Definition
Cosmos DB, also known as Azure Cosmos DB, is a globally distributed, multi-model database service offered by Microsoft Azure. It provides a highly available, low-latency data storage solution that supports various data models including document, key-value, graph, and column-family. Cosmos DB enables applications to elastically scale throughput and storage across any number of Azure regions, ensuring data is always available and close to users. This distributed nature is crucial for modern applications requiring rapid data access and resilience. For instance, a global e-commerce platform might use Cosmos DB to store product catalogs and customer data, ensuring fast load times worldwide. Unlike traditional relational databases that often require complex sharding for global distribution, Cosmos DB handles this automatically. It is frequently encountered in cloud security certifications like CCSP and on AWS certification exams.