In this article, we’ll be focusing on the different ways you can build with a Cloud Service, and what exactly happens in terms of virtual machines when you deploy your application.  Read more...

Marcin Policht provides a comprehensive overview of Windows PowerShell’s capabilities in regard to managing SQL Databases (or, in general, cloud-resident resources).  Read more...

Michael Collier takes a look at the key aspects of configuring the diagnostic agent in Microsoft Azure to collect the data you want, and transfer that data to storage on a schedule you define.   Read more...

The convenience, competitive pricing, resiliency, and ease of maintenance of the SQL Database Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering hosted on the Microsoft Azure platform are partially offset by a lack of support for some of the features. These limitations can be eliminated by taking advantage of the Microsoft Azure IaaS capabilities and installing a SQL Server instance in an Azure-hosted VM.  Read more...

Matthew Flatt was trying to measure the performance of a tool interacting with Microsoft Azure, and had trouble getting a consistent test. His solution? Run the tests on VMs in Azure, housed in the same data center as the blob storage.   Read more...

Are all RDBMS heading towards "The Cloud"? Is this something we DBAs and consultants should be doing for our client?  Read more...

Microsoft Azure Queues are a ready-to-use service that loosely connects components or applications through the cloud. This article is the first part in a five-part series about Microsoft Azure Cloud Services by Roman Schacherl.  Read more...

This week Steve Jones asks about moving to the cloud and how interesting that might be to the community?  Read more...

Microsoft Azure Queues are more than just a class or a concept – they're a ready-to-use service that loosely connects components or applications through the cloud. Roman Schacherl provides a helicopter overview of the service.  Read more...

Just Azure, a new site from Cerebrata (part of Red Gate), provides essential technical resources and educational articles to support the Microsoft community in navigating and understanding the rapidly evolving Azure platform.  Read more...

Many people have been unsure of cloud computing and what it means for your particular application. Steve Jones notes there's a great new demo that can help you get started exploring the Azure offerings.  Read more...

Cerebrata has added support for configuring the more detailed level Windows Azure Storage Analytics, as well as managing the Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) setting.   Read more...

Marcin Policht shows you how to migrate on-premise data that is already cloud-compliant to Windows Azure SQL Databases by converting it into a BACPAC formatted file.  Read more...

This is a very simple script can be used as a framework for you to stop and start your VM’s on Azure with Powershell.  Read more...

Windows Azure Tables are intended for the storage of large amounts of schemaless data. Tables are just containers of rows of data. Mike Wood describes the practicalities of getting started with using the system.  Read more...

This article describes how to use the new wizards in SQL Server Management studio to get access to Windows Azure and then create and configure your VM.   Read more...

There are a few challenges associated with deployments of data services in Windows Azure, focusing in particular on SQL Database. In this article we turn our attention to an actual deployment and migration of locally stored data to SQL Database.  Read more...

SQL Server 2012 introduces a new feature to issues backups on the Windows Azure Blob Storage service directly and restore from there when needed. But how does it work and how to get started using T-SQL commands for backup and restore operation?   Read more...

Are you a SQL Server DBA who is now being asked to migrate databases to Windows Azure SQL Database (WASD)? Are you a developer who is writing code for a cloud service that shall use SQL Database as the back-end? This blog post is based on issues encountered while supporting customers that were once in your shoes and the lessons learned in the process.   Read more...

In this article, Marcin Policht looks at migrating existing SQL Server databases to Windows Azure, starting with identifying obstacles associated with such migrations.  Read more...