Microsoft SQL Azure Database Community Technology Preview (CTP) Just Released

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The SQL Azure Database CTP includes:

· Relational data model supporting Transact-SQL (T-SQL), including T-SQL stored procedures. Access SQL Azure with familiar data access APIs such as ODBC, OLE DB, ADO.Net, PHP, etc.   The high degree of compatibility with SQL Server enables easy migration of existing Line of Business (LOB) or Web applications to the cloud.

· Self-provisioning, auto-healing and disaster recovery, with high availability and no physical database administration. Self service provisioning means you can provision any number of databases and not have to worry about machines, disks, or server configuration.

  • Pay-as-you-grow multi-tenant scalable service model.

  • Efficiencies from an enterprise class data center without the administrative overhead.

  • Support for familiar tools so developers can leverage existing skills to speed time to solution

SQL Server Driver for PHP CTP will include:

  • Support for SQL Azure, PHP version 5.3, and UTF-8
  • Support for Scrollable results and row count
  • Migration to the SQL Server 2008 Native Client framework with enhanced performance