April 3 update to Microsoft Azure SQL

For those signed up for premium tier (GA), Microsoft's Scott Guthrie announced that SQL databases will be bale to store up to 500GB of data. This is a very significant jump from 150GB. Yet another thing announced was the SLA covering 99.95% of the time.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazure/archive/2014/04/04/sql-database-updates-coming-soon-to-the-premium-preview.aspx

* Active Geo-Replication:

More fail-over options /disaster recovery options with Geo Replication of SQL Azure databases. This feature is also available on Azure Storage. Of course these are for premium subscriptions only for now (available at the end of the month). You can create up to 4 active,readable secondarily in any Azure region allowing you to comply with data regulations .

• Microsoft Adds Self-Service Restore

SQL Azure creates  backup automatically for up to 35 days although this feature will be available towards the end of the month when it is enabled. This should releve the onus on export/import service.

The graphics are from Scott's blog.

Another resource for this info here:

http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/03/microsofts-azure-sql-can-now-store-up-to-500gb-gets-99-95-sla-and-adds-self-service-recovery/