Companies today are faced with ever-increasing amounts of data from numerous sources that need to be shared across a variety of devices. Meeting these needs requires constant investment in servers, operating systems, storage, and networking. Microsoft® SQL Azure Database, provides an improved way to respond to these challenges with enhanced manageability, scalability, and developer agility. This whitepaper provides an overview of the SQL Azure Database. It lays out the advantages for using a cloud-based relational database service, and also describes practical usage scenarios that help you understand how SQL Azure Database can be used to optimize business solutions.