Whitepaper: Inside in SQL Azure

Kalen Delaney has written a good whitepaper about the inside in SQL Azure. This is a must read for people who are Corporate decision makers, SQL Server database developers and DBA's. A lot is already writting about SQL Azure however this document is a good overview

SQL Azure Database is Microsoft’s cloud-based relational database service. Cloud computing refers to the applications delivered as services over the Internet and includes the systems, both hardware and software, providing those services from centralized data centers. This introductory section will present basic information about what SQL Azure is and what it is not, define general terminology for use in describing SQL Azure databases and applications, and provide an overview of the rest of the paper

Next topics are discussed:

1. What is SQL Azure?
2. What is in this whitepaper
3. What is NOT in this whitepaper
4. Terminology
5. Target Audience
6. Prerequisites
7. Setting up SQL Azure
1. Subscriptions
2. Databases
8. Security
9. Compatibility with SQL Server
10. SQL Azure Architecture Overview
1. Logical Databases on a SQL Azure Server
2. Network topology
3. Services Layer
4. Platform Layer
11. High Availability with SQL Azure
12. Scalability with SQL Azure
1. Throttling
2. Load Balancer
13. SQL Azure Development Considerations
14. SQL Azure Management
15. Future Plans for SQL Azure
16. Conclusion

Enjoy reading this whitepaper: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/inside-sql-azure.aspx