Azure SQL Server Stretch Database vs. Amazon Athena

Azure SQL Server Stretch Database was a feature introduced in SQL Server 2016 that allowed organizations to dynamically extend their on-premises databases to Azure, enabling seamless access to both hot and cold data without significant changes to existing applications. This capability provided virtually unlimited storage and compute capacity, facilitating efficient management of large datasets.

Amazon Athena is a serverless, interactive query service that enables users to analyze large datasets directly in Amazon S3 using standard SQL. With no infrastructure to manage, Athena allows for quick, ad-hoc querying without the need for complex ETL processes. It automatically scales to execute queries in parallel, delivering fast results even for complex queries and large datasets. Key Features and Functionality: - Serverless Architecture: Athena requires no server management, automatically handling infrastructure scaling and maintenance.