Bytes from the Blog

Abstract

According to the SQL Azure FAQ page on Microsoft's website, Microsoft SQL Services is being renamed to Microsoft SQL Azure. According to Microsoft, with SQL Azure Database, you don't have to set up, patch, or manage database software.

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SQL Data Services Is Now SQL Azure Database

Remember when Microsoft's cloud-based database service, SQL Server Data Services, was rebranded SQL Data Services? (Oh, right, that was just last year!) Well in true Microsoft product-naming fashion, SQL Data Services has been rebranded SQL Azure Database, effective immediately. Nothing like making this product as confusing as possible to follow, right?

According to the SQL Azure FAQ page on Microsoft's website, "Microsoft SQL Services is being renamed to Microsoft SQL Azure. There is no change in the product strategy roadmap, availability timeline, or business model. Microsoft received great feedback from customers on naming the cloud database Windows Azure and decided to rename SQL Services to SQL Azure."

SQL Azure Database is a database service hosted in the cloud that's built on SQL Server and Windows Server. According to Microsoft, with SQL Azure Database, you don't have to set up, patch, or manage database software. It includes built-in high availability, data protection, backup and recovery, and disaster recovery. And this cloud service scales easily because it's built on a globally distributed data center.

At Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference 2009, which took place in New Orleans last week, Bob Muglia, the president of Microsoft's Server and Tools Business, announced the licensing and pricing model for Windows Azure and SQL Azure. These services will be available for purchase under a consumption-based model, which means you pay only for the services you use. The pricing model for SQL Azure is as follows:

* Web Edition- $9.99 per month for relational databases up to 1GB in size.

* Business Edition - $99.99 for relational databases more than IGB in size. (As of right now, SQL Azure has a 10GB relational database size limit.)

* Bandwidth - $.10 inbound and $.15 outbound per gigabyte.

According to Microsoft, Web Edition is best for web applications and custom departmental applications. Business Edition is aimed at ISV-packaged line-of-business (LOB) applications and custom departmental applications.

SQL Azure will be available at PDC 2009, which takes place in Los Angeles November 17-20. However, you can test SQL Azure for free by registering for the Community Technology Preview (CTP). For more information about this cloud-based database service, visit the SQL Azure Database page at www.microsoft.com/azure/sql.mspx.

Logic Puzzle - Dice Substitute

Mywife and I like to play backgammon. Recently we sat in a pub in the UK. and wanted to r play, but didn't have the equipment. We figured that it shouldn't be impossible to improvise a decent backgammon game with materials that are readily available to an average person sitting in a pub. The materials we ended up using were: paper, a pen, the pub menu, and coins. We drew the backgammon board on a sheet of paper, using the pub menu as a substitute for a ruler. As playing pieces we used small pieces of paper with an 'x' symbol for one player and an 'o' symbol for the other.

We decided to use coins as substitute for the dice, but ran into a logical puzzle - what system based on coins to use that will provide an adequate alternative to dice? We wanted a system that:

* has six different possible states that would represent for us the numbers 1 through 6

* in each round, produces a random state with the same probability for each state to be chosen

Can you think of a system that meets the puzzle's requirements? It doesn't have to incorporate exactly three coins, but it does have to meet both requirements presented above. BTW, if you can think of a system that would substitute dice with readily available items to an average person in a pub other than coins, I'd be most interested to hear your idea.

Find all of the responses to Itzik's logic puzzle, as well as which solutions he believes to be the best, at InstantDoc ID 102410.

Sidebar

"Microsoft SQL Services is being renamed to Microsoft SQL Azure. There is no change in the product strategy roadmap, availability timeline, or business model."