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

I have gotten a bunch of questions from people asking what exactly do we mean when we say start with SQL Express and then migrate the app to SQL Azure. I think this is best summarized by a quick customer example…

A couple of weeks ago we had a group of early adopters on campus to take some existing applications and move them to SQL Azure and Windows Azure. The customer simply opened up SQL Server Management Studio and used the Generate Script Wizard to create the DDL and DML for the database. They then connected to their SQL Azure Database and ran the script.

So when we say start with SQL Express, we mean you can develop your SQL Azure application locally using one of the on premises versions of SQL Server (SQL Express is free download) and then easily move it to SQL Azure when the CTP starts in August. So get started 🙂

Any questions or comments, let me know…

-Dave