Updated: Introducing the Azure Services Platform

The main introductory whitepaper to the Azure platform written by David Chappell has been updated. The main updates are around SQL Data Services and the move toward a more relational model and the introduction of something code-named the “Huron” data hub which uses the Microsoft Sync Framework to synchronize multiple databases (SQL, SQL Compact, etc) in a multi-master fashion. There will also be an SDK so that other databases can be synchronized as well. The document is well written and if you really absorb it you can start to see the scope and scale of the Microsoft vision for cloud computing.