As I was reviewing the CosmosDB solution from Azure I found some really nice surprises. In typical fashion, Microsoft has not created radical new technology. What they have done is to create a most excellent package of top tier data storage implementations, including their own. CosmosDB allows you to store data in Key Value Pair, Vectors, Documents, Graphs and columnar storage.
What is cool is they have been able to put together this suite taking advantage of the Azure capabilities allowing you do easily create, utilize and manage these common data stores and access them remotely or from resources also hosted by Azure. That’s a really big win.
One of the things I really liked when watching a tutorial on the new capabilities is the ability to actually view data in the hosted storage using features already enabled in their web application. This reminds me of the capabilities of SQL Server where you don’t have to have an application in order to review stored data. You can write an SQL query to review data. While SQL is a possible tool for you to review data from some of the CosmosDB sources, they have also provided a GUI allowing you to do the same without requiring SQL.
The thing I like the most is that the storage engine may be accessed through many different APIs. A few of the common tools have been implemented already, and more are in the works.
This looks to me like an offering that has really matured, and is ready for some heavy lifting. They have some great advice on how to implement your storage for the best cost and performance. That’s a big value when you move to using Software as a Service.
Are you using Document DB already, or Azure Tables? Do you think you will be upgrading to CosmosDB, or using some of the new features it enables? Share your thoughts with us in or comments below.
Cheers,
Ben