When you need a SQL database fast, the cloud is the best way to go. Azure provides a SQL database as a Platform as a Service (PaaS) that eliminates the need to get an entire SQL Server up and running.

As you will see in this chapter, companies use SQL Server for many types of applications and on most tiers now. Gone are the days when you would second guess yourself choosing to use SQL Server over a ...

Designing an appropriate set of indexes can be one of the more troubling aspects of developing efficient relational database applications. Perhaps, the most important thing you can do to assure ...