Windows Azure Infrastructure as a ServiceOverview of Windows Azure Virtual Machine, Storage and Networking

Windows Azure - Migrating Apps and WorkloadsOverview of what kinds of apps and workloads to migrate and how to get started

Line of Business ApplicationsCustom Applications, CRM, CMS, ERP, Business Intelligence

Application InfrastructureFile Servers, Databases, Identity, Source Control

Developer, Test and Staging Environments Quickly Provision and Un-provision Entire Environments

Hybrid Applications

Supported VersionsSQL Server 2012, 2008 R2, 2008

Supported FeaturesAll SQL Server features supported except failover clustering *

SQL Server ProvisioningCloud-first using stock images, bring your own server / VHD, capture cloud images

SQL Server LicensingPay by the hour or migrate your own license via Software Assurance **

Storage RecommendationsDo not use write caching

Avoid using OS drive for large databases

Consider putting database and transaction log files on separate drives

Consider putting tempdb on the non-persistent cache disk (D:\)

Database RecommendationsConsider using database page compression to reduce I/O

High Availability RecommendationsConsider latency between primary and replica when choosing sync mode

SQL Server

(IaaS)

Windows Azure SQL Database

(PaaS)

Development Migrate Existing Apps Develop New Apps

Management Full Control Managed Service

Compatibility Full SQL Server Capabilities Based on SQL Server Technology

Shared TechnologyNetwork transport (Tabular Data Stream)

SQL dialect (Transact-SQL)

Data access APIs (ADO.NET, ODBC, JDBC)

Development tools (SQL Server Data Tools)

Management tools (SQL Server Management Studio)

Microsoft has a continuous offering from private to public cloud

Windows Azure now supports IaaS workloads

SQL Server is fully supported on Windows Azure Virtual Machine

IaaS is about migration, PaaS is about new development