The Next Generation Cloud Database

Microsoft SQL Azure Database is a highly available, and scalable cloud database service built on SQL Server technologies. With SQL Azure, developers do not have to install, setup, patch or manage any software. High availability and fault tolerance is built-in and no physical administration is required. Additionally, developers can get productive on SQL Azure quickly by using the same familiar T-SQL based relational model and the same powerful development and management tools used for on-premises databases.

Use SQL Azure Database to

• Extend business opportunities and reach new markets by building Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications quickly and efficiently
• Build custom enterprise and web applications that benefit from scale-out database capabilities
• Extend reach of data assets and consolidate data sources in the cloud to facilitate greater collaboration between partners, branch offices, remote workers and mobile devices
• Streamline resources by consolidating existing departmental databases in the cloud and quickly provision new databases
• Develop solutions that provide new insight into business performance and processes by integrating multiple data sources with existing analysis tools

Top Benefits of SQL Azure Database

• No physical administration required – software installation and patching is included, as this is a platform as a service (PAAS)
• High availability and fault tolerance are built in
• Simple provisioning and deployment of multiple databases
• Scale databases up or down based on business needs
• Multitenant
• Integration with SQL Server and tooling including Visual Studio®
• Support for T-SQL-based familiar relational database model
• Option for pay-as-you-go pricing

Top Features of SQL Azure Database

Relational Database Management Services (RDBMS)

• Create, access, and manipulate tables, views, indexes, roles, stored procedures, triggers, and functions
• Execute complex queries and joins across multiple tables
• Insert, Update, and Delete
• Constraints
• Transactions
• Temp tables
• Basic functions (aggregates, math, string, date/time)
• A subset of the existing SQL Server built-in stored procedures and system views
• Support for tracking billable metrics in real time and for historical analysis

Programmability

• Managed ADO.NET data access
• Native ODBC
• Support for PHP
• JDBC Support

Tools

• Provision logical servers and databases through the SQL Azure Database account portal, which includes a lightweight web-based database manager.
• SQL Server Management Studio: an integrated environment with graphics tools for accessing and configuring SQL Server and SQL Azure databases: 32-bit | 64 bit
• Visual Studio 2010 supports building applications with data connections to SQL Azure, enabling developers to design queries, manipulate data and perform data binding operations in their applications from the Visual Studio environment.
• In addition to the above, a number of tools support SQL Azure for activities such as moving and migrating data, as well as command line deployment and administration. Read more here.

SQL Azure Data Sync

SQL Azure Data Sync, currently in CTP (Community Technology Preview) is a cloud-based data synchronization service built on Microsoft Sync Framework technologies. It provides bi-directional data synchronization and data management capabilities allowing data to be easily shared between multiple SQL Azure databases and between on-premises and SQL Azure databases.

• Extend enterprise data to the cloud, rather than replacing it, by synchronizing on-premises SQL Server with SQL Azure
• Synchronize data between SQL Azure databases within a data center, to help scale-out data access across multiple databases for elastic demand and usage spikes
• Synchronize data between SQL Azure databases in different data centers, to extend data and provide geo-available data access

Top Features SQL Azure Data Sync

• Elastic Scale: Service scales as resources requirements grow
• No-Code Sync Configuration: Easily define data to be synchronized with easy to use tools
• Schedule Sync: Choose how often data is synchronized
• Conflict Handling: Handle issues where same data is changed in multiple locations
• Logging and Monitoring: Administration capabilities for tracking data and monitoring potential issues
• Data sub-setting: Control of tables to be synchronized between SQL Azure database

Resources for SQL Azure Data Sync

• Register for SQL Azure Data Sync CTP2
• Sync Framework Developer Center on MSDN
• Read the Sync Framework Blog and Sync Framework whitepaper

Pricing and Metering

You can provision multiple SQL Azure databases for your application(s). The databases can be either Web or Business Edition databases. A single Web Edition databases can support up to 5 GB of data, and uses billing increments of 1GB and 5GB. A Business Edition database will support up to 50 GB, and uses 10 GB billing increments.

You will be billed based on the peak database size in a day, rolled up to the next billing increment. SQL Azure Database is charged as a monthly fee for each database, but we amortize that database fee over the month and charge you on a daily basis. This daily fee is dependent on which database type you use (Web Edition or Business Edition). For example, if you utilized three 10 GB Business Edition databases for 1 day in a 30 day month, your daily usage for that day would show 0.1 10 GB Business Edition database (3 databases / 30 days).

New to SQL Azure? Find out if it's right for your business.