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by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 6/26/2009 10:16:00 AM
Congratulations to the winners of the Azure Developer Challenge. The judges awarded the grand prizes to Kevin Rohling for Impulse and Laith Yousif for Twtri. Check them out.However, this is not quite over. There's still a community-chosen winner. Voting remains open till 6/29. My entry is Joint Venture. ...
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by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 6/21/2009 7:36:00 PM
I'm pleased to announce my latest Silverlight-Azure reference application which is called Joint Venture. Joint Venture provides a workspace for cross-business project teams. That is, teams made up of people from more than one business who are working on some kind of business collaboration. This is an example of a Multi-Enterprise Business Application (MEBA), an app used by multiple businesses who have a relationship with each other. The cloud is an ideal place for business collaboration, providi ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 5/25/2009 11:43:00 PM
I'm speaking on Tuesday 5/26/09 6-9pm at the San Diego .NET User Group. Our topic will be the Azure developer experience. Directions can be found here: http://www.sandiegodotnet.com/ ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 5/9/2009 8:17:00 PM
Azure Storage Explorer 2.1 is now available on CodePlex.Although Azure Storage Explorer has become a popular tool for viewing Azure cloud storage, the most requested feature has been an ability to modify what's in storage. Version 2.1 provides the capability to create or delete blob containers, blob items, queues, queue messages, tables, and table items.2.1 is only a first step towards cloud data editing and there is more planned. In a future update look for a more refined editing UI and feature ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 5/7/2009 1:34:00 AM
Azure Sudoku is now available on CodePlex. This is an Azure-hosted Silverlight implementation of the popular game Sudoku. Various Hawaiian backgrounds accompany each new game.The significance of this project isn't entertainment. It combines Azure, Silverlight, and WCF in the same solution--something that takes a lot of work (and work-arounds) to get right. If you're attempting to combine all 3 technologies for the first time, this project may be helpful to look at and will hopefully save you som ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 5/4/2009 9:30:00 PM
I've written a demo WCF service that calculates mortgage schedules, along with a WPF-based desktop app for invoking the service and displaying the results. The demo is on CodePlex at http://AzureMortgageService.codeplex.com. If you're looking for a working Azure service with a real-world scenario that's clean and simple, you might find this useful. ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 5/4/2009 7:05:00 PM
Microsoft has just announced a contest for Azure developers! Now this should be fun. The contest is called "new CloudApp()" and has an official site at http://www.newcloudapp.com/.Both PHP and .NET applications can be submitted. The .NET and PHP category applications will be judged by industry leaders, Om Malik and Michael Cote. Entries will be evaluated based on user experience and user interface, innovation and creativity of the application, applicability to cloud computing, and real ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 4/29/2009 1:26:00 PM
Best Practice #4 is to favor REST over SOAP, except for those scenarios that demand SOAP. When it comes to cloud computing platforms, it's a RESTful world and Azure is no exception. The vast majority of the services in the platform can only be accessed via REST (even if you're using .NET library code, REST is what's happening under the hood). SOAP isn't completely out of the picture, however. For functionality that depends on WS-* protocols (such as federated security) Azure does use SOAP. Whic ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 4/29/2009 12:55:00 PM
Azure best practice #3 is to apply SOA principles to your cloud applications. The core ideas of SOA apply equally strongly to the cloud:Software components are loosely coupled.Message-based programs do a lot of the work.Boundaries of communication/reliability/security/transactions are a key consideration in solution architecture.Use of standard protocols and message formats provides broad interoperability.Stateless service development is encouraged which facilitates easy load balancing.Communica ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 4/29/2009 12:00:00 PM
Azure best practice #2 is to keep code and the data it needs close to each other. If the code lives in the enterprise, so should the data it frequently accesses. If the code lives in a cloud data center, that's where its data should be also--and in the same geo-location.This best practice is simple common sense: going between the enterprise and the cloud over the Internet is not terribly fast, so you want to keep it to a minimum.This is not an absolute rule, since you may have a perfectly legiti ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 4/28/2009 10:35:00 PM
