Reference Guide

About This Reference Guide
VMware® vCloud® Air™ SQL is a database-as-a-service offering that provides easy access to cloud-hosted
SQL Server Instances. The service offers fully managed and isolated SQL Server instances, with
automated administrative capabilities that free you to focus on business priorities.
Delivered in a cost-efficient pay-as-you-go model, and built on the trusted foundation of vSphere,
vCloud Air SQL enables hybrid data solutions that seamlessly and securely extend on-premises SQL
Server instances to the cloud. vCloud Air SQL currently supports Microsoft SQL Server, with a variety of
memory, compute, and storage options.
Intended Audience
This document is intended for datacenter administrators managing vCloud Air SQL, database
administrators maintaining databases in the datacenter, and for software engineers using a vCloud Air
SQL instance to host application databases.
Related Documentation
In addition to this document, see the following documentation:
• VMware vCloud Air SQL Release Notes
• Virtual Private Cloud OnDemand User's Guide
• Virtual Private Cloud OnDemand Networking Guide
VMware Technical Publications Glossary
VMware Technical Publications provides a glossary of terms that might be unfamiliar to you. For
definitions of terms as they are used in VMware technical documentation, go to:
http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs. This document also includes a brief Terminology section.
1
Introducing vCloud Air SQL
vCloud Air SQL uses the VMware Virtual Private Cloud OnDemand infrastructure-as-a-service platform to
supply Microsoft SQL Server instances in your organization's virtual private cloud (VPC). The VPC's
secure, centralized architecture simplifies user and asset management, and provides oversight for
usage, cost, licenses, billable features, and other important details for all the services you use. vCloud
Air SQL provides two enterprise-class services for Windows SQL Server: vCloud Air SQL (available in Early
Access), and vCloud Air SQL Disaster Recovery (DR) which will be available in the future.
1.1
What is a vCloud Air SQL instance?
vCloud Air SQL creates and maintains SQL Enterprise Server instances. A vCloud Air SQL instance is a
software-based server, where memory, compute, and storage resources are allocated to host a
database engine. In this service the database engine is Microsoft SQL Server.
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