News
SQL Server 2012 Offers Testing Capabilities for Amazon Cloud
- By David Ramel
- October 28, 2011
Amazon and Microsoft have teamed up to give developers a way to test Microsoft's upcoming version of its SQL Server in the Amazon cloud.
The collaboration of Microsoft SQL Server 2012 and the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) means developers only have to pay standard Amazon Web Services (AWS) rates to test the beta database software, currently in Community Technology Preview 3. AWS pricing for "standard on-demand instances" ranges from 12 cents to 96 cents per hour.
An AWS site promises easy deployment in five minutes. "With AWS, companies can utilize the Cloud to easily test the new functionality and features of 'Denali,’ without having to purchase and manage hardware," the site says. "This provides customers with faster time to evaluation, without any of the complexity related to setting up and configuring a test lab for beta software."
The Denali program is part of a broader initiative in which Microsoft has developed Amazon Machine Images (AMI) for testing of Web-based products such as WebMatrix and database-related software -- basically SQL Server 2008 R2 -- all running on Windows Server 2008 R2. Denali AMI was created just a couple weeks ago.
About the Author
David Ramel is an editor and writer at Converge 360.