Overview

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced the discontinuation of its Amazon Quantum Ledger Database (QLDB). Their documentation has been updated to indicate that support for QLDB will end on July 31, 2025. AWS’s decision has prompted many customers to explore alternative solutions for their ledger database needs.

Introducing ledger in Azure SQL

AWS propose Aurora PostgreSQL for audit use cases as an alternative to QLDB for common ledger database use cases. While Aurora offers detailed audit logging and permanent log retention, it does not include cryptographic verifiability.

Microsoft offers an excellent replacement through its ledger feature in Azure SQL. It provides similar functionalities, ensuring data integrity through cryptographic verification, and leverages the full capabilities of Azure SQL. Ledger is a feature that offers the power of Blockchain in Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance and SQL Server. Ledger allows establishing trust across different business entities while maintaining the simplicity and performance of a relational database. The data is centrally managed, and you can cryptographically attest to other parties, such as auditors or business partners, that your data can be trusted and hasn’t been tampered with.

More information about ledger in Azure SQL and SQL Server can be found in the ledger documentation.

Key features of ledger

Captures and cryptographically links data changes to make the data tamper-evident and verifiable.
Uses the same SQL environment you already know.
Is easy to deploy and maintain.
It comes with NO extra cost.

Migration support

Amazon QLDB uses a document-oriented data model. The complexity lies in normalizing data during migration, converting the document model into a relational model, and handling any changes to the document model. Microsoft can assist organizations in migrating from Amazon QLDB to Azure SQL Database. For more detailed information and to initiate the migration process, organizations are encouraged to contact Microsoft support or their Microsoft Account Manager.

Conclusion

Even though QLDB is being phased out, Microsoft offers an excellent alternative for users to host their data with cryptographic immutability. This ensures they can uphold rigorous data integrity standards. Ledger in Azure SQL serves as a strong alternative, with effortless integration into the Azure SQL environment.

Useful links

For more information and to get started with ledger in Azure SQL, see:

Explore the Azure SQL Database ledger documentation
Read the whitepaper
GitHub demo/sample
Data Exposed episode (video)
Listen to the ledger podcast

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