Azure SQL DBA - Essential Concepts & Roadmap
1. Cloud & Azure Basics
• Cloud Computing Models: IaaS, PaaS, SaaS
• Cloud Types: Public, Private, Hybrid
• On-Premises vs Cloud Differences
• Azure History: 2008 - Project Red Dog, 2010 - Windows Azure (now Microsoft Azure)
• Azure Regions & Pricing: 60+ global regions, hourly billing (per-second for some services, e.g., Azure SQL
Serverless)
• Portal: portal.azure.com (supports custom domains)
2. Core Azure Services for SQL DBAs
IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service):
• Azure Virtual Machines (VMs) – Similar to AWS EC2
• Storage Accounts & Disks
• Networking – VNets, Peering (VNet-to-VNet), VPN Gateways, Point-to-Site & Site-to-Site connections
• Active Directory (Azure AD) – Identity management
PaaS (Platform as a Service):
• Azure SQL Database (Serverless & Provisioned)
• Managed Instance (MI)
• Elastic Pools
3. Data & Integration Services (Critical for Modern DBA Roles)
• Azure Data Lake – Cloud storage for big data
• Azure Data Factory (ADF) – ETL/ELT pipelines (replacement for SSIS)
• Azure Synapse Analytics (formerly SQL Data Warehouse) – Data warehousing + pipelines
• Azure Fabric – Next-gen data platform integrating multiple Azure services
• Logic Apps – Workflow automation
• Power BI (Cloud) – Visualization & reporting (replacing SSRS)
• Azure Databricks – Big data & ML notebooks (SQL, Python, R support)
4. On-Prem to Cloud Mappings
• SSIS → Azure Data Factory
• SSAS → Azure Analysis Services
• SSRS → Power BI
• SQL Data Warehouse → Azure Synapse
5. Skills Expected of a Modern DBA
• VM provisioning & maintenance
• Storage & Networking configuration
• Azure AD integration
• Deploying & managing Azure SQL DB, MI, Elastic Pools
• Building & troubleshooting ADF pipelines
• Monitoring & troubleshooting Synapse, Fabric, Logic Apps
• Integrating on-prem with cloud (via network bridges/VPN gateways)
• Basic Power BI dashboards for DBA metrics
• Handling performance tuning in cloud environments
6. Learning Roadmap for SQL DBAs
• Phase 1 – Core Azure Foundation
• Phase 2 – Infrastructure Essentials (IaaS)
• Phase 3 – Database Platforms (PaaS)
• Phase 4 – Data Engineering Integration
• Phase 5 – Hybrid & Real-World Integration
7. Azure Services Critical for Interviews
• Azure SQL Database (Serverless vs Provisioned)
• Azure Managed Instance
• Azure Data Factory (ADF)
• Azure Synapse Analytics
• Azure Fabric
• Azure Data Lake
• Logic Apps
• Power BI
• Azure Networking (VNet, VPN Gateway, Peering)
• Active Directory Integration
