I'm currently using an Azure SQL Server on the Standard tier with 400 DTUs for a mostly CRUD web application. I've been digging into the differences between Standard and Premium DTU tiers and am trying to figure out if a switch makes sense. My app involves a lot of updates and concurrency. Reporting used to be quite heavy, but we're transitioning to a caching strategy, making the reporting less intensive over time.
Right now, the Standard tier has remote storage, higher latency I/O, and supports up to 2000 IOPS. I'm considering whether moving to the Premium tier at 125 DTUs would be beneficial given its advantages of local SSD, lower latency I/O, and 5000 IOPS. I've heard Premium is more suited for OLTP and CRUD operations like mine. Would this transition improve performance for my application?
5 Answers
We switched from 800 DTUs to Hyperscale with 4 vCores and saw major performance improvements thanks to better underlying page servers and caching.
Here are some simple rules to follow: If you need under 2 CPUs, stick with 200 DTUs or less. If your needs require two or more CPUs, go for VCore. Premium handles I/O issues well, while Hyperscale is all about scalability and I/O. If you choose VCore, remember to do BYOL (Bring Your Own License).
The Premium tier functions quite differently, and just so you know, 400 DTUs don’t correlate directly to 4 vCores. Definitely test things carefully because the hidden memory boosts can have a huge impact on performance, like making the difference up to 12x. If you're considering higher DTUs like 800 and above, the performance gap narrows thanks to the extra memory.
Generally speaking, the lowest Premium tier is better than a higher Standard tier. Plus, with Premium, you can get a read replica to handle read-heavy tasks, which can really help. Just remember to set 'applicationintent' in your connection string to offload those reads effectively.
I remember a great thread about someone moving from Standard 800 to Premium 250 and they had fantastic results with significant cost savings. I personally went from Standard 1600 to Premium 500 and it didn't work out; the CPU hit 100% constantly in just 7 minutes—it was a real CPU-intensive workload. Just tread carefully if you decide to make the switch!
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