Getting Started With PowerPivot and SQL Azure
PowerPivot is a powerful, downloadable extension to Microsoft Excel 2010 that allows you to perform business intelligence and analytics against known data sources. One excellent data source you can use is your SQL Azure database. This article will talk about getting started with SQL Azure as a data source, a process that is so easy you will need little help.
One big advantage of using SQL Azure as a data source is that it can be accessed anywhere there is Internet connectivity, and you can store large amounts of data securely and with high availability. Your PowerPivot users can run their reports on the road, without having to VPN into your datacenter. Also, they do not have to travel with a snapshot of data, which is outdated the minute after the snapshot.