Category: Cloud

Jen Stirrup brings news on DocumentDB updates:

Let’s have a look at the biggest news: DocumentDB now has protocol support for MongoDB. From the industry perspective, this is great news. MongoDB is one of the most easily-recognised NoSQLs databases. Now that DocumentDB can be a great supporting act for MongoDB, it means that architects have a broader range of tools to support business needs in the enterprise data architecture, whilst increasing business capability using the Azure cloud. How does it work? Well, or MongoDB at the wire protocol level, which means that the existing MongoDB drivers will function against DocumentDB. For IT departments, it means that enterprises can persist data in DocumentDB behind the scenes. With it, it brings the reliability, stability and resilience of the Azure cloud. It also means that these technologies are accessible for small to medium enterprises in a way that they can afford, backed up with the stability and support from Microsoft Azure that they may find difficult to service on their own.

DocumentDB has a long way to go before it catches up to MongoDB, but these are improvements that close the gap a little bit.

Melissa Coates shows how to create a test environment for Azure Data Catalog:

Azure Data Catalog is a Software as a Service (SaaS) offering in Azure, part of the Cortana Intelligence Suite, for registering metadata about data sources. Check this post for an overview of Azure Data Catalog key features. (I’m a big fan of what Azure Data Catalog is trying to accomplish.)

There are a couple of particulars about Azure Data Catalog which make it a bit more difficult to set up a Demo/Test/Learning type of environment, including:

• You are required to sign into Azure Data Catalog with an organizational account. Signing in with a Microsoft account (formerly known as a Live account) won’t work for Azure Data Catalog authentication, even if that’s what you normally use for Azure.

• One Azure Data Catalog may be created per organization. Note this is *not* per Azure subscription – if your account has access to multiple subscriptions, it’s still one catalog per organization.

This method seems, shall we say, overly complicated.  Here’s hoping that the Azure Data Catalog team find a way to improve this experience.

James Serra explains Azure SQL Database pricing:

DTU’s are explained at here.  To help, there is a Azure SQL Database DTU Calculator.  This calculator will help you determine the number of DTUs being used for your existing on-prem SQL Server database(s) as well as a recommendation of the minimum performance level and service tier that you need before you migrate to Azure SQL Database.  It does this by using performance monitor counters.

After you use a SQL Database for a while, you can use a pricing tier recommendation tool to determine the best service tier to switch to.  It does this by assessing historical resource usage for a SQL database.

For further information, check out this interesting article from a few months ago on V12 performance by Chris Bailiss.

Grant Fritchey talking about a new Microsoft program:

You need to start working on adding Azure knowledge to your skill set. If you have access to an MSDN license, getting into Azure is easy because of the credits available. However, not everyone works for a company that provides MSDN or has purchased a license. In that case, getting into Azure, just for testing and learning could be expensive (I frequently “spend” $150/month with my MSDN credits). However, Microsoft is very serious about getting everyone moved into this space. They’ve launched a new free program called IT Pro Cloud Essentials. Not only does it give you Azure credit, but you also get access to O365, another set of skills and understanding you need to acquire.

Also check out their Visual Studio Dev Essentials program.  Its Azure credit is only $25 a month, but offers you SQL Server 2014 (and will offer 2016) Developer Edition.