What Azure service allows hosting of multiple databases while minimizing management overhead and enabling dynamic scaling?

The Azure SQL Database Elastic Pool is designed specifically to host multiple databases within a single resource pool, optimizing resource usage and reducing management overhead. This service allows databases with varying and unpredictable usage patterns to share the same set of resources, making it an efficient choice for scenarios where workloads fluctuate.

By utilizing an Elastic Pool, you can dynamically scale resources based on the needs of individual databases, which is particularly useful in multi-tenant applications or scenarios where databases experience varying demand throughout the day. This ensures that each database can utilize more resources during peak times and reduce consumption during periods of low activity, all while remaining within the defined limits of the pool.

This capability not only simplifies management because you deal with pooled resources rather than individually managing each database, but it also allows for cost-effectiveness since you pay for the collective resources rather than each database's dedicated resources. This scaling and pooling feature distinguishes Azure SQL Database Elastic Pools as an optimal solution for minimizing overhead while maximizing flexibility in database hosting environments.