Is storing data in Windows Azure cheaper when using RavenDB rather than SQL Azure?

Question

SQL Azure storage is a lot more expensive than Windows Azure Storage. Would implementing a no-sql solution like RavenDB allow me to store data on the cheaper Azure Storage? Are there other things to consider, like backup, speed or security?

Thank you.

Answer 1

You have to consider that with SQL Azure you not only get the storage, but the database server too. If you implement RavenDB, you will will need a worker role to host it in and, in order to allow for failure of that worker role, another worker role (replica), which also doubles up the storage.

Bear in mind that with SQL Azure you get a highly available (3x replicated with failover) SQL solution that surfaces a familiar (ADO.NET) API. Make your choices based on aspects other than storage cost, such as operational effort and development effort. If you choose RavenDB it should be because of the potential cost savings in development effort (because of the closeness on the document API to the object graph) and operational cost, because RavenDB is 'administered' as part of the application. Cost of storage of actual bytes, particularly at scale, is a marginal consideration.

Answer 2

Adding a bit to @Simon's answer: When considering Table Storage and its low cost, also consider whether you can use it directly, instead of going with an installed-and-managed-by-you NoSQL database engine. As it stands, Table Storage offers a schemaless solution that lets you store essentially a property bag within a row, indexed by partitionkey+rowkey. Does that work for you? Could you work with a few extra tables to give you additional indexing? If so, your storage cost is going to be really low (and still durable, triple-replicated).

If you find yourself writing significant code to manage Table Storage, then it may be more efficient to invest in the Compute instances needed to run RavenDB. When considering this, also consider that you'll likely want larger VM sizes if you're moving significant data (as you get approx. 100Mbps per core). A database like MongoDB, working with memory-mapped files, really ramps up speed-wise with more RAM. Not sure if this is the same with RavenDB.