Microsoft SQL Azure: Spatial database management in the cloud

Azure is Microsoft’s cloud computing platform and the instance of SQL Server that runs on Azure, i.e. SQL Azure, is geospatial-ready.  SQL Azure is SQL in the cloud with a few restrictions. Microsoft provides a full replication of SQL Server in the cloud and the hassle of being the database administer is completely removed, according to Ed Katibah, SQL Server Spatial’s program manager.

To briefly review, SQL Server Spatial was designed for a developer to leverage geospatial data. There is no embedded mapping application. It has only two datatypes: "Geography" data type that deals with geodetic data, and the "Geometry" data type that deals with planar data. SQL Spatial is completely OGC compliant and supports simple feature specifications.

New for the next release of SQL Server is the SQL Server Reporting Service that will access SQL Server Spatial functionality such that query and review of spatial data is fully supported. The Reporting Tool is comprised of executable functions and designed simply to provide basic reporting so don’t expect it to be a mapping tool as well.

SQL Azure with spatial functionality will be released this June. A migration tool for moving SQL Server to SQL Azure is available on Microsoft’s Codeplex but see Ed’s blog (SpatialEd) to get more details. Katibah notes that one key feature coming in SQL 11 is a self tuning capability so "stay tuned."