CloudSpokes, an Appirio-led community rearchitected their solution from Windows Azure to Salesforce’s Database.com:

Initially, Messinger said, his team was really happy with Windows Azure’s table storage and blob storage features, but trouble arose when it came to deploying computing resources called “Web Roles.” […]

Additionally, said Messinger, Windows Azure required some level of database-administration know-how, which is something the CloudSpokes didn’t really want to deal with. It wanted to focus on the front end and other business-critical aspects rather than on DBA work. So it looked to Database.com, and Messinger and Singh haven’t looked back since beginning the transition in mid-July.

This is the first time I’m reading a scenario where DaaS (database as a service) is explicitely mentioned as the main reason for migrating the architecture of an application.

Original title and link: CloudSpokes: From Microsoft Azure to Database.com (NoSQL database©myNoSQL)

via: http://gigaom.com/cloud/cloud-breakup-why-cloudspokes-chose-database-com-over-azure/

Extensive comparison of the upcoming Database.com and Microsoft’s SQL Azure:

Salesforce.com will unbundle its underlying relational database engine from Force.com when the firm releases Database.com’s commercial version in 2011. In the meantime, developers can testdrive Database.com with a free Force.com developer account, which includes a Database.com database having:

• Three enterprise user accounts
• 100,000 rows of storage per month
• 150,000 transactions per month

According to the article, Database.com will support ACID transactions (Apex code), triggers and stored procedures (Apex code), relationships, a query language, full-text search. Looks like a relational database in the cloud, but it doesn’t necessarily need to be underneath.

Original title and link: Preliminary Comparison of Database.com and SQL Azure Features and Capabilities (NoSQL databases © myNoSQL)

via: http://oakleafblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/preliminary-comparison-of-databasecom.html