Azure DocumentDB Goes Live -- Visual Studio Magazine

Azure DocumentDB Goes Live

Microsoft announced general availability of its NoSQL service for developers and IT pros.

By Kurt Mackie
04/10/2015

Microsoft last week made its Azure DocumentDB service to the public. Azure DocumentDB is a NoSQL database service that's designed to store document data in the JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) format. That data can then be queried using the SQL language.

Azure DocumentDB permits the complex querying of mobile and Web application data without having to worry about mismatch issues between application schema and database schema, according to a Microsoft description. It was designed to scale to meet operational demands, and so the service is billed by the hour based on performance levels that can be changed on the fly.

The service exposes resources through a RESTful APIs, but Microsoft also supports the use of ".NET, Node, Java and Python" libraries. It's possible to manage Azure DocumentDB resources via REST paths, the Azure portal or PowerShell scripts.

Developers have been opting to use NoSQL databases as "the tool of choice," according to Microsoft's announcement, so Azure DocumentDB is designed to alleviate the setup and management hassles of running a NoSQL database. Microsoft provides full management support for the Azure DocumentDB service, as well as a 99.95 percent service level agreement.

Microsoft describes the pricing for Azure DocumentDB at this page. While the service is generally available now for commercial use, it's not clear where it's available. For instance, it's not yet available in the South Central U.S. region, according to Microsoft's announcement.

Also available today is a "new open source data migration tool" that is designed to make it easier to move data stored on other database systems to the Azure DocumentDB service. The tool is demonstrated in this Microsoft Channel 9 video.

About the Author

Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.

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