Microsoft SQL Azure evolving nicely

Over the last few weeks I have been testing out Microsoft’s “cloud” based database service called SQL Azure and I have to say it is quite impressive so far.

Although lacking in full MS SQL server features (no reporting services available yet) it has proven to be reliable, fast and a very short learning curve for those already familiar with SQL Server. All good so far then.

There are some immediate blockers you may come across if you are going to build web-based apps and host them in Microsoft’s cloud…

1) You need Windows 7 at least, you cannot build or deploy asp.net apps using XP as it has a reliance on IIS7.

2) You need SQL 2008 R2 Management Studio to connect to your instance of SQL Azure.

As you probably know SQL Azure databases are currently limited to either 1GB or 10GB sizes but this will be increasing to 50GB as Microsoft enhance the Azure platform over the coming months. You can keep an eye on the SQL Azure Team Blog and Twitter pages to keep up with SQL Azure as it evolves….the links are…

1) http://twitter.com/SQLAzure

2) http://blogs.msdn.com/ssds/ 

There are a number of self learning labs and training courses on the SQL Azure Team blog and there is also a free web-based training course run by Microsoft UK starting Monday 10th May (webcasts will be recorded incase you miss the start). Details here … http://geekswithblogs.net/iupdateable/archive/2010/04/20/register-now-for-the-uk-windows-azure-self-paced-interactive-learning.aspx 

Microsoft have certainly got off to a good start with SQL Azure. It is very easy to set up an azure account, create a database, copy over any data to it (you can use BCP, SSIS) and then just connect to the database in the same way you would to your current on-premise SQL Server.

 There are lots of things to consider about using SQL Azure in production as it is not suitable for everyone or every application. But having made it a small jump to get started with SQL Azure it makes it easy for you to figure that out for yourself.

Here is another good blog post from another persons experience of SQL Azure… http://www.keepitsimpleandfast.com/2010/01/my-first-experiences-with-sql-azure-sql.html