About a year ago, Microsoft's SQL Azure (neé SQL Services (neé SQL Server Data Services)) was introduced to give customers a "pay-as-you-grow", scalable, and highly available database service, essentially offered as data as a service (DaaS). While not often mentioned as part of the triumverate of cloud computing (being infrastructure, platform, or software as a service), DaaS is one of those technologuies that is making headway without calling much attention to itself, and Microsoft (along with other services, such as Amazon's S3 platform) are making a real play for the domain. Microsoft just renamed their service today, no doubt to demonstrate its alignment to their Azure platform.
Relatedly, a year ago, Yahoo! announced YQL (the Yahoo! Query Language), a means that allows users to query and organize data across web data sources or services; essentially allowing SELECT statements. Today, YQL added INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE statements, now allowing developers write data back to other services. The Yahoo! Developer Network blog has some interesting tutorials on how to use their language and access their API.
Erhan J. Kartaltepe,
erhan.kartaltepe-at-utsa.edu
