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dzirkelbFlag for United States of America

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Microsoft SQL Cloud Replication

I need the ability to replicate our sql data to the cloud.  I see google has one, but it is mysql.  Amazon has one, but I doesn’t offer replication services.  I tried a simple GoDaddy hosting account, no go.

Any recommendations?
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Ess Kay
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awardspace
I would choose Azure.
You still need replication tools on your premises. The steps would be:

a. Setup the SQL environment in the cloud (I recommend Amazon over Azure)
b. Setup the replication tools in your private environment.
c. Setup your network to allow the required outgoing connections

Amazon does not offer replication services, because you already have replication services built-in inside SQL server, and they can be used with an Amazon SQL instance.

Depending on your needs, you may use something like this
http://www.cloudberrylab.com/amazon-s3-sql-backup.aspx

Or tools like these
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms151198.aspx
Re:
>>a. Setup the SQL environment in the cloud (I recommend Amazon over Azure)
>>b. Setup the replication tools in your private environment.

That's exactly why I'd use Azure, because assuming you're already using SQL Server and Visual Studio in your development platform, with Azure (a) and (b) are almost resolved out of the box or need minimal effort and the integration with the rest of the development tools and platform will be seamless.

More importantly with Azure (the last time I checked) you can setup and test the solution for free before committing to make any purchase.
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ASKER

What I'm looking to do is essentially just connect to the cloud sql server with management studio, and replicate data to it.  Then, in the event of a disaster, grab that data back and query it when needed.  I'll take a look at Azure and get back to you, thanks.
Azure looks like exactly what I'm looking for, but that price is way too hefty for what I want to pay.  I'm looking to pay 50 dollars a month or so.  Azure offers so much stuff that jacks up the price for what we don't need.

As an fyi, we are upgrading our WAN, and will set up replication between two locations myself for the long term, but for the short term, I was looking for a quick fix, maybe a 3-6 month solution.  Maybe that will help a little bit in describing what I'm looking for, aka, cheap.
for free, use this
http://sqlbackupandftp.com/

you can get a server at awardspace with unlimited bandwith and space for about 5/mo
http://calculator.s3.amazonaws.com/index.html#key=calc-6C2466D7-9058-4457-A881-85655F505455&r=IAD&s=EC2

a Micro instance with Windows and Web SQL server, 50GB storage will cost ya $52/month

RDS is free for a year, but does not support replication :(

I skipped the optional snapshots, backup storage, private AMI etc, although in real life I highly recommend looking at a cloud environment as more than a place to run virtual servers.
I thought Amazon sql server cloud storage didn't support replication?

sqlbackupandftp is a backup solution from what it looks like, not a replication service.
Amazon have 2 flavors of SQL:

* RDS is Database as a Service. It does very well its own internal replication and HA but cannot be used with external databases.

* Run SQL on your own windows server. When you do it, on the one hand you are now fully responsible for the server management, but on the other hand gain full flexibilty just likean in-house server in your dc.
I already have SQL running on my own windows server, and I need to replicate it's data to the cloud.  So, looks like Amazon is out, correct?

If there aren't any out there for cheap, then so be it, we wait 3 months for our own cloud.
We have our own cloud these days, but prior to that I used RackSpace for a cloud-based SQL Server for a while and setup replication between that server and our physical infrastructure. I can't remember their price though as it was quite a while ago and it has surely changed since then anyway.

Effort-wise it took me the best part of a day to setup SQL Server from scratch, setup security and FW, migrate the data and setup replications (two-way transactional) but after that it was fairly hassle-free.
Maybe it's worth checking their prices.
Looks like Rackspace only offers MySQL databases.

I'd rather not go the route of creating a full-blown virtual server, as I'm sure I'd have to license a server 2013 install, along with a sql 2012 install
Perhaps it's changed recently. They definitely used to provide MS SQL Server in the past. Wish I could be of more help...
Good luck with your project and let us know if you find a solution, it'll surely be useful for others in the community.
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Shalom Carmel
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