Yep. We are SQL consultants, and are telling you to stop using SQL.

Sounds stupid, right? Have we lost our minds? Well, as a matter of fact, occasionally we do suggest our clients to move some stuff out of SQL into, oh say, Amazon S3.

Just did that again today. Well, here's what most people can agree: A SQL database that's twice as large, is four times as expensive. A SQL database that is thrice as large, is nine times as expensive. If you would just look at pricing of licenses and SAN units, you'll see right away. You stand to gain a lot by keeping your main transacitonal database trim and tidy.

Of course, most businesses *need* to keep lots of data around, but take a closer look again. If you have a scenario where you stick data into SQL server just because you have to keep some non-customer-facing logging information out of integration or program execution for debugging or liability reasons, consider NOT storing them in SQL. At the least, not your main transactional database. Writing a simple code to put them in the cloud is a fantastic idea beucase:

* The liablity factor is on them, not you.

* There's no reason why you should suffer from slow backups every night because it incldes same stale data from years ago.

* Writing reporting/data retrieval solution via web or mobile via cloud strage is very easy