People using database workloads like SQL and Oracle often demand of the high memory, I/O bandwidth, and storage because the workloads they are running are not CPU intensive. VM size is the actual requirement as it reduces the cost of software and saves the person from the excessive cost of software licensing without altering the features like storage, I/O bandwidth, and memory.

Azure offers the latest versions of VM sizes like DS, ES, GS, and MS which constrains the half of the VM size as compared to the vCPU size without putting an impact on memory, I/O bandwidth, and storage. You can identify these VM sizes from their suffix which are the number of active vCPUs. The new VM sizes are mentioned below with memory, disks, I/O bandwidth, and active vCPUs. The licensing of the new SQL server and Oracle are charged on the basis of new vCPU and with the increased ratio of 50% to 75%. However, these sizes are available only in Azure and allow pushing higher CPU utilization at fraction of licensing cost.

If you have licensed SQL server of these new VM sizes for BYOL images or manually installing servers, you have to license the restricted vCPU count only. Start using these new VM sizes and get SQL Server pricing guidance.