Performance of OnPrem Versus Azure SQL Server: A Case Study

This paper presents a comparative study between on-premises databases and cloud databases regarding the response time of the database. It focuses on presenting the advantages of storing data and applications in the cloud and, of course, on managing it in comparison with managing the same data and applications locally on one or more physical machines. A Microsoft Azure account was created to manage the database that is stored in the cloud. To achieve comparative results, a specific testing architecture that uses a Universal Windows Platform app was created and used. The application is running locally on multiple physical machines and works with that database to extract data, operate, and upload new data. For local tests, the database was stored locally on a server, with and without replication, and for cloud tests, it was stored into a server in Central US. This paper provides a practical approach that could be used for examining the performance of basic database operations when dealing with a different number of user situations. As a result of tests carried out, we will highlight the many advantages of cloud data storage, such as data accessibility, speed, security, automation, and disaster recovery, and we will also try to offer an answer to the most common and important question: “Why cloud?”.