Introduction to Microsoft Azure: Part 3 (Data Service)

The successful login will get you into the SQL management portal that enables doing both database administration and design related underlying tasks, including creation and deletion of tables, creation of procedures and triggers as well as the firing of queries against them. The following figure shows the designing editor of a typical table leveraging all the essential parameters.



Moreover, the portal makes available the column manipulation, index and primary key set up and data filling facility into tables. The following Images show the champu table with filling rows as;



Database Query against a SQL object is a significant undertaking for retrieving the desired results in a fast and efficient manner. Hence, SQL Azure portal also offers query processing related task as well as shows the statistics of query execution by means of a query estimation and actual plan option. The following figure shows the editor that aids in the launching of queries against database objects, as in here where we are retrieving the rows with a salary greater than 2000.



In spite of that, you can analyze the essential information and parameters of any existing database like when the database was created, total size, consumed space and collation data as in the following.

Connection String Retrival

The connection string information is essential to establish a connection with any database. For instance, in .NET the middleware technology ADO.NET is employed to set up a connection with SQL Server to retrieve record sets. The SQL Azure portal fortunately offers not only connection string information to the .NET front-end application but also can generate a connection automatically for JSP and PHP web applications as in the following:

Big Data and Storage

Big Data (by definition) stores a huge amount of data in a combination of relational and non-relational databases. It is rather complex to analyze Big Data when it is stored in many different manners, for instance XML flat-file databases, text-based log files and binary format storage systems. Hence, an Apache open source project Hadoop is used for handing the problem of analysis of Big Data. In this way, the Windows Azure implementation of Hadoop is called HDInsight, uses clustered virtual machines to store data and analyze data using HDFS. The following figure shows the creation of Hadoop storage in an Azure cloud.



The Azure Storage is a feature exposed by the virtual operating system to offer a location slot for an application to store and read data. It is somewhat like a conventional memory partition, although as with every Windows Azure feature, it is exposed as a logical resource, not a physical one; it has neither a disk drive letter nor a normal path. You can also request multiple local storages, in case you prefer to store data in different places rather than in different folders. Besides that, the storage account can be located in any Windows Azure data center across the globe. The following figure shows the configuration of Azure storage via portal.

Recovery and Backup

The Windows Azure Backup utility lets you automate the backup process of your business data to the cloud because the backup or recovery of any database is a primary task involved in protecting your vital business data. Backups of valuable data to a different location is considered to be a best practice because it eliminates a single point of failure for data restoration. Further, you can rely on the Backup Agent to specify a backup schedule for your registered servers to recover data from the cloud in case a problem occurs when accessing your physical servers. Hence, the SQL Azure portal allows the creation of backup and recovery objects to sustain your business activities as in the following:

Conclusion

During the course of this article, we have covered the fundamentals of SQL Azure as well as stated the importance of SQL Azure cloud features that replaced SQL Data Services. We have seen how to create tables, insert data and query the database using the SQL cloud Management Studio. Moreover, we have explored the storage feature of Azure services that are similar to traditional computer storage, to keep safe our vital data for future retrieval from anywhere. Finally, we have explained the recovery and backup service that is the most significant requirement of any database management system to keep secure and available the data.

References

• http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/services/ data-management/
• http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/documentation/services/ sql-database/
• Storage documentation.
• Getting the Most out of Windows Azure Storage.
• HDInsight (Hadoop) documentation.