Monday, January 04, 2010

Major Momentum for SQL Azure – Upgrade your account today

by davidrob via SQL Azure Team Blog on 1/4/2010 5:36:29 PM

SQL Azure Database ended the year on a high note and continues to experience major momentum with more than 13,000 accounts during the Community Technology Preview (CTP) phase. We are grateful for the feedback from the CTP users and to the 25 TAP customers. You can see how some of those customers are using SQL Azure.

Upgrade today: Starting today you can upgrade your Community Technology Preview (CTP) accounts to paid commercial subscriptions. If you upgrade your CTP accounts during the month of January, 2010, all Windows Azure platform usage incurred during this month will be at no charge. You will also have full visibility during this month to your Windows Azure platform usage. Billing and SLAs for all commercial accounts will begin on February 1st, 2010. The Windows Azure platform blog covers all of the updates.

To upgrade your CTP accounts: Please visit our offer page and select the offer of your choice.  When you purchase the selected offer, you will need to sign in with the same Windows Live ID as that associated with your CTP accounts. If you wish to purchase a new commercial subscription but NOT upgrade your existing CTP accounts, please utilize a different Windows Live ID other than the one used with your CTP accounts when ordering or remove all applications and data associated with your CTP accounts prior to sign up.

If you elect not to upgrade, on February 1, 2010 your SQL Azure CTP accounts will be able to keep using their existing databases but will no longer be able to create new databases.  On March 1, 2010, the SQL Azure CTP accounts that have not been upgraded will be deleted. It is important to export your data if you do not plan to upgrade to a commercial subscription prior to these dates.

Microsoft codename 'Dallas' will continue to be offered as CTP.  Codename ‘Dallas’ enables developers and information workers to instantly find, purchase, and manage Web services and datasets to power the next set of killer applications on any platform.  In its first month, codename ‘Dallas” has more than 1,500 invitation requests fulfilled and 4.5 million transactions across datasets for the CTP.  There are also hundreds of content providers and partners engaged in the upcoming ecosystem to provide content and services.

Microsoft’s vision is to deliver an information platform enabling all businesses to gain strategic value from information. Companies are looking to compete and grow by reducing costs and identifying the highest value opportunities for their business. As key drivers of this vision, SQL Azure and Microsoft codename “Dallas” can help customers and partners reduce costs  and simplify provisioning and management by integrating with existing toolsets, adapting to meet fluctuating service demands and providing symmetry with on-premises and cloud databases.