Azure SQL Edge: SQL Server for IoT

Azure SQL Edge is a small-footprint container (less than 500MB) optimized for IoT edge gateways. It runs SQL Server engine on ARM64 devices (like Raspberry Pi or Jetson Nano) and includes streaming capabilities.

Architecture

flowchart LR
    Sensor -->|MQTT| EdgeHub[IoT Edge Hub]
    EdgeHub -->|JSON| SQLEdge[SQL Edge Container]
    SQLEdge -->|Filter/Agg| Cloud[Azure SQL / Blob]
    
    style SQLEdge fill:#E1F5FE,stroke:#0277BD

Streaming T-SQL

You can create a `STREAM` object in T-SQL to process incoming data windows.

CREATE STREAM TempSensorData (
    SensorId nvarchar(10),
    Temperature float,
    EventTime datetime2
);

-- Streaming aggregation (Tumbling Window)
SELECT 
    SensorId,
    AVG(Temperature) as AvgTemp,
    System.Timestamp() as WindowEnd
INTO AvgTemps
FROM TempSensorData
GROUP BY SensorId, TumblingWindow(second, 10);

Key Takeaways

• Runs on ARM64 and x64 Docker.
• Supports time-series data handling natively.
• Syncs data to Azure when connectivity is restored (Data Sync).