Azure SQL Database vs rasdaman

Azure SQL Database is a cloud-native relational database service built on the SQL Server engine and delivered as a fully managed PaaS. Microsoft manages provisioning, patching, backups, monitoring, and high availability. The service supports standard T-SQL and can be accessed through the Azure portal, SQL Server Management Studio, Visual Studio Code's MSSQL extension, and compatible application frameworks. It supports native JSON and REST and GraphQL APIs through Data API builder. Hyperscale independently scales compute and storage and supports scale-out with up to 30 named replicas. For AI application development, it offers native vector search and connections to Azure OpenAI and Azure AI Search. It can connect to Azure Functions and replicate SQL data into Microsoft Fabric for near-real-time querying and analysis. Security and governance include a multilayered approach with Microsoft Defender for SQL; recovery features include disaster recovery and snapshot-based backups. The free offer allows up to 10 General Purpose databases per subscription, each with 100,000 vCore seconds, 32 GB of data, and 32 GB of backup storage monthly. Once limits are reached, a database can auto-pause or remain online with excess use billed at standard rates.

rasdaman is a self-hosted database for managing and analyzing large multidimensional arrays, including sensor, image, simulation, and statistics data. It handles raster data, geo coverages, and 3D and 4D arrays. Datacube queries use ISO SQL/MDA and the geo-specific WCPS language, with support for OGC, ISO, and INSPIRE standards such as WCS, WCPS, WMS, and WMTS. Its ETL suite supports more than 100 formats, including JSON, XML, GeoTIFF, and NetCDF. Storage tiling can be tuned for different access patterns, and named clients include Leaflet, NASA WorldWind, QGIS, R, and Python. The free Community plan costs nothing and provides core array-database features. Installation guidance covers source or Debian packages on Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04, and 24.04, recommends at least 8 GB memory, and notes about 400 MB disk use.