Azure Clouds bringing database showers

My previous post talked about cloud in general. Here I like to talk about databases on the cloud. Just like emails, documents, CRMs and so on cloud computing providers has made database engines available on the cloud as part of SaaS.  Now you don’t have to have a separate server running database engines to support your applications.  No more waiting on system administrators and database administrators to setup database servers and allocate databases. With a press of couple of buttons and in few minutes a new database environment can be made available.

Microsoft SQL Azure is one such database that is on the cloud.  Microsoft has made avalaible their proud SQL Server as part of your windows azure cloud offering.  With SQL Azure, you can create your own SQL server instances and databases for your applications. It can be accessed by other application fabric either on the cloud or from your own internal infrastructure.  Microsoft has two different versions of the SQL Server on the Azure platform : Web and Business.  Each of those again come in different sizes and options.  You can manage the sql server instance either via the management portal or from your favorite SQL Server management tool.   The cost is based on the usage of their windows azure usage.  There is a nice little price estimator that you use to determine how much it might cost you.

In this video I will walk you through on how to setup a free trial SQL Azure account and create your first SQL Azure database :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4plJe1SwAc

Apart from the above video Microsoft also has few videos that will give you in-depth knowledge of Windows and SQL Azure.