wow! SQL Azure is evolving fast! year 2010 saw FIVE service updates! and in 2011, we saw a service update in may 2011 and the July 2011 is almost here!
So, what’s new in SQL Azure in July 2011 SU?
1. SQL Azure co-administrator support has been added
2. Creating firewall rule for server with IP detect has been added
3. There has been an Engine upgrade and that means increased performance and scalability!
4. Enhanced spatial data types support
This Update is also takes a first step to include features of upcoming SQL server Denali. Read official announcement and do not miss to upgrade SQL server management studio; URL: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazure/archive/2011/07/13/announcing-sql-azure-july-2011-service-release.aspx
PS: I help manage http://beyondrelational.com/whatisnew/sqlserver/azure.aspx which is aimed at keeping a tab on new SQL Azure updates. check it out!
when it will be?
Hopefully by July 2011 because that’s what the announcements says “July 2011”. Honestly, i do not know, i am just speculating. 🙂
In fact if you look at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff602419.aspx, you will find that at the bottom of the page, there is a section called “recently added enhancements” and couple of features are already included. For instance, i checked out the co administrator support for SQL Azure and it works already!
It’s an awesome update! and even i look forward to official release!
FYI: SQL Azure Q2 updates are in production! check out http://parasdoshi.com/whats-new-in-sql-azure/ for updates!
how do they do it withoput downitme?
Interesting question! you know, SQL Azure keeps three replica’s in total of a provisioned database. Though the replica’s are in same data center, they are invariably in a different server stack. And updates are not carried out on all servers at a single point in time. So that we have some or other other replica that is ready to cater to our needs.
Also, if the primary replica is down (due to service update), the service will automatically redirect the requests to another replica and at this point you may face a little downtime (From FAQ’s few seconds to minutes). And to tackle this, we need to have retry mechanism in our application.
HTH
🙂 yes i read about that.
thank you.
sure. Good to know!
in the new realse we have :
Performance improvements: With the addition of a local temporary cache and optimized network bandwidth utilization, users should see significantly lower initial load times. When the new portal first loads, it prompts users to increase the local storage amount. Sensitive data is not stored in the local temporary cache so there are no security risks
where can i read about it and about the calculation of it?
i believe you are referring to Azure portal updates [july 2011], i am not aware of any official document that compares the performance. But i know that the local temp cache is not utilized when you are browsing in “in private” mode. so you can try comparing the performance of in private mode vs normal browsing mode. But it will be difficult to benchmark the performance.
thanks
FYI: SQL Azure Q2 updates are in production! check out http://parasdoshi.com/whats-new-in-sql-azure/ for updates!