14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft is making the first development milestone of SQL Azure available to customers. Essentially, the Redmond company announced that the first Community Technology Preview for its relational database management system (RDBMS) for the Cloud went live as of August 18th, 2009. With SQL Azure, the software giant is laboring to extend the capabilities associated with the SQL data platform into the Cloud. At the same time, Microsoft is using branding as a means to underline the intimate connection between the Windows Azure Cloud operating system and the SQL Azure Cloud RDBMS.
“It’s a really exciting day for everyone involved in SQL Azure. [On August 18th] we’ve announced that CTP1 is available to customers. Over the next couple of weeks everyone who has already requested an Invitation Code should be receiving one in an email. If you haven’t already requested one please do so here. Once we get through the list of developers who have already requested access, new requested will be processed in a day or two,” revealed Zach Skyles Owens, Microsoft technical evangelist.
It was in the first half of July 2009 that the Redmond company announced the rebranding of the Microsoft SQL Services. Starting with the past month, the company is referring to the now former Microsoft SQL Services as SQL Azure. At the same time, the rebranding also affected the relational database service of the Microsoft SQL Services. The company transitioned the SQL Data Services under the Windows Azure umbrella and rebranded it as the Microsoft SQL Azure Database.
“We’ve delivered a bunch of new SQL Azure content in the August release of the Windows Azure Platform Training Kit including: Presentations - Introduction to SQL Azure; Building Applications using SQL Azure; Scaling Out with SQL Azure; Demos - Preparing your SQL Azure Account; Connecting to SQL Azure; Managing Logins & Security in SQL Azure; Creating Objects in SQL Azure; Migrating Database Schemas to SQL Azure; Moving Data into and out of SQL Azure using SSIS; Building a Simple SQL Azure App; Scaling Out SQL Azure with Database Sharding and Hands on Labs - Introduction to SQL Azure; Migrating Databases to SQL Azure; Building Your First SQL Azure App,” Owens added.