Geo-replication between two regions

Question

I know that georeplication for azure service is used by default. However, this only happens between two places in the same region. For instance. if I chose Northern Europe, geo-replication would be located in Western Europe. Is it possible for me to have replication in the USA?

I want to make the service so that my database can be in two or more regions, so that the response time when accessing the database will be minimal. That is, for a user in the USA he will have access to a replica of the database in the USA, or to a European user who will have access to a replica in Europe.

Answer 1

First, you should be aware that geo-logging is enabled for the Azure STORAGE service, and not for any other Azure services. Then you should also know that this geo-replication is intended primarily for disaster recovery (and only for today).

If you need to replicate a database (Windows Azure SQL Database, aka WASD), you can use SQL Data Sync - the only known to date synchronize Azure databases (either between different geographic regions, or between Azure and local).

Support for Windows Azure Cloud Service geo-information is not supported. If you need to geographically distribute your application, you need to independently manage the deployment of cloud services in different data centers. If so, for Azure storage I would suggest using one storage service for WRITE operations, but Azure CDN for READ operations. Otherwise, it can become too complicated. Of course, the chosen architectural approach will depend on the requirements of the application (and the expected load).

Then you need to combine the various deployment options with Azure Traffic Manager with tuning the performance algorithm.

EDIT (NOV 2014)

As of Q3 2014, the Azure SQL Database also supports Geo Replication . And Azure Data Sync is deprived and removed service. Azure Storage replication is still offered with three different options: zone redundancy , Geo redundancy, Geo redundancy with Read Access . And there is still no way to replicate geographic regions (i.e., From EU to USA). Replication is still only an option between Geo Zone pairs (the same geography) .

Answer 2

I believe that this is impossible today out of the box. You will need to do this yourself using data synchronization (for SQL Azure) and similar technologies (for Windows Azure Storage).