Some best practices for the Azure cloud computing platform are starting to emerge, and I'll be blogging them as I discover them. I expect the sources for these will be a combination of Microsoft guidance, personal experience, and experiences shared by others in the community.Best Practice #1 is to always run at least 2 instances of any role (this applies to both web roles and worker roles). There's a very important reason for this: your application may be highly unavailable if you fail to do so. ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 4/27/2009 4:37:00 PM
Is it too soon to be talking about design patterns for Azure--a platform that hasn't been released yet? I don't think so: we already have oodles of functionality in the platform and patterns help us think about them and how they can be combined. And it's especially important during this pre-release preview period that we in the community confirm the platform gives us good, well-thought out patterns.And so, AzureDesignPatterns.com is born.Posted on the site currently is my initial enumeration of ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 4/27/2009 8:16:00 AM
I'm please to announce the release of Azure Grid, the community edition of the Neudesic Grid Computing Framework. Azure Grid is available on CodePlex and includes source code.Azure Grid provides a solution template and base classes for easily creating grid computing applications that execute on the Azure platform. It also includes a GUI for starting and monitoring job runs.I've already blogged extensively about grid computing and Azure Grid in my 3-part article series on Azure grid computing:Par ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 4/25/2009 3:11:00 PM
In Part 1 of this series we introduced a design pattern for grid computing on Azure and in Part 2 we wrote the code for a fraud scoring grid computing application named Fraud Check. Here in Part 3 we'll run the application, first locally and then in the cloud. The framework we're using is Azure Grid, the community edition of the Neudesic Grid Computing Framework.We'll need to take care of a few things before we can run our grid application--such as setting up a tracking database and specifying c ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 4/25/2009 8:16:00 AM
In Part 1 of this series we introduced a design pattern for grid computing on Azure. In this article we'll implement the pattern by developing a grid application in C# and in Part 3 we'll run the application, first locally and then in the cloud. In order to do that, we'll need some help from a grid computing framework.The Role of a Grid FrameworkUnless you're prepared to write a great deal of infrastructure software, you'll want to use a framework for your grid application that does the heavy li ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 4/8/2009 12:17:00 PM
The next meeting of the Orange Couny Azure User Group is Thursday, April 23rd at QuickStart Intelligence. Our topic this month is, "What's New in Azure." Since announcing the Azure platform last October, Microsoft has issued several software updates with new features. There have also been some important announcements and events recently. We'll review what's new with SQL Data Services, Windows Azure, and Live Services. We'll demo new Windows Azure features including full trust, native code suppor ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 4/5/2009 2:31:00 AM
In this series of articles we're going to look at grid computing using the Azure cloud computing platform. In Part 1, we'll look at this from a design pattern and benefits perspective.Not everyone is clear on the distinctions between grid computing and cloud computing, so let's begin with a brief explanation of each. While grid computing and cloud computing are not the same thing, there are many synergies between them and using them together makes a lot of sense.Grid ComputingGrid computing is a ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 3/28/2009 6:54:00 PM
I'm pleased to announce the availability of Azure Storage Explorer version 2.0. binaries and source code are downloadable from CodePlex.Azure Storage Explorer is a useful GUI tool for inspecting the data in your Azure cloud storage projects including the logs of your cloud-hosted applications. All three types of cloud storage can be viewed: blobs, queues, and tables.What's New?Improvements over the original version include the following:1. New WPF-based UI with Outlook-style navigation and more ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 3/25/2009 1:53:00 AM
