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It depends! In which context?<br />
<br />
For example, if you are hosting a web site on Azure, also hosting the database in SQL Azure in the same data center is very logical.<br />
<br />
If you are having a Windows Forms or WPF application, having a local SQL server would be more logical (mostly because your performance might suffer from the Internet latency). <br />
<br />
But once that said, there are always some exceptions to one scenario or the other.
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It depends! In which context?

For example, if you are hosting a web site on Azure, also hosting the database in SQL Azure in the same data center is very logical.

If you are having a Windows Forms or WPF application, having a local SQL server would be more logical (mostly because your performance might suffer from the Internet latency).

But once that said, there are always some exceptions to one scenario or the other.

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The questions I have is regards to the technical aspect.<br />
<br />
I know Azure has the ability to scale up and down but.....<br />
<br />
Can you write SPROCs, Triggers, UDT's in Azure?<br />
Do all tables have to have a clustered index?<br />
Does Azure have a reporting service like SQL Server has SSRS?<br />
Is the architecture different than SQL Server?<br />
Do you require Failover or high availability services when writing to SQL?<br />
<br />
Basically, is Azure just like SQL Server but on the cloud?
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The questions I have is regards to the technical aspect.

I know Azure has the ability to scale up and down but.....

Can you write SPROCs, Triggers, UDT's in Azure?
Do all tables have to have a clustered index?
Does Azure have a reporting service like SQL Server has SSRS?
Is the architecture different than SQL Server?
Do you require Failover or high availability services when writing to SQL?

Basically, is Azure just like SQL Server but on the cloud?

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<div class="content wysiwyg-content">
Which would you use and why? &nbsp;Pros / Cons?<br />
<br />
I found this article but it was written in 2010.<br />
<a href="http://sqlmag.com/cloud/sql-server-vs-sql-azure-where-sql-azure-limited" rel="ugc">http://sqlmag.com/cloud/sql-server-vs-sql-azure-where-sql-azure-limited</a>
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Which would you use and why?  Pros / Cons?

I found this article but it was written in 2010.
http://sqlmag.com/cloud/sql-server-vs-sql-azure-where-sql-azure-limited

SQL Server vs Microsoft Azure

Microsoft SQL Server is a suite of relational database management system (RDBMS) products providing multi-user database access functionality.SQL Server is available in multiple versions, typically identified by release year, and versions are subdivided into editions to distinguish between product functionality. Component services include integration (SSIS), reporting (SSRS), analysis (SSAS), data quality, master data, T-SQL and performance tuning.

Microsoft SQL Server

Microsoft Azure is a cloud computing platform and infrastructure for building, deploying and managing applications and services through datacenters. It provides both platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) services and supports many different programming languages, tools and frameworks, including both Microsoft-specific and third-party software and systems. Cloud Services is a PaaS environment and can be used to create scalable applications and services; there are specific software development kits (SDKs) provided by Microsoft for Python, Java, Node.js and .NET. Azure also has file and storage services, data management, analytics and DNS services.