Now in preview, Azure Database for MySQL supports continuous asynchronous replication of data from one server ("master") to up to five servers ("replicas") in the same region. This allows read-heavy workloads to scale beyond the capacity constraints of one server and be balanced across replica servers according to users' preference.
Replica servers are read-only, except for writes replicated from data changes on the master. Stopping replication to a replica server causes it to become a standalone server that accepts reads and writes.
Learn more about read replicas and how to create replicas by using the Azure portal.