Site: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazure/ Link: http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsazure/rss.xml
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 2/13/2012 8:23:00 PM
Welcome to the latest edition of our weekly roundup of the latest community-driven news, content and conversations about cloud computing and Windows Azure. Here are the highlights from last week. CloudCover Episode 70 – Windows Azure Demos with Steve Marx (posted Feb. 10.)] MongoDB, Windows Azure (and Node.js) blog post by Neil Mackenzie (posted Feb. 5.) Exporting XML from LightSwitch Part 2 – Azure blog post by Regan Ashworth (posted Feb. 3.) Azure Service Bus: Connectivity a ...
[ read more ]
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 2/10/2012 6:46:00 PM
As part of the Real World Windows Azure interview series, I talked to Vishwas Lele, CTO at Applied Information Sciences (AIS) and Microsoft Regional Director, about their use of Windows Azure. Here’s what he had to say. Himanshu Kumar Singh: Tell me about AIS. Vishwas Lele: Since 1982, AIS (Applied Information Sciences, Inc.) has provided software and systems engineering services to enterprise companies and the U.S. government. AIS specializes in application development, business intellige ...
by DavidMakogonMS via Windows Azure on 2/9/2012 6:15:00 PM
The purpose of the Windows Azure ISV blog series is to highlight some of the accomplishments from the ISVs we’ve worked with during their Windows Azure application development and deployment. Today’s post, written by Naoki Sato, Windows Azure developer evangelist at Microsoft Japan, is about Windows Azure ISV ReedRex Co. LTD and how they’re using Windows Azure to deliver their CMS service for Facebook pages. ReedRex recently launched a new SaaS offering called sociobridge ...
by Michele_Hart via Windows Azure on 2/8/2012 7:13:00 PM
Although Apache Hadoop on Windows Azure is currently only available via CTP, you can get a jumpstart learning all about it by visiting the Apache Hadoop on Windows wiki. This wiki also covers Apache Hadoop on Windows Server. The wiki contains overview information about Apache Hadoop, as well as information about the Hadoop offerings on Windows and related Microsoft technologies, including Windows Azure. It also provides links to more detailed technical content from various sources and in va ...
by RaviBollapragada via Windows Azure on 2/8/2012 5:34:00 PM
Problem at Hand Anyone who has done serious mapping would have encountered the problem of transforming related data from one set of complex structures to another. This is because of the fact that different applications and systems use different ways to normalize data to best suit their needs. When such systems need to interoperate the data must be mapped from one schema structure to another. Observed Pattern One of the most prevalent patterns used to solve this problem, especially when dealing w ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 2/6/2012 7:48:00 PM
If you’re new to the world of Cloud Computing, the new MSDN webcast series, Cloud Computing Soup to Nuts, will be a great place to start learning what it’s all about. Hosted by Microsoft Cloud Evangelist Mike Benkovich, the first session of this new series premieres February 7, 2012 at 11AM PST. From understanding concepts of compute, storage, and roles, to exploring the various services and technologies that make up Windows Azure and SQL Azure, this “Soup to Nuts” series ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 2/6/2012 6:07:00 PM
Welcome to the latest edition of our weekly roundup of the latest community-driven news, content and conversations about cloud computing and Windows Azure. Here are the highlights from last week. Gartner Says Platform as a Service is on the Cusp of Several Years of Strategic Growth, HPC in the Cloud (posted Feb. 1.) Indiana Students Receive $100k to Research Cloud Computing by Charlie Osborne, ZDNet (posted Feb. 1.) More Business Intelligence Moving to the Cloud: Survey by Joe McKendrick, F ...
by Nathan TottenMS via Windows Azure on 2/3/2012 4:52:00 PM
The Windows Azure Toolkit for Social Games makes it easier for developers to quickly build social and casual games using Windows Azure. Last week, we released version 1.2.2 of the toolkit. You can download the source here or the self-extracting package here. This version adds significant performance increases, improved stability, and now uses Autofac for dependency injection. Additionally, as part of this release, we have moved the toolkit Github – this allows you to easily fork, clone, an ...
