Leveraging the Cloud Using Microsoft\u27s SQL Azure Database Platform

The growing demands that businesses place on their data and application environments are causing IT departments to increase capital investments to keep application environments running optimally with near zero downtime. Cloud Computing offers a solution to these challenges by providing software, platforms, and infrastructure as services. Databases hosted in the cloud adequately scale resources and make data redundantly available while taking pressure off of database administrators and developers. A review of cloud computing is given with particular emphasis on SQL Azure and how its features are able to solve complex problems faced by IT departments today. SQL Azure is analyzed and its features are brought to light in real world scenarios by a qualitative study of cloud computing and Database As A Service