mechanisms to ensure availability of your databases. You can attain 99.99%  SLA by creating an additional SQL virtual machine, and implementing the SQL Server Always On availability group high availability solution. 
-- [Time to move to Azure](#market) - SQL Server on Azure VM is the exact match of your environment, so migration from on-premises to the Azure VM is no different than moving the databases from one on-premises server to another. SQL Managed Instance also enables extremely easy migration; however, there might be some changes that you need to apply before you migration. 
+- [Time to move to Azure](#market) - SQL Server on Azure VM is the exact match of your environment, so migration from on-premises to the Azure VM is no different than moving the databases from one on-premises server to another. SQL Managed Instance also enables easy migration; however, there might be some changes that you need to apply before your migration. 
 
 
 ## Service comparison
@@ -65,11 +63,11 @@ There are several factors that can influence your decision to choose between the
 
 As seen in the diagram, each service offering can be characterized by the level of administration you have over the infrastructure, and by the degree of cost efficiency.
 
-In Azure, you can have your SQL Server workloads running as a hosted service ([PaaS](https://azure.microsoft.com/overview/what-is-paas/)), or a hosted infrastructure ([IaaS](https://azure.microsoft.com/overview/what-is-iaas/)). Within PaaS, you have multiple deployment options and service tiers within each deployment option. The key question that you need to ask when deciding between PaaS or IaaS is do you want to manage your database, apply patches, and take backups, or do you want to delegate these operations to Azure?
+In Azure, you can have your SQL Server workloads running as a hosted service ([PaaS](https://azure.microsoft.com/overview/what-is-paas/)), or a hosted infrastructure ([IaaS](https://azure.microsoft.com/overview/what-is-iaas/)). Within PaaS, you have multiple product options, and service tiers within each option. The key question that you need to ask when deciding between PaaS or IaaS is do you want to manage your database, apply patches, and take backups, or do you want to delegate these operations to Azure?
 
 ### Azure SQL Database
 
-[**Azure SQL Database**](database/sql-database-paas-overview.md) is a relational database-as-a-service (DBaaS) hosted in the Azure cloud that falls into the industry category of *Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)*. Best for modern cloud applications that want to use the latest stable SQL Server features and have time constraints in development and marketing. A fully-managed SQL database engine, based on the latest stable Enterprise Edition of SQL Server. SQL database has two deployment options built on standardized hardware and software that is owned, hosted, and maintained by Microsoft. With SQL Server, you can use built-in features and functionality that require extensive configuration (either on-premises or in an Azure virtual machine). When using SQL Database, you pay-as-you-go with options to scale up or out for greater power with no interruption. SQL Database has some additional features that are not available in SQL Server, such as built-in high availability, intelligence, and management.
+[**Azure SQL Database**](database/sql-database-paas-overview.md) is a relational database-as-a-service (DBaaS) hosted in Azure that falls into the industry category of *Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)*. Best for modern cloud applications that want to use the latest stable SQL Server features and have time constraints in development and marketing. A fully-managed SQL database engine, based on the latest stable Enterprise Edition of SQL Server. SQL database has two deployment options built on standardized hardware and software that is owned, hosted, and maintained by Microsoft. With SQL Server, you can use built-in features and functionality that requires extensive configuration (either on-premises or in an Azure virtual machine). When using SQL Database, you pay-as-you-go with options to scale up or out for greater power with no interruption. SQL Database has some additional features that are not available in SQL Server, such as built-in high availability, intelligence, and management.
 
 
 Azure SQL Database offers the following deployment options:
@@ -78,11 +76,11 @@ Azure SQL Database offers the following deployment options:
 
 ### Azure SQL Managed Instance
 
-[**Azure SQL Managed Instance**](managed-instance/sql-managed-instance-paas-overview.md) is a relational database-as-a-service (DBaaS) hosted in the Azure cloud that falls into the industry category of *Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)*. Best for most migrations to the cloud. SQL Managed Instance is a collection of system and user databases with a shared set of resources that is lift-and-shift ready.  Best for new applications or existing on-premises applications that want to use the latest stable SQL Server features and that are migrated to the cloud with minimal changes. A SQL Managed Instance is similar to an instance of the [Microsoft SQL Server database engine](https://docs.microsoft.com/sql/database-engine/sql-server-database-engine-overview) offering shared resources for databases and additional instance-scoped features. SQL Managed Instance supports database migration from on-premises with minimal to no database change. This option provides all of the PaaS benefits of Azure SQL Database but adds capabilities that were previously only available in SQL Server VMs. This includes a native virtual network (VNet) and near 100% compatibility with on-premises SQL Server. SQL Managed Instances provide full SQL Server access and feature compatibility for migrating SQL Servers to Azure.
+[**Azure SQL Managed Instance**](managed-instance/sql-managed-instance-paas-overview.md) falls into the industry category of *Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)*, and is best for most migrations to the cloud. SQL Managed Instance is a collection of system and user databases with a shared set of resources that is lift-and-shift ready.  Best for new applications or existing on-premises applications that want to use the latest stable SQL Server features and that are migrated to the cloud with minimal changes. A SQL Managed Instance is similar to an instance of the [Microsoft SQL Server database engine](https://docs.microsoft.com/sql/database-engine/sql-server-database-engine-overview) offering shared resources for databases and additional instance-scoped features. SQL Managed Instance supports database migration from on-premises with minimal to no database change. This option provides all of the PaaS benefits of Azure SQL Database but adds capabilities that were previously only available in SQL Server VMs. This includes a native virtual network (VNet) and near 100% compatibility with on-premises SQL Server. SQL Managed Instances provide full SQL Server access and feature compatibility for migrating SQL Servers to Azure.
 
