How is data in SQL Azure backed up?

SQL Azure automatically creates the database backups that are kept for 35 days, and uses Azure read-access geo-redundant storage to ensure that they are preserved even if the data centre is unavailable. These backups are created automatically.

SQL Database supports self-service for point-in-time restore (PITR) by automatically creating full backup, differential backups, and transaction log backups. Full database backups are created weekly, differential database backups are generally created every 12 hours, and transaction log backups are generally created every 5 - 10 minutes, with the frequency based on the compute size and amount of database activity.

The SQL Azure database service does not allow for any changes to the backup strategy or for the backup jobs to be disabled.