I've been wanting to track my Azure-hosted cloud computing applications in real-time and now there's a way to do so. Azure Application Monitor has just been published on CodePlex.No doubt the Azure platform will eventually give us a means to monitor applications in real-time, but in the meantime this provides one way to do it here and now. I'd attempted this in the past and quickly found I couldn't access process information and performance counters due to the partial trust environment Azure-hos ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 3/18/2009 8:39:00 AM
The March 2009 meeting of the Azure User Group will be Thursday, March 26 and will be on .NET Services. We have a new meeting place going forward thanks to QuickStart Intelligence and we are now on a regular rhythm of meeting the 4th Thursday of every month.Is Cloud Computing really viable for Enterprises? This month we'll be taking an in-depth look at .NET Services, which make the cloud enterprise-accessible. We'll learn about and see demos of each of the 3 .NET Services: The Access Control Ser ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 2/21/2009 10:59:00 PM
In Part 1 of this article, we introduced Live Services and explored how it fits into Azure Cloud Computing. Now in Part 2 we'll take a tour of Live Services and get acquainted with the many services your applications can leverage.Live Mesh and the Live DesktopLive Mesh is a system for synchronization, sharing, and access of your data and applications. You go to http://mesh.com first to sign up for a mesh, and afterward to access your mesh. You can add multiple devices to your mesh, which will so ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 2/21/2009 9:25:00 PM
In this two-part article we'll introduce and explore Live Services, one area of the Azure cloud computing platform.What do Windows Live and cloud computing have to do with each other? On the one hand, there must be some connection since the Azure platform diagram shows an area called "Live Services". On the other hand, Microsoft has long had services and products with the name "Live" that pre-date the Azure platform announcement by years. So how are we to understand all this, and what can Live d ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 2/11/2009 4:01:00 PM
The Azure User Group will have its first Los Angeles meeting on Tuesday of next week (02/17/09), meeting details below. Since this is the first meeting for LA, our topic will be Introduction to Azure Cloud Computing. In addition to introducing the platform, we'll get right into the developer experience and build and deploy an Azure cloud-hosted web site. Hope to see you there!Date: 02/17/09Time: 5pm to 7pmLocation: Microsoft, 333 South Grand Ave, Suite 3300, Los Angeles, CARSVP link: https://www ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 2/11/2009 3:40:00 PM
The next Azure User Group meeting in Orange County is Thursday of next week (2/19/09), meeting details below. We're going to be talking about Live Services. You can't cover Live Services in a single meeting due to how vast it is, so we'll first take a general tour of Live Services illustrated by some demos, followed by an in-depth look at how to integrate Live ID authentication with Azure web sites. Hope to see you there!Date: 02/19/2009Time: 6pm to 8pmLocation: Microsoft Irvine Office - 3 Park ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 1/20/2009 10:25:00 AM
The January Orange County meeting of the Azure User Group is tonight (Tuesday 1/20/09) and will focus on cloud storage. I'll be the speaker. We'll see how to store and retrieve differnt kinds of structured and unstructured data, including BLOBs, queues, and tables.Date: Tuesday, January 20, 2009Time: 6pm-8pmLocation: Microsoft, 3 Park Plaza, Suite 1600, Irvine, CA 92614Topic: Cloud StorageClick to Attend link (please RSVP): http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=134425Hope to see you there if you're i ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 1/19/2009 10:11:00 PM
Azure Blob Sync is a GUI tool that syncs a local file folder to cloud Blob storage or vice-versa. Binaries, sources, and documentation are up on CodePlex.To keep the sync fast, simple, and safe, it uses a very simple algorithm: a file or blob is not copied from source to destination if there is already an item of that name on the destination side.Future plans for AzureBlobSync include a command line version you can use in batch jobs and a means of scheduling automated syncs. ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 1/19/2009 7:55:00 PM
Azure Storage Explorer has been updated. There are 3 items of interest in the new 0.3 preview version:It's built against the January 2009 Azure CTP.Blobs in a folder hierarchy (with prefixes) now display and can be viewed.Blobs whose names end in ".xml" (like log files) are auto-formatted as pretty XML with whitespace to make them more readable. ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 1/13/2009 10:56:00 AM
