Azure SQL Data Sync has been ignored for quite some time, but has finally gotten an update (it’s in public preview). This release includes several major improvements to the service including new Azure portal support, PowerShell and REST API support, and enhancements to security and privacy.
SQL Azure Data Sync is a Microsoft Windows Azure web service that provides data synchronization capabilities for SQL databases. SQL Azure Data Sync allows data to be synchronized between on-premises SQL Server databases and Azure SQL databases; in addition, it can also keep multiple Azure SQL databases in sync (see Azure SQL Data Sync technical documentation).
SQL Data Sync targets the reference data replication scenario. Its key capabilities are:
Sync between SQL Server (2005 SP2 and later) and Azure SQL databases, or between Azure SQL databases:
- One-way and bi-directional sync
- One-to-one and hub-spoke
- Table filter and column filter
- Scheduled and on-demand
- Eventual consistency
Active Geo-Replication, in contrast, targets the GeoDR scenario for Azure SQL Database by replicating the database to another region. It only supports one-way replication (secondaries are read-only), replication is at database granularity, there is no database or column/row filter support, and it is only available for Premium service tier.
Data Sync is now available in the new Azure portal. If you would like to try Data Sync refer to this tutorial. Existing users will be migrated to the new service starting June 1, 2017. For more information on migration look at the blog post “Migrating to Azure SQL Data Sync 2.0.”
More info:
Sync data across multiple cloud and on-premises databases with SQL Data Sync
Getting Started with Azure SQL Data Sync (Preview)