[This article was contributed by the SQL Azure team.]

SQL Azure Data Sync provides a cloud based synchronization service built on top of the Microsoft Sync Framework.  It provides bi-directional data synchronization and capabilities to easily share data across SQL Azure instances and multiple data centers.   Last week Russ Herman posted a step-by-step walkthrough of SQL Azure to SQL Server synchronization to the TechNet Wiki.  

Typical usage scenarios for Data Sync

• On-Premises to Cloud
• Cloud to Cloud
• Cloud to Enterprise
• Bi-directional or  sync-to-hub or sync-from-hub synchronization

Conclusion

The SQL Azure Data Sync is a rapidly maturing synchronization framework meant to provide synchronization in cloud and hybrid cloud solutions utilizing SQL Azure.  In a typical usage scenario, one SQL Azure instance is the “hub” database, which provides bi-directional messaging to member databases in the synchronization scheme. 

Resources

• SQL Azure Data Sync Wiki
• Microsoft Sync Framework Dev Center
• SQL Azure Data Sync Blog
• SQL Azure Data Sync Supported Data Types
• Email syncfdbk@microsoft.com
• Twitter @syncfx