 ### SQL Server on Azure VM
 
-[**SQL Server on Azure VM**](virtual-machines/windows/sql-server-on-azure-vm-iaas-what-is-overview.md) falls into the industry category *Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)* and allows you to run SQL Server inside a fully-managed virtual machine (VM) in the Azure cloud. Best for migrations and applications requiring OS-level access. SQL virtual machines in Azure are lift-and-shift ready for existing applications that require fast migration to the cloud with minimal changes or no changes. SQL virtual machines offer full administrative control over the SQL Server instance and underlying OS for migration to Azure. Rapid development and test scenarios when you do not want to buy on-premises non-production SQL Server hardware. SQL virtual machines also run on standardized hardware that is owned, hosted, and maintained by Microsoft. When using SQL virtual machines, you can either pay-as-you-go for a SQL Server license already included in a SQL Server image or easily use an existing license. You can also stop or resume the VM as needed. SQL Server installed and hosted in the cloud runs on Windows Server or Linux virtual machines running on Azure, also known as an infrastructure as a service (IaaS). SQL virtual machines are a good option for migrating on-premises SQL Server databases and applications without any database change. All recent versions and editions of SQL Server are available for installation in an IaaS virtual machine. The most significant difference from SQL Database and SQL Managed Instances, is that SQL Server on Azure VMs allow full control over the database engine. You can choose when to start maintenance/patching, change the recovery model to simple or bulk-logged, pause or start the service when needed, and you can fully customize the SQL Server database engine. With this additional control comes the added responsibility to manage the virtual machine.
+[**SQL Server on Azure VM**](virtual-machines/windows/sql-server-on-azure-vm-iaas-what-is-overview.md) falls into the industry category *Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)* and allows you to run SQL Server inside a fully-managed virtual machine (VM) in Azure. Best for migrations and applications requiring OS-level access. SQL virtual machines in Azure are lift-and-shift ready for existing applications that require fast migration to the cloud with minimal changes or no changes. SQL virtual machines offer full administrative control over the SQL Server instance and underlying OS for migration to Azure. Rapid development and test scenarios when you do not want to buy on-premises non-production SQL Server hardware. SQL virtual machines also run on standardized hardware that is owned, hosted, and maintained by Microsoft. When using SQL virtual machines, you can either pay-as-you-go for a SQL Server license already included in a SQL Server image or easily use an existing license. You can also stop or resume the VM as needed. SQL Server installed and hosted in the cloud runs on Windows Server or Linux virtual machines running on Azure, also known as an infrastructure as a service (IaaS). SQL virtual machines are a good option for migrating on-premises SQL Server databases and applications without any database change. All recent versions and editions of SQL Server are available for installation in an IaaS virtual machine. The most significant difference from SQL Database and SQL Managed Instances, is that SQL Server on Azure VMs allow full control over the database engine. You can choose when to start maintenance/patching, change the recovery model to simple or bulk-logged, pause or start the service when needed, and you can fully customize the SQL Server database engine. With this additional control comes the added responsibility to manage the virtual machine.
 
 Optimized for migrating existing applications to Azure or extending existing on-premises applications to the cloud in hybrid deployments. In addition, you can use SQL Server in a virtual machine to develop and test traditional SQL Server applications. With SQL virtual machines, you have the full administrative rights over a dedicated SQL Server instance and a cloud-based VM. It is a perfect choice when an organization already has IT resources available to maintain the virtual machines. These capabilities allow you to build a highly customized system to address your application’s specific performance and availability requirements.
 
@@ -105,7 +103,7 @@ Whether you're a startup that is strapped for cash, or a team in an established
 
 ### Billing and licensing basics
 
-Currently, both **SQL Database** and **SQL Managed Instance** are sold as a service and are available with several deployment options and in several service tiers with different prices for resources, all of which are billed hourly at a fixed rate based on the service tier and compute size you choose. For the latest information on the current supported service tiers, compute sizes, and storage amounts, see [DTU-based purchasing model for SQL Database](database/service-tiers-dtu.md) and [vCore-based purchasing model for both SQL Database and SQL Managed Instance](database/service-tiers-vcore.md).
+Currently, both **SQL Database** and **SQL Managed Instance** are sold as a service and are available with several options and in several service tiers with different prices for resources, all of which are billed hourly at a fixed rate based on the service tier and compute size you choose. For the latest information on the current supported service tiers, compute sizes, and storage amounts, see [DTU-based purchasing model for SQL Database](database/service-tiers-dtu.md) and [vCore-based purchasing model for both SQL Database and SQL Managed Instance](database/service-tiers-vcore.md).
 
 - With SQL database, you can choose a service tier that fits your needs from a wide range of prices starting from 5$/month for basic tier and you can create [elastic pools](database/elastic-pool-overview.md) to share resources among databases to reduce costs and accommodate usage spikes.
 - With SQL Managed Instance, you can also bring your own license. For more information on bring-your-own licensing, see [License Mobility through Software Assurance on Azure](https://azure.microsoft.com/pricing/license-mobility/) or use the [Azure Hybrid Benefit calculator](https://azure.microsoft.com/pricing/hybrid-benefit/#sql-database) to see how to **save up to 40%**.