The Azure Cloud Computing User Group's new web site is now live at http://www.AzureUserGroup.com. This ning-based site replaces the original Community Server Express site we had been using up until now. The new user group site is Azure-themed, has an exciting new look, and offers lots of great community functionality. Theree is a local group page for each region where local meetings are happening, making it easy to find out what's going on in your area. ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 1/9/2009 2:53:00 PM
I've been wanting an easier way to view what's in my Azure cloud storage so I decided to write a tool for the purpose. Azure Storage Explorer now exists and is available here on CodePlex.Today Azure Storage Explorer is limited to letting you view your Azure storage (including data details of your blobs, queue messages, and table records) but eventually I'd like the tool to also allow add/rename/delete operations on storage items and import/export of data.Here's the table storage view. Your table ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 1/8/2009 8:13:00 AM
The January meeting schedule for the Azure Cloud Computing User Group is below. Click on the link to get meeting location and time details, and to sign up that you will be attending.RegionDateClick to Attend LinkOrange County01/20/09http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=134425San Diego01/08/09http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=134383 Phoenix01/22/09http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=134380Salt Lake City01/20/09http://cl.exct.net/?qs=1f4ae2c23c8c323fa28f0c5c69d2f8e3ebaa6fbcb1f32096a3f718c980a19ecfDenver01 ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 1/1/2009 1:57:00 PM
Today "LifeTracks" went live at http://lifetracks.cloudapp.net/. LifeTracks is a social networking web site that leverages the Azure platform for hosting, storage, and authentication with Windows Live Id. The source code and documentation have been posted on CodePlex.LifeTracks is a social networking web site that expands on the popular "what are you doing?" status tracking feature. LifeTracks adds 2 important dimensions to that idea:1. More Detail and MultimediaStatus information is not limite ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 12/19/2008 2:36:00 PM
The Azure Cloud Computing User Group just finished its inaugural meetings in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Denver, Phoenix, San Diego, and Orange County. These meetings have been a great success with as many as 50 attendees in some locations. By next month, we're expecting to add meetings in Seattle, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Dallas, Houston, and Boston as well. Microsoft has helped out with meeting places and has been very supportive.The presentation and demo apps for this first meeting h ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 12/16/2008 8:24:00 PM
What do those color indicators mean in the Azure Dev Fabric? Here's a list: Longer explanation: If you're running your Azure apps locally out of Visual Studio, the Dev Fabric is simulating the cloud environment for you. You can open the Dev Fabric icon by right-clicking the "gears" icon in the system tray. In the Dev Fabric console display you'll see your project, your role(s) (such as WebRole) and your instances. Each instance's status is shown with a colored circle. Since some of these statuse ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 12/14/2008 11:28:00 PM
I've put a new sample on CodePlex that demonstrates Windows Live ID authentication for an Azure web application. "AzureLiveID" is a skeletal Azure web solution that implements Windows Live ID authentication and keeps user profiles in cloud storage. Allowing web users to reference an existing identify is an attractive alternative to forcing them to create yet another user id and password.AzureLiveID is available on CodePlex. ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 12/13/2008 11:12:00 AM
One of the many services made available to your Azure web applications is the ability to authenticate using Windows Live ID. This is an attractive alternative to forcing the user to create and remember yet another user id and password. You can also wire Live ID in to non-Azure web sites, but in this article we're going to focus specifically on how to Live ID-enable your Azure web application. In Part 1, we'll describe the user experience and the page flow model for Live ID authentication. In Par ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 12/10/2008 10:45:00 PM
A national user group for Azure Cloud Computing has been started, and inaugural local meetings are being held this month at Microsoft offices across the country. Local meetings will be held every month. The community site is http://www.CloudComputingUserGroup.com.Initial locations where we have secured willing hosts and a place to meet are Seattle, Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, Phoenix, Denver, Salt Lake City, Dallas, Chicago, Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. Manyof these areas are h ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 12/4/2008 11:06:00 AM
