Microsoft Corp. has made it easier for Azure SQL users to access and query their databases and data warehouses with the addition of a new Query Editor tool, alongside several other cloud updates.

The update means users no longer need to switch to a new tool, as Query Editor enables them to write queries, execute Transact SQL scripts and manage query results directly from their browser. “Many common queries can be run in this editor, such as create new table, display table data, edit table data, create a stored procedure or drop table,” Ninar Nuemah, Azure SQL program manager at Microsoft, wrote in a blog post.

The editor also enables partial queries and batch queries, while writing scripts is also much simpler due to its syntax highlighting and error indicating features, Neumah added. Query Editor, which has been made available as a preview, can be found under each database’s or data warehouse’s Tools menu.

In a second update, Microsoft has added support for UTF-16 encoded delimited text files, making it easier to load data into Azure SQL data warehouses via PolyBase. Before this update, users had to re-encode files into the UTF-8 format, a drawn out process that involved duplicating lots of data.

Microsoft has also made a bunch of new services available to its customers in Germany. These include Power BI, Cool Blob Storage and Mobile Apps for Azure App Service , and the HDInsight on Linux big data service. At the same time, Microsoft said all of these workloads will adhere to the country’s strict data residency requirements.

Microsoft Azure Germany has also gained ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO/IEC 27018 certifications, John Bruno Sr., director of Microsoft Azure, said in a separate blog post. The first of those, ISO/IEC 27001, refers to an information security standard which governs how sensitive data is secured via a risk management process that takes into account people, processes and IT systems.

Meanwhile, ISO/IEC 27018 is a code of practice based on EU data protection laws, providing “specific guidance to cloud service providers acting as processors of personally identifiable information on assessing risks and implementing state-of-the-art controls for protecting PII data,” Bruno said.

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