Some of you may have been heard the announcement at MIX that Microsoft will be creating SQL Server Data Services - basically on-demand data services in the cloud.  From the official SSDS site...

SQL Server Data Services (SSDS) are highly scalable, on-demand data storage and query processing web services. Businesses use storage resources as needed transforming large upfront capital and operations expenditures into much smaller on-demand costs.

Some cool stuff to be sure.  It's is on-demand, virtually unlimited storage capacity, and its all wrapped in nice REST and SOAP interfaces along with a ready-to-use code library (C# and VB, but with XML as the primary wire format you can go to town with the language/platform of your choice).  At the time, Microsoft was just announcing its intention to deliver this type of service in the future.  Well, the future is getting here pretty quick and you can sign up now to be one of the participants in the closed beta.  You can get some more info about SSDS at the Project Astoria site.