What is SQLMI?

SQL Managed Instance (SQL MI) is a fully managed platform as a service (PaaS) database engine offered by Microsoft Azure. It's a part of the Azure SQL family and provides near 100% compatibility with the latest SQL Server (Enterprise Edition) database engine, allowing for easy lift-and-shift migrations of on-premises SQL Server databases to the cloud with minimal application changes. It handles most of the database management functions such as upgrading, patching, backups, and monitoring without user involvement. SQL MI is commonly used for migrating existing SQL Server workloads to the cloud, modernizing database applications, and building new applications that require high performance, security, and availability.