by Yvonne_Muench via Windows Azure on 2/2/2012 5:20:00 PM
In a previous post, I wrote about traditional ISVs creating spinoffs to market and sell their Software-as-A-Service (SaaS) apps. Recently I was surprised to see Glassboard from Sepia Labs, a spinoff of NewsGator, come across my desk. I’m familiar with NewsGator. Based in Denver, CO, they have 8 years experience in SaaS, and multiple Windows Azure apps under their belt. Why would they go to the trouble of creating a spinoff for their latest Windows Azure app? Almost a thir ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 2/1/2012 6:04:00 PM
IFS has announced the immediate availability of IFS 360 Scheduling on Windows Azure as part of its strategy to leverage cloud computing, citing Windows Azure as a cost-efficient platform for innovative business solutions. IFS 360 Scheduling empowers organizations to deliver on-site customer service excellence. Optimizing resource plans to minimize travel and maximize productive work time for hundreds, or even thousands, of technicians is a complex and compute-intensive task, and IFS 360 Scheduli ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 1/31/2012 5:33:00 PM
As part of the Real World Windows Azure interview series, I talked to Michael Ross, vice president for Delivery at Aidmatrix, about using Windows Azure to help power its humanitarian aid delivery solutions. Here’s what he had to say. Himanshu Kumar Singh: Tell me about the Aidmatrix Foundation. Michael Ross: Well, we create web-based supply-chain management (SCM) solutions that help our partners optimize distributing humanitarian relief. We started in 2001 and are headquartered ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 1/30/2012 6:47:00 PM
Today Microsoft announced BizSpark Plus, an extension of the BizSpark program, which provides higher value offers to startup accelerators around the globe. BizSpark Plus will provide up to $60,000 in Windows Azure compute and storage to select startup accelerators and their startups at no cost. TechStars, recently recognized as the number one accelerator in the world, is one of the first to receive this offering. TechStars will be able to empower each of its startups with this Windows Azure offe ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 1/30/2012 4:58:00 PM
Welcome to the latest edition of our weekly roundup of the latest community-driven news, content and conversations about cloud computing and Windows Azure. Here are the highlights from last week. Guthrie Talks Node.js and Windows Azure at Cloud Event by John K. Waters, ADT Magazine (posted Jan. 27.) EU Seeks Joint National Cloud-Computing Purchases for Growth, Marthe Fourcade and Robert Vapuesta editors, BusinessWeek (posted Jan. 26.) States Allow Voting Via Cloud for Citizens Overseas by E ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 1/27/2012 7:39:00 PM
We are thrilled to announce that two of the four grants program for Imagine Cup will be deploying their programs on Windows Azure. The program is focused on providing opportunities for young people by helping competitors create a business or non-profit that will help solve some of the world’s toughest problems, with the aid of technology. The packages include $75,000 for each team, as well as software, cloud computing services, solution provider support, premium BizSpark accoun ...
by GregoryLeake via Windows Azure on 1/26/2012 8:00:00 PM
It has been just over three months since we made the SQL Azure Data Sync Preview release available in the Windows Azure portal. We are thrilled with the adoption of the service and are pleased to make available an updated preview release with some requested features and fixes. SQL Azure Data Sync allows organizations to easily synchronize between multiple on-premises databases and SQL Azure cloud databases—a key hybrid IT scenario. If you have not used the Data Sync service an ...
by Michael WashamMS via Windows Azure on 1/26/2012 5:15:00 PM
As you may have noticed in the Windows Azure developer portal, we recently released a new management API for Windows Azure Traffic Manager. The new API improves Traffic Manager by allowing developers and IT professionals to script interactions with the service and to interface with the service programmatically. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Windows Azure Traffic Manager, it gives you control of how traffic is distributed between hosted services in different datacenters. T ...
by Brian GoldfarbMS via Windows Azure on 1/25/2012 2:00:00 PM
Last week our friends over at SendGrid shipped new native libraries on GitHub (C#, Node.JS) for Windows Azure developers that make it extremely easy to integrate their mail service into any application built and running in Windows Azure. In addition, SendGrid launched a new offer for Windows Azure customers that provides 25,000 free emails a month! We’ve heard from customers consistently that sending email was too hard and we listened! See detailed, step by step tutorials ...
by Glenn Block MS via Windows Azure on 1/24/2012 10:45:00 PM
Last month we launched our new Windows Azure SDK for Node.js. The release came after months of hard work between Microsoft and Joyent. Since that time we’ve seen a lot of excitement in the Node community around the support for Node.js in Windows Azure. We’re thankful for all the support! Today at the Node Summit in San Franciso, Scott Guthrie demonstrated the SDK, which provides a streamlined experience for Windows developers to build and deploy Node.js apps to Windows Azure using Po ...
