Connecting to SQL Azure using Entity Framework


The information in this post is out of date.

Visit msdn.com/data/ef for the latest information on current and past releases of EF.

For using EF with SQL Azure see https://msdn.com/data/jj556244


The Entity Framework provides a very powerful way to access data stored in the cloud, particularly in SQL Azure. Over the past month the SQL Azure team has been posting some great info on how to use Entity Framework:

Using EF’s Model First capability with SQL Azure

This walkthrough shows how you can use EF to actually build your tables in SQL Azure directly from the EF designer.

Demo: Using Entity Framework to Create and Query a SQL Azure Database In Less Than 10 Minutes

In this article you’ll see two great videos – in the first, Faisal Mohamood explains what EF is and some of the benefits it offers .NET developers. In the second, you’ll see how EF can be used to create a SQL Azure database from scratch, populate it with data, and query it – all in less than 10 minutes!

Porting the MVC Music Store to SQL Azure

In this article you’ll see how to take the MVC Music Store tutorial application (which uses EF) and port it to SQL Azure.

Finally, check out this month’s issue of MSDN Magazine where Julie Lerman talks about some of the performance considerations when using EF with SQL Azure.