Thanks for the kind words SAM.

By the way the regular SSIS route from R2 doesn't seem to work for getting data into Azure.

I am working with MS to investigate further

For synching your local data there are few options..

Either use the Microsoft Sync based Azure tool. Learn more about it here http://microsoftpdc.com/Sessions/KEY01

and download it here http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=bce4ad61-5b76-4101-8311-e928e7250b9a&displaylang=en

This...

In theory you should be able to connect via any TDS based client (JDBC, ODBC, OLEdb) I believe.

It is live for the purposes of development & deployment.

Its commercial release is next year.

As far as experience. We've been using it for developing concepts and has worked quite well....

Yes, AFAIK billing begins in Jan 2010 - but actual financial transactions wont happen till Feb 2010.

The one month period I believe is to flush out the billing/monitoring and other...

By the way, you can use SQL Server 2008 R2 (CTP) where the SQL Server Management Studio works with Azure (without having to use workarounds)

Download it here http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/R2Downloads.aspx