On Wednesday January 23 2013, I am presenting (or will have presented) on Windows Azure during the January MadPass meeting. Below is a collection of links on various Azure resources which I felt contained good information, some of which made it into my presentation.

General Windows Azure

• Video on YouTube for a Windows Azure Data Center Tour
• Azure Pricing Calculator
• Azure Pricing Details
• Scott Gu’s Blog (Product announcements and examples)
• Buck Woody’s Azure DevOps blog post (a collection of links)

Running Sql on Azure VM’s

• Best Practices for Running SQL Server in Windows Azure Virtual Machine
• Michael Washam’s Blog (Microsoft Evangelist – Managing Azure using PowerShell and the Api)
• Sql IaaS Cookbook (Microsoft managed wiki for best practices for running Sql on Azure VMs).
• Predeployment I/O Best Practices (For any type of Sql Server install)

Windows Azure Sql Database (formally known as Sql Azure)

• Ten Ways to Ensure Windows Azure-Based Applications Are Architected for Success
• SSIS Tips Tricks and Best Practices: SSIS Operational and Tuning Guide (for Sql Azure)
• Comparing Windows Azure Sql Db to Sql Server (Performance and Scalability)
• Comparing Windows Azure Sql Db to Sql Server (Features)
• Transact-Sql Support
• Architecture
• More Architecture (at the bottom of this page….Future Plans for Sql DB including point in time restore)
• System Views
• Troubleshoot and Optimize Queries with Windows Azure SQL Database
• Examples of using Sys tables (DMVs). See “March Madness” series.