Microsoft unveils Azure DocumentDB, a NoSQL database as a service — Tech News and Analysis [GigaOM]

See this Microsoft page for more Azure DocumentDB details

"The DocumentDB moniker might remind some of the popular MongoDB or Couchbase NoSQL databases, but T.K. “Ranga” Rengarajan, corporate vice president of Microsoft Data Platform, explained it as much more in an interview about the new offerings. Currently available as a technology preview, DocumentDB allows for SQL-like queries on semi-structured data (i.e., JSON files) and supports strong consistency for transactional applications. To boost performance, it utilizes the in-memory Hekaton technology that Microsoft incorporated into SQL Server earlier this year. It includes libraries for .NET, Node.js, JavaScript and Python.

As far as other cloud-provider-developed services go, DocumentDB sounds a lot more like Google’s similarly understated Cloud Datastore service than it does Amazon Web Services’ DynamoDB, which is actually more like a key-value store than a document database."

Microsoft unveils Azure DocumentDB, a NoSQL database as a service — Tech News and Analysis