A standard Dataverse table uses Azure SQL and is designed for structured business data, relationships, transactions, and complex queries.
An elastic table uses Azure Cosmos DB and is designed for very large amounts of data, high-volume requests, and workloads that can grow quickly.
Example:
Use a standard table for Customers and Orders. Use an elastic table for millions of IoT sensor readings or application logs coming in continuously.
Elastic tables also have features such as a Partition Id for distributing data and a Time to Live (TTL) value that can automatically delete records after a specified time.
Below is the quick comparison.
| Standard Table | Elastic Table | |
| Storage | Azure SQL | Azure Cosmos DB |
| Best for | Structured business data | High-volume, rapidly growing data |
| Scaling | Standard Dataverse scaling | Automatic horizontal scaling |
| Transactions | Supports transactions | No multi-record transactions |
| Relationships | Broad relationship support | Limited |
| Special features | — | Partition Id, TTL |
| Example | Customers, Orders | IoT data, logs, telemetry |
