I’ve just read the SQL Azure vs. SQL Server whitepaper http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=86f12b41-1eba-4567-9ac8-02eaa7d12034 its only a few pages so one of the lighter documents.

Some interesting and important points which are summarised in the paper e.g. you cannot control where your database files are placed. and also referenced in the Books Online Transact-SQL Support (SQL Azure Database) http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee336250.aspx

The following Transact-SQL features are not supported by SQL Azure:

  • Common Language Runtime (CLR)
  • Database file placement
  • Database mirroring
  • Distributed queries
  • Distributed transactions
  • Filegroup management
  • Global temporary tables
  • Spatial data and indexes
  • SQL Server configuration options
  • SQL Server Service Broker
  • System tables
  • Trace Flags

50GB databases will also be here soon http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlazure/archive/2010/04/16/9997517.aspx