I've created the first in a series of scripted step-by-step guides for Azure demo applications that give precise instructions and screen captures. The first of these, Hello Cloud, is now available for download at the link below. Azure Step by Step: Hello, Cloudhttp://www.savefile.com/files/1915293 Here's an excerpt: ...... ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 11/19/2008 3:47:00 PM
At some point you will need to debug your Azure cloud applications. Here is some guidance on what the options are.Local Debugging. First off, the general hope is that you'll catch and fix problems on your local box long before you place anything into the cloud. Locally you can use familiar tools such as the Visual Studio debugger and event logs and other tools to get to the root of problems.Application Logs. However, it's possible to have an app that works locally that doesn't work when deployed ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 11/18/2008 10:41:00 PM
I recently had a chance to chat with some I.T. people who had been noticing all this cloud computing buzz but didn't see what all the excitement was. Cloud computing seemed like a new word for an old thing: hosting. They knew all about hosting and had been using it for years.Is cloud computing just hosting, re-branded? The answer is no. And yes. Really, it's hosting++. Let's dig in and see how cloud computing is like and unlike hosting.Automatic Provisioning and Deployment. Like standard hosting ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 11/15/2008 4:12:00 PM
Dr. McCloud here once again with another installment of Overcoming Fear of the Cloud. This time we're looking at the fear of cloud storage.Concern about storing data in the cloud is one of the first objections to cloud computing that is raised by some who work in the enterprise. Usually the expression of concern is followed by a gentle but firm explanation of how vital, proprietary, and utterly irreplaceable this information is. The message is clear: the data is critical to the operation of the ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 11/15/2008 2:31:00 PM
If you're having trouble getting cloud storage to run locally on your box, this tip from Neudesic rock star Chris Rolon may help. It's especially likely this is your problem if the version of SQL Server you run isn't SQL Server Express.If you're not running SQL Server Express, you'll need to change two values in the DevelopmentStorage.exe.config file which resides in C:\Program Files\Windows Azure SDK\v1.0\bin to have the correct SQL Server instance name (shown in red below).The first is the Dev ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 11/10/2008 4:40:00 PM
The Less is More RevolutionBy David Pallmann, Director, Custom Application Development, NeudesicI'm making it official and declaring that we are now in the midst of a major revolution in computing, perhaps with overtones that extend beyond technology. I'm calling it The "Less is More" Revolution. It amounts to a major refactoring of how we do things, ...of how we do everything.When I say "Less is More", you probably think instantly of Apple, one of the great success stories in applying less is m ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 11/8/2008 1:44:00 AM
This week I wrote my first "real" Azure app and published it into the cloud. It's called Whatsup, and is available here on CodePlex."Whatsup" is a simple version of the "what are you doing right now" functionality you find on Facebook and other sites. Whatsup lets you post your name and status and view the statuses of others. Here's what it looks like. When you access the page, you see the recent status of others. If you enter your name and status and click Post, the page updates to show your st ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 11/6/2008 11:12:00 PM
Once you've written a Windows Azure cloud application in Visual Studio and tested it locally, it's time to deploy it to the cloud. Here's how:1. In Solution Explorer, right-click the cloud project and select Publish.2. The publish folder for your application will open in Windows Explorer, showing a package file and a config file. You'll need those in a moment.3. The azure.com cloud portal will open up in your web browser (you have signed up and received your cloud account, right? If not, go to h ...
by David Pallmann via David Pallmann's Technology Blog on 10/29/2008 11:15:00 PM
I've been working on a talk / presentation called How Cloud Computing Will Affect Every Developer, with Microsoft's Cloud Computing Platform (Windows Azure) specifically in mind. I used it for the first time today and it worked well.Today at the PDC, Mickey Williams and I gave this talk in the form of a conversation using this presentation for Microsoft's Channel 9 (Internet video). It should be showing up on the Channel 9 site (channel9.msdn.com) soon, I'll include a link once it appears.A PDF ...
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