by GregoryLeake via Windows Azure on 1/24/2012 9:31:00 PM
We are pleased to announce the general availability of SQL Azure Import/Export! Now available as a production service, SQL Azure Import/Export helps organizations deploy on-premises databases to SQL Azure, and archive SQL Azure and SQL Server databases to Windows Azure Storage. Key improvements in the new production release include: Increased performance & resiliency Progress reporting Selective Export Production support New usage sample EXE This service is provided free of charge to ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 1/23/2012 6:14:00 PM
Welcome to the third edition of our weekly roundup of the latest community-driven news, content and conversations about cloud computing and Windows Azure. Here are the highlights from last week. The Rise of the Cloud CIO: A Silver Lining for IT and Business by Eric Berg, CloudZone (posted Jan. 19) Why CES 2012 Should Have Been Called the Cloud Electronics Show by David Linthicum, InfoWorld (posted Jan. 18) Cloud Server Shipments to Skyrocket in 2012 by Barb Darrow, Gigaom (posted Jan. ...
by ValeryMizonov via Windows Azure on 1/17/2012 6:35:00 PM
We have been getting requests from customers for guidance when to use each of the two cloud-based queuing services offered today on Windows Azure: Windows Azure Queues and Windows Azure Service Bus Queues. To address this, we have put together an article that analyzes the differences and similarities between the two services. By using this information, you can compare and contrast the respective queuing services and be able to make a more informed decision about which solution best meets your ne ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 1/16/2012 6:19:00 PM
Welcome to the second edition of our weekly roundup of the latest community-driven news, content and conversations about cloud computing and Windows Azure. Here are the highlights from last week. Cover Story: Steve Ballmer Reboots by Ashlee Vance, BusinessWeek (posted Jan. 12) Bond University Offers Cloud Computing Course to Students by Charlie Osborne, ZDNet (posted Jan. 11) Feds Refine Cloud Security Standards by Elizabeth Montalbano, InformationWeek (posted Jan. 10) Cloud Computi ...
by Pankaj_AroraMS via Windows Azure on 1/11/2012 4:59:00 PM
Hi, I’m Pankaj Arora, a senior manager in the Microsoft IT Global Strategic Initiatives team. When Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer publicly declared “We’re all in” on cloud computing in March 2010, he wasn’t just referring to Microsoft’s products. He also was giving his IT organization a mandate to move to cloud computing. Since that declaration, my colleagues and I have learned a lot about what it takes to adopt cloud computing at a global enterprise. We now have ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 1/10/2012 6:14:00 PM
Breast cancer is the most common cancer type for women. While the prognosis of many subtypes of breast cancers in general is good, certain types of breast cancer pose high risk for metastases, which account for 95% of the deaths of breast cancer patients. In the treatment of breast cancer, it’s important to be able to assess the likelihood that a primary tumor develops metastases and this is a non-trivial task, as there’s an ocean of genes and their combinations that may contrib ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 1/9/2012 6:23:00 PM
Sometimes it can be a challenge to stay on top of the latest news, content and conversations about cloud computing and Windows Azure. That’s why we’re launching the Windows Azure Community News Roundup series on this blog. Every week, I will post a snapshot of the freshest community-driven content and resources from the previous week. In this first post, I’ve covered the past two weeks worth of interesting articles, posts and tweets. Windows Azure Gets Node.js Update by ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 1/5/2012 5:31:00 PM
The latest Steven Spielberg film, War Horse tells the story of a horse’s journey to the World War 1 battlefields of Flanders. To help promote the film and bring its history to life, UK-based developers at Shoothill have developed the website, The War Horse Journey. Using Deep Zoom technology, Bing Maps, and Windows Azure, the War Horse Journey provides users with an interactive exploration of the world they will view when watching the film. The website is split in two parts: a ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 1/4/2012 4:51:00 PM
If you plan to attend CodeMash next week in Sandusky, Ohio, don’t miss the full-day pre-compiler session, Building Social Games using HTML5 with Windows 8, Windows Azure, and .NET, which will cover the development of social games and feature Windows Azure. In the morning, Nathan Totten along with members of the Windows Azure engineering and evangelism teams will be delivering short presentations on how to get started with building social games using Windows Azure, Windows 8 and leveraging ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 1/3/2012 7:43:00 PM
Mobile usage in Japan is among the highest in the world, with over 90% of the population using mobile devices. More than 90% of these users have mobile data plans, which are commonly 3G-enabled. And while 75% of these mobile internet users are tapping into “social networking” sites from their phones, the top app being used isn’t Facebook, Twitter or even MySpace. It’s a Japan-based social networking site called mixi. Founded in 2004, mixi has more ...
