SQL Azure

Abstract

At the end of July 2009 Microsoft announced SQL Azure community technology preview (CTP) and aimed to go live in November 2009 for SQL Azure and to phase out SQL Data Services (SDS). SQL Azure and SDS are both cloud-based services but are built using different data models. With the introduction of SQL Azure, Azure has reached a breakthrough point, leaving this new platform in a good position to be accepted by the enterprise and for winning marking share, since:

• SQL Azure is the first cloud service completely supporting the relational database model.

• SQL Azure is fully committed to supporting T-SQL, SQL query, stored procedures, data views, and so on.

• SQL Azure supports the traditional Windows user/password security model.

• The first release of SQL Azure is almost fully compatible with all existing relational development tools and IDEs, such as SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) and Visual Studio.

• SQL Azure allows all SQL developers and IT staff to seamlessly migrate from an onpremises environment to a cloud environment with almost no learning curve. All knowledge and skills for SQL developers and IT staff can be applied to SQL Azure. This should remove a big concern from when the Azure framework was announced in October 2008 regarding potential job losses for the IT industry (worries brought on because the infrastructure and data storage hardware for an organization no longer need to exist in the organization).

• SQL Azure supports PHP, which makes SQL Azure more friendly to Internet applications.