I am investigating Azure for a potential project, and one of its aspects is visualizing data captured and stored in Windows Azure Sql Databases.
"Visualization" is a quality that is mentioned in several articles that and I've read and searches that I have made, but I cannot find any good guidance on how to exactly do this.
Here is an article that mentions Hadoop and Storm via HDInsight: http://www.informationweek.com/big-data/big-data-analytics/microsoft-brings-storm-stream-analysis-to-hadoop/d/d-id/1316686
It features this image: http://www.informationweek.com/big-data/big-data-analytics/microsoft-brings-storm-stream-analysis-to-hadoop/d/d-id/1316686?image_number=1
As you can see, there is a "presentation and action" component (far right). It suggests Excel -- which makes the most sense at this point -- and custom dashboards, etc.
Before suggesting Excel (the "best" answer at this point based on my efforts), I wanted to pose the question here to see if there is something better/obvious that I am overlooking.
Based on answers provided on MSDN Forums, the best way of viewing Azure Sql Data is by using Excel, or connecting to the source via Sql Server Reporting Services: http://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/1950/how-to-connect-to-sql-azure-using-sql-server-reporting-services-2008-r2/