Introduction to SQL Azure Databases at SQLdays

This week I did two talks at SQLdays, Erding, Germany. One of them was an “Introduction to SQL Azure Databases”. As it was an introductionary level 200 talk, I had lot of slides to explain the concepts and the use cases pro & contra cloud computing, but also prepared some quick demos to show how to

• subscribe to Azure,
• create a server,
• create a database, and last-but-not-least,
• manage a database

The aim was, that the attendees could get an impression, how putting a database in Microsoft’s cloud offering would “feel” alike.

You can finde my slidedeck here.

Unfortunately through my demos I had to discover that I could not find the link to “Azure Online SQL Database Management”, which I was sure was there the other day, when I rehearsed my demos.

Doing a proper research I found the solution:
When I upgraded my server from V11 to V12 (to get the new (preview) features like Auditing, Dynamic data masking, Transparent data encryption, …) I unintentionally disabled the SQL Database Management, which is a deprecated feature and not available for databases in V12.

Personally I feel really bad about the fact, that SQL Database Mangement is abandoned in the new version. On the one hand I can understand, that resources even in a big company like Microsoft are not unlimited, but on the other hand being able to manage your database objects through the browser without any need to install tools locally, was really helpful. From V12 on we have to stick to tools installed on-premises on your client to maintain tables, views, indexes, and the like.

Sincerly,
Markus Ehrenmüller-Jensen
@MEhrenmueller & @SQLederhose