title: Cross Subscription Copying of Databases on Windows Azure SQL Database
body: <p>We are about to split our testing and production instances in Windows Azure into two separate subscriptions.  Currently we have 3 Windows Azure SQL Database instances that reside within the same subscription:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Production</li>
  <li>Reporting</li>
  <li>Testing</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>In order to completely isolate production we are splitting these into:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Production Subscription
  <ul>
  <li>Production</li>
  <li>Reporting</li>
  </ul></li>
  <li>Testing Subscription
  <ul>
  <li>Testing</li>
  </ul></li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>At the moment we use the <code>CREATE DATABASE X AS COPY OF [ServerName].Y</code> command to copy databases from production to testing before we obfuscate the live data.  This operation can be performed so long as the databases are geo-located in the <strong>same data centre</strong> and we have a <strong>shared login</strong> across the instances that created the database in the first place (<a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/ff951631.aspx" rel="noreferrer">As indicated by this article</a>).</p>
  
  <p>However; the article does not indicate whether the source and destination instance need to belong to the <strong>same subscription</strong>.  Are we able to copy the database between the production subscription and testing subscription (And vica verca) assuming we use a consistent login?</p>