Is Azure Application Insights a time-series database?

Question

I was reading some on the Prometheus time-series database, on what their core model was. I've never understood what exactly a time-series database was until then. Excited enough, I started wondering about Azure Application Insights. Sure enough, Application Insights is a very powerful tool and easy to use for .NET Core devs, especially ASP.NET Core. I've used it for years and like it a lot.

I haven't found any official docs (nor un-official) that states whether Application Insights is a time-series database. From looking at the portal, it's atleast presented as a "normal" relational storage.

This brings us to my question - anyone know what kind of database Application Insights actually is?

Thanks for your help!

Answer 1

I think the reality is more complicated (disclaimer: I'm a part of Azure Monitor team) =) There are many underlying databases to power various experiences. Metrics and Logs are powered by different solutions. Recently we released Azure Data Explorer ( https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/data-explorer/ ). Essentially this is a backend which powers both Application Insights and Log Analytics.

Re: time-series. Azure Data Explorer stores all ingested data. Timestamp is one of columns.