No need to cluster, unless you're running Windows Server 2003. It was re-written in Server 2008 to avoid the need for the clustered aspect, although some people still prefer to...

Thanks for the thoughts - we'd checked routing and they were identical. it was suggested the TCP Chimney offloading might be a cause, but I couldn't replicate issue. ...

Have you changed the endpoint in azure to allow the traffic?

Hi Gail,

The object in question is a table called "active_logins" - which has 4 rows in it

Last query for the spid is

FETCH API_CURSOR0000000000000704

the spid is being initiated...