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

The 2010 PASS summit in Seattle, WA is being held the November 8^th-11^th. In preparation here is a list of sessions about SQL Azure being given – almost all of them by the SQL Azure team. This is a good chance to learn more about SQL Azure and ask questions.

A lap around Microsoft SQL Azure and a discussion of what’s new

Tony Petrossian

SQL Azure provides a highly available and scalable relational database engine in the cloud. In this session we will provide an introduction to SQL Azure and the technologies that enable such functions as automatic high-availability. We will demonstrate several new enhancements we have added to SQL Azure based on the feedback we’ve received from the community since launching the service earlier this year.

Building Offline Applications for Windows Phones and Other Devices using Sync Framework and SQL Azure

Maheshwar Jayaraman

In this session you will learn how to build a client application that operates against locally stored data and uses synchronization to keep up-to-date with a SQL Azure database. See how Sync Framework can be used to build caching and offline capabilities into your client application, making your users productive when disconnected and making your user experience more compelling even when a connection is available. See how to develop offline applications for Windows Phone 7 and Silverlight, plus how the services support any other client platform, such as iPhone and HTML5 applications, using the open web-based sync protocol.

Migrating & Authoring Applications to Microsoft SQL Azure

Cihan Biyikoglu

Are you looking to migrate your on-premise applications and database from MySql or other RDBMs to SQL Azure? Or are you simply focused on the easiest ways to get your SQL Server database up to SQL Azure? Then, this session is for you. We cover two fundamental areas in this session: application data access tier and the database schema+data. In Part 1, we dive into application data-access tier, covering common migration issues as well as best practices that will help make your data-access tier more resilient in the cloud and on SQL Azure. In Part 2, the focus is on database migration. We go through migrating schema and data, taking a look at tools and techniques for efficient transfer of schema through Management Studio and Data-Tier Application (DAC). Then, we discover efficient ways of moving small and large data into SQL Azure through tools like SSIS and BCP. We close the session with a glimpse into what is in store in future for easing migration of applications into SQL Azure.

Building Large Scale Database Solutions on SQL Azure

Cihan Biyikoglu

SQL Azure is a great fit for elastic, large scale and cost effective database solution with many TBs and PBs of data. In this talk we will explore the patterns and practices that help you develop and deploy applications that can exploit full power of the elastic, highly available and scalable SQL Azure Databases. The talk will detail modern scalable application design techniques such as sharding and horizontal partitioning and dive into future enhancements to SQL Azure Databases.

Introducing SQL Azure Reporting Services

Nino Bice, Vasile Paraschiv

Introducing SQL Azure Reporting Services – An in-depth review of the recently announced SQL Azure Reporting Services feature complete with demo’s, architectural review, code samples and just as importantly a discussion on how this new feature can provide important cloud capabilities for your company. If you are a BI professional, System Integrator, Consultant, ISV or have operational reporting needs within your organization then you must not miss this session that talks to Microsoft’s ongoing commitment to SQL Azure and Cloud computing.

Loading and Backing Up SQL Azure Databases

Geoff Snowman

SQL Azure provides high availability by maintaining multiple copies of your database, but that doesn’t mean that you should just trust Azure and assume your data is safe. If your data is mission critical, you should maintain a backup outside the Azure infrastructure. The database is also vulnerable to administration errors. If you accidentally truncate a table in your production database, that change will immediately be copied to all replicas, and there is no way to recover that table. In this session, you’ll see how to use SSIS and BCP to back up a SQL Azure database. We’ll also demonstrate processes you can use to move data from an on-premise database to SQL Azure. Finally, we’ll discuss procedures for migrating your database from staging to production, to avoid the risks associated with implementing DDL directly in your production database.

SQL Azure Data Sync – Integrating On-Premises Data with the Cloud

Mark Scurrell

In this session we will introduce you to the concept of “Getting Data Where You Need It”. We will show you how our new cloud based SQL Azure Data Sync Service enables on-premises SQL Server data to be shared with cloud-based applications. We will then show how the Data Sync Service allows data to be synchronized across geographically dispersed SQL Azure databases.

SQLCAT: SQL Azure Learning from Real-World Deployments

Abirami Iyer, Cihan Biyikoglu, Michael Thomassy

SQL Azure was released in January, 2010 and this session will discuss the what we have learned from a few of our first live, real-world implementations. We will showcase a few customer implementations by discussing their architecture and the features required to make them successful on SQL Azure. The session will cover our lessons learned and best practices on SQL Azure connectivity, sharding and partitioning, database migration and troubleshooting techniques. This is a 300 level session requiring an intermediate understanding of SQL Server

SQLCAT: Administering SQL Azure and new challenges for DBAs

George Varghese, Lubor Kollar

SQL Azure represents significant shift in DBA’s responsibilities. Some tasks become obsolete (e.g. disk management, HA), some need new approaches (e.g. tuning, provisioning) and some are brand new (e.g. billing). This presentation goes over the discrepancies between administering the classic SQL Server and SQL Azure.