title: SQL Azure - How to measure current workload to estimate when throttling will occure
body: <p>First of all, I'm not a DB expert .. so I'm not sure if my terminology or anything is correct here, but if you can bear with me I hope you'll get the idea.</p>
  
  <p>I have a SQL Azure database which powers a social network. Millions of transactions occur every day from very simple ones to complex SELECTS which sort through tens of thousands of users based on distance etc. </p>
  
  <p>My user numbers grow daily and I know (believe) that at some point I'll need to implement sharding, or make use of SQL Azure Federation to keep my app up and running due to 1 SQL Azure having limited resources ... but my question is, how do I figure out when I'm going to need to do this?</p>
  
  <p>I know that when I start to use too much resources, my queries will be throttled ... but for all I know this could start happening tomorrow, or be years away. </p>
  
  <p>If I know I'm hitting 80% of what I'm allowed to, then I know I need to prioritise a solution to help me scale things out, but if I'm only using 10% then I know I can put this on the back-burner and deal with it later. </p>
  
  <p>I can't find any way, or even mention, of how to measure this?</p>
  
  <p>Any suggestions?</p>
  
  <p>Thanks, </p>
  
  <p>Steven</p>