At the PASS Summit 2011 keynote session, Quentin Clark, corporate vice president of Microsoft SQL Server Database Systems Group, highlighted the cloud readiness of Microsoft SQL Server 2012, including interoperability with SQL Azure and appliances such as HP’s.

For starters, Clark highlighted just how deeply the SQL Azure and SQL Server 2012 solutions are integrated:

Now, The VAR Guy has some in-depth analysis of the HP Enterprise Database Consolidation Appliance optimized for SQL Server, which at the high level places your database in a private cloud — a solution that Microsoft claims is the first of its kind, reducing database deployment times from weeks to minutes.

In addition, Microsoft is launching two of its famous community technology previews (CTP) for solutions designed to connect on-premises and cloud-based SQL databases and boost BI, as per the press release:

And down the line, Microsoft is promising new features such as SQL Azure Federation, which would let developers build and scale out applications across multiple databases; an increase in SQL Azure size to 150GB; and SQL Server 2012 backups directly to SQL Azure.

In other words, Microsoft is serious about tightening the bonds between its server and cloud businesses. TalkinCloud will be watching very closely for more updates.