Now more than ever, many of you are looking for innovative ways to tackle unpredictability, optimize costs, and modernize your applications to compete in today’s environment. When it comes to solving these problems, open source continues to be at the forefront, with MySQL as a preferred choice for many of you who are building internet-scale mobile and web transactional applications.
After two years of general availability of our Azure Database for MySQL service and tens of thousands of you who have trusted us with your business-critical applications, we’ve learned a lot. With Azure Database for MySQL, you enjoy a simple provisioning experience, low TCO, high availability, enterprise grade security, automatic patching—and the rich Azure developer ecosystem—all combined with the openness of the community version of the MySQL database.
Harnessing a PaaS solution like Azure Database for MySQL lets you get out of the business of managing infrastructure and instead focus on your app and your end users. However, for some of you, choosing a PaaS solution may imply a loss of control and flexibility. We listened to this concern and concluded that there is a better way.
Today, we are excited to introduce the preview of Azure Database for MySQL – Flexible Server, a new deployment option that gives you more control and flexibility while persevering all the benefits of a managed service and more.
Flexible Server is a new deployment option for Azure Database for MySQL that gives you a simpler developer experience to accelerate end-to-end deployment—plus multiple configuration parameters for fine-grained database tuning. With Flexible Server, you also gain new ways to optimize cost with stop/start capabilities. Specific benefits include:
Flexible Server joins our single server deployment option on Azure, so you can choose the MySQL deployment option you need based on the workload you are running.
Our early Flexible Server preview customers are already seeing the benefits of features like stop/start, which provide the flexibility to stop your MySQL server when it’s not in use, reducing costs and eliminating the developer effort needed to delete and rebuild servers.
Mahesh Manchi, Head of Technology & Solutions, KSL Media Ltd., Kasturi & Sons Group had this to say:
“We have a need for continuous tuning and scale testing to ensure our news website can meet the high traffic demands at all times. With MySQL Flexible Server, we can now run our MySQL server only during the active testing period—and keep the server in a stopped state rather than deleting the server when not in use, to save cost. In addition, it also helps us save time and improve our teams’ productivity.”
Besides costs, our Flexible Server preview customers are also seeing operational improvements from the new fine-grained controls. One customer, a school system in Asia, recently switched to online learning due to COVID-19. They use a learning management solution (LMS) with MySQL as the backend database for their online classes.
Avoiding interruptions during the school day is critical for them. With the new Flexible Server deployment option and the ability to set custom maintenance windows, they are now able to set their MySQL server maintenance after hours, avoiding interruptions during school hours.
In addition to cost and operational improvements, our customers are also realizing increased performance. One game developer is taking advantage of Flexible Server to deliver predictable performance and high availability to their gamers, giving them a better gaming experience.
The new Flexible Server deployment option for Azure Database for MySQL gives you increased control of your database and increased productivity all while being fully compatible with the MySQL 5.7 community edition of MySQL (and soon, with MySQL 8.0.) With Flexible Server, you will be able to take control of your database and drive cost optimizations without losing on the managed services benefits.
We look forward to hearing about how you will use the new Flexible Server to drive innovation to your application and business. We are always eager to hear your feedback, so please reach out via email using Ask Azure DB for MySQL.
Learn more about our Azure Database for MySQL managed service. And if you want to dive deeper, the new Flexible Server docs are a great place to roll up your sleeves.
Sunil Kamath
Twitter: @kamathsun
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