SQL Azure is Microsoft’s new strategy for storing your data in the cloud, but what to do when you exceed the 10/50GB limit. This is where sharding or partitioning comes into play – this session shows you how it can be done in an OLTP system and show you some of the common pitfalls of SQL azure as we have discoverd in analyzing SQL Azure as an alternative to onsite SQL Server instances at different clients.

Consolidation of SQL Server infrastructure has become increasingly popular. This is true from both a technological and financial perspective, may it be through virtualization, instance concentration or in building SQL Server hotel environments. This is an in-depth presentation on one of the biggest consolidation projects ever in the Nordic countries based on SQL Server 2008. This presentation will cover both the business aspects as well as the technical reasons behind this project by two of its top resources. In one year the customer went from nearly 200 physical machines hosting over 1100 databases to only 20 servers without using any form of virtualization!