Windows Azure Data Storage

Chapter 7

Relational Data

IN THIS CHAPTER

• The architecture of Windows Azure SQL Databases
• Deploying SQL Server onto an Azure VM
• Defining the schema for your Azure SQL Database
• Sharding your Azure SQL Database

The idea of SQL Server “in the cloud” has been in the minds of developers and administrators for a number of years. While SQL Server is quite a solid database and supports a wide variety of architectures, until the introduction of Windows Azure SQL Databases (WASD), there needed to be some hardware on which it was hosted. This is not a big deterrent for many uses. But if you are a typical business developer, there are probably numerous times when you have longed to quickly create a live database. While SQL Express is fine for the niche that it fills, it doesn’t work well with a large number of simultaneous users or if you use it to support a website.

Windows Azure SQL Databases fill in some of that void. It is now very easy to create a SQL database without needing to worry about where the physical machine will be hosted. The database can be accessed using the same tools that you are familiar with (and some that are new). Data can be retrieved or updated using client technology that is probably already being used in your application. In other words, it provides many of the benefits of SQL Server while eliminating some of the headaches. A trade-off worth making, in many instances.

In this chapter, you will learn about some of the details regarding how SQL Server can be used ...