Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect ExpertDesign data storage solutionsMedium
A multinational e-commerce company needs to store product catalog information, including product names, descriptions, prices, and stock levels. This data is highly structured, requires strong consistency (ACID transactions), and needs to support complex joins and queries for reporting and analytics. The company operates in multiple regions, but the primary database operations (writes) are centralized, with reads distributed globally. Which Azure data storage solution is most suitable?
- AAzure Cosmos DB for NoSQL
- BAzure Data Lake Storage Gen2
- CAzure SQL Database with Geo-replication
- DAzure Table Storage
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: C. Azure SQL Database with Geo-replication
Azure SQL Database provides strong consistency (ACID), supports structured data, complex joins, and rich querying. Geo-replication allows for read-scale out to secondary regions for global read distribution while maintaining a single primary write region, meeting the company's requirements for a structured, consistent, and globally readable product catalog.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Azure Cosmos DB for NoSQL is a non-relational database with eventual consistency options, not ideal for highly structured data requiring strong ACID transactions and complex joins.
- B. Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 is optimized for big data analytics and unstructured/semi-structured data, not for transactional, structured product catalog data with strong consistency requirements.
- D. Azure Table Storage is a simple key-value store, unsuitable for complex structured data requiring ACID transactions and relational querying capabilities.
Azure SQL Database Geo-replication
A feature of Azure SQL Database that allows you to create readable secondary databases in different Azure regions. It enables disaster recovery and read-scale out globally, with data replicated asynchronously from a primary database.
- Provides disaster recovery capabilities
- Enables read-scale out to secondary regions
- Asynchronous data replication
- Maintains strong consistency at the primary, eventual consistency for replicated reads
Memory trick: Geo-replication copies your data far, ensuring reads are fast and disaster is not.