I have finally gotten around to playing with my SQL Azure token and here are the first impressions.
The big promise of SQL Azure over its predecessor SQL Data Services was that you would be able to work with a cloud database very much like you would with an on-premise one. Sure enough, I was able to create a database, populate it with tables and data through scripts and then change an ASP.Net application to use the Azure database instead of the on-premise one by simply changing the connection string. Very cool.
The idea is that you administer and program against the Azure database using the tools you now know. You can even connect to the SQL Azure database using SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) with the CTP, however, you are limited to a query window with the connection sequence being a bit funky. See
http://tinyurl.com/mw49ae for instructions on connecting in SSMS and SQLCmd. You can see, though, that this functionality is coming and you should be able to connect to a SQL Azure in SSMS Object Explorer just like any other database you are now working with.
Initially SQL Azure will support only core database capabilities; however plans are in the works to also deliver Data Sync by enabling the sync framework (soon after PDC), additional SQL Server capabilities available as a service such as Business Intelligence and Reporting and new services like Reference Data and Secure Data Hub.
Pricing has been announced and plays into an approach for scaling out partitioning scenarios. Here’s the pricing.
Web Edition
1 GB Database - $9.99 / month
Bandwidth - $0.10 /GB inbound, $0.10 /GB outbound
Server Edition
10GB Database - $99.99 / month
Bandwidth - $0.10 /GB inbound, $0.15 /GB outbound
Pricing notes: Size specified by MAXSIZE on CREATE DATABASE command or portal (post-CTP1), you CANNOT switch between Web and Business Editions and it is a monthly billing period.
You can scale out your Azure database so as increase throughput for massive loads or to increase the relational database storage volume beyond 10 GB or to scale out on low cost commodity hardware. You can imagine scaling out to 10 1GB Web Edition databases as opposed to 1 Server Edition database or multiple databases for huge deployments beyond 10GB.
The Gold Coast Users Group
http://GCUsersGroup.org is holding its September 10th meeting on SQL Azure and its October 8th meeting on SQL Server 2008 R2, so stop on by for more information, if you are in the South Florida area.