Tech giant, Microsoft, and Canonical, creator of Ubuntu, introduced SQL server instances availability for Azure. This collaboration’s aim is to create a cost-effective solution to enterprise data management than many alternatives. Canonical and Microsoft had collaborations in the past, Canonical calls this cooperation a “logical extension” of their bonds as companies.
Enterprise-grade data management
In order to meet the needs of highly demanding and business-critical data workloads, Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS based solution has been created by Microsoft and Canonical. The solution has support for SQL Server 2019 or SQL Server 2017 instances as well as Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS and Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS. Utilizing the Forced Unit Access and XFS filesystem with Direct I/O SQL Server on Ubuntu Pro provides syncing with NVMe SSD mass storage drives. When applicable, users could also use persistent memory with the solution.

Up to 10 years of maintenance updates are provided from Ubuntu Pro to the customers. Besides these updates, Ubuntu Pro also includes officially certificated assets for Common Criteria EAL2 and FIPS configurations with compliance scenario supports like HIPAA, PCI, ISO, and FedRAMP. Entire support for SQL Server on Ubuntu Pro will also be provided for customers. Security and utility updates as well as joint technical support available from both Microsoft and Canonical. Alex Gallagher, Leader of Public Cloud Division at Canonical said,
“Our customers need ways to run enterprise-grade, highly demanding and business critical data workloads on Ubuntu. This need is fully addressed with Microsoft SQL Server on Ubuntu Pro and Azure. This solution is a logical extension of our continued collaboration with Microsoft.”