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

Julie Lerman writing for MSDN Magazine has written an article titled, “Using the Entity Framework to Reduce Network Latency to SQL Azure.” This article examines mitigation strategies for addressing network latency with SQL Azure Database when connecting from on-premises applications, which can substantially affect overall application performance. Fortunately, a good understanding of the effects of network latency leaves you in a powerful position to use the Entity Framework to reduce that impact in the context of SQL Azure Database.

These concerns are eliminated if the application is running on Windows Azure and is deployed to the same datacenter as your SQL Azure Database.

Read: Using the Entity Framework to Reduce Network Latency to SQL Azure