We used this approach to run through some database performance benchmarking for Azure for a real production Sitecore implementation (Sitecore version 8.0). The idea is to use real resource utilization statistics to estimate DTU requirements and Azure SQL database tiers for if/when this workload shifts to Azure. This was for a real site, not LaunchSitecore or JetStream or Habitat 🙂
We ran the tests for an hour, then six hours, then at different times of the day . . . yet the results were consistent each time. The Standard S2 Tier was the recommendation based on our observed workload for every database (Core, Master, and Web databases). This implementation used MongoDB for session state, however, so this doesn’t include SQL Server session state into the calculation.
There were usually around 9% of the time when the DTUs would spike and exceed the Standard S2 capacity, so I’m a bit concerned and curious about what that would translate into if we were running 100% in Azure (probably slow perf for those times — which roughly appeared to align with Sitecore publishing — which means the Standard S2 Tier might not really cut it). We could see Content Authors complaining of slow perf, stalled content updates, etc . . . so this is just a starting point.
Sitecore Architecture 