SQL Azure Federations-Product Evaluation Program

As most of  you know the maximum size of a SQL Azure database is currently set at 50 GB.  This is primarily to allow us to recreate a problematic database instance from one of the other two replicas that we maintain under the covers for fault-tolerance. 

Although this limit might be relaxed in the future the scale-put philosophy of the Windows Azure Platform favors partitioning  database data into multiple databases using a technique known as Sharding.  In order to support this technique we are working on releasing a new SQL Azure feature: SQL Azure Federations.

If you’d like to get early access to this feature for building scalable database tiers on SQL Azure, here is the way to nominate yourselves. This is a public nomination process. Nominations do not require a Non-Disclosure agreement (NDA). However if you qualify for the program, we will require an NDA to be signed. Feel free to nominate yourself.