Learn Azure SQL: Putting it all together

In my last post on Learn Azure SQL, I talked about the heart of the content for the topics Security, Performance, and Availability. In my final post, I'll describe how the last module of the content is about putting your skills you have learned all together.

As Anna Hoffman and I had put together the first 5 modules of the content, we asked each other "What else?". I looked over all of my notes I had collected in building this content and had a list of functionality that was really not covered in the first 5 modules and are not specifically related to security, performance, and availability. So we built out a slide and some content on "What else should you know" that includes topics like Job Management (SQLAgent in Managed Instance and Elastic Jobs in Azure SQL Database).

In addition, as we thought about all we had done, we thought it would be cool to put forth some "scenarios" or case studies and then see if users could build out a solution based on what they had learned about Azure SQL. Anna had the idea to build out a "challenge" to see if users could beat me with a better solution. Check out our first and second challenge on YouTube from https://aka.ms/azuresql4beginners. To make it fun Anna put forth the idea that users could post their solution using #azuresqlglobal1 and #azuresqlcritical1. I haven't seen anyone post yet but we will remind everyone on Twitter to see what they come up with.

Finally, my main goal from the very beginning for Learn Azure SQL was for SQL Server professionals to get more "comfortable" with Azure. We wanted to talk about how Azure SQL is both the same and different then the SQL Server you use on-premises. However, we wanted users of Learn Azure SQL to end their journey to see how they use the power of the cloud with Azure to go farther. For example, look at this architecture example of how to integrate IoT with Azure SQL: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/reference-architectures/iot-with-sql.

I want to say a big thank you to my colleagues Anna Hoffman and Marisa Brasile. I thought in January I was just going to do an assessment of Azure SQL but Anna had other plans. Her ideas and innovation to build out a complete set of content that would appear on GitHub, Microsoft Learn, and YouTube was pure genius. Marisa came along and took us to the next level in getting all of our work promoted and continues to do that today.

Azure SQL is the world's database and it is the best cloud for SQL Server. Not sure how to get started? Try out the Microsoft Learn course at https://aka.ms/azuresqlfundamentals. You need an Azure subscription but we provide a FREE Azure SQL deployment for you to learn, test, and experiment with Azure SQL.

Bob Ward

Principal Architect, Microsoft Azure Data