by DavidMakogonMS via Windows Azure on 12/29/2011 5:53:00 PM
The purpose of the Windows Azure ISV blog series is to highlight some of the accomplishments from the ISVs we’ve worked with during their Windows Azure application development and deployment. Today’s post, written by Windows Azure Architect Evangelist Ricardo Villalobos, is about how Digital Folio is using Windows Azure to deliver their online shopping service. Digital Folio is an Internet browser plug-in that allows end users compare prices and find product suggestions w ...
by Glenn Block MS via Windows Azure on 12/28/2011 5:59:00 PM
Earlier this month, we released our first preview of Windows Azure SDK for Node.js. So far the community reaction has been positive and feedback is starting to trickle in with feature requests, bugs, etc. We’re listening and really appreciate the feedback, so keep it coming. Staying true to our commitment to release early and often and in keeping with the holiday tradition, we bring you a gift - the December update. Highlights of this preview: Windows Azure PowerShell for Node.js ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 12/27/2011 6:18:00 PM
The community technology preview (CTP) of Apache Hadoop-based Services for Windows Azure (or Hadoop on Azure) is now available, according to the blog post, “Availability of Community Technology Preview (CTP) of Hadoop based Service on Windows Azure” on the SQL Server Team blog. And according to the blog post, “Helping make Hadoop Easier By Going Metro” on the Microsoft SQL Server Development Customer Advisory Team blog, “one of the great things about the new H ...
by DavidMakogonMS via Windows Azure on 12/22/2011 4:20:00 PM
The purpose of the Windows Azure ISV blog series is to highlight some of the accomplishments from the ISVs we’ve worked with during their Windows Azure application development and deployment. Today’s post is about Windows Azure ISV BrainCredits and how they’re using Windows Azure to deliver their online service. BrainCredits provides a system to help people track all their informal learning on a virtual transcript, including instructor-led or self-study learning, such as ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 12/21/2011 6:36:00 PM
As part of the Real World Windows Azure interview series, I talked to Ernest Kwong, director of technology solutions at Designercity, about using Windows Azure for its interactive karaoke application. Here’s what he had to say. Himanshu Kumar Singh: Tell me about Designercity. Ernest Kwong: Designercity was founded in the United Kingdom in 1995 as a web consulting firm. In 2000, we reestablished our headquarters in Hong Kong, China and began focusing on broader, integra ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 12/20/2011 9:02:00 PM
Below are three important announcements related to the Access Control Service: Extension of the promotional period of Access Control Service to December 1, 2012 Availability of the Access Control Service 1.0 Migration Tool Deprecation of Access Control Service 1.0 on December 20, 2012 Extension of the promotional period of Access Control Service to December 1, 2012 As result of the great feedback we have received from customers regarding the Access Control Service, we are excited to announce t ...
by HarishAgarwal via Windows Azure on 12/20/2011 6:15:00 PM
As part of the December 2011 Labs of Service Bus we are adding a brand-new set of EAI (Enterprise Application Integration) capabilities which includes bridges (commonly referred to as pipelines), transforms, and hybrid connectivity. We will go through the full set of capabilities over a series of blog posts but let us start by discussing EAI bridges and the basic concepts behind it. This post will explain the need for bridges and show how to configure & deploy a simple XML bridge and send me ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 12/19/2011 8:29:00 PM
On November 29, 2011, Windows Azure obtained ISO 27001 certification for its core services following a successful audit by the British Standards Institute (BSI). You can view details of the ISO certificate here, which lists the scope as: “The Information Security Management System for Microsoft Windows Azure including development, operations and support for the compute, storage (XStore), virtual network and virtual machine services, in accordance with Windows Azure ISMS statement of ...
by Glenn Block MSFT via Windows Azure on 12/16/2011 3:22:00 AM
Node.js is an exciting platform that has been increasing in popularity for the past two years. It offers a server side JavaScript programming model ideal for building highly scalable and performant network applications whether on premise or in the cloud. One of its flagship qualities is that it leads you down a path of writing code that is using non-blocking IO thus achieving greater scale. Another is the fact that it is super small and lightweight. It has a very rich ecosystem of modu ...
by R Syam Kumar via Windows Azure on 12/15/2011 7:22:00 PM
This is the second of a two part series on the recently upgraded SQL Azure Management Portal. Click here to view Part I. You can also view a short video demonstration of the upgraded portal here. This blog post will cover the new Administration and Design Workspaces in detail including: Database creation and upgrade via DAC Query monitoring, query plans and query performance statistics Database schema and query designers Database dependency views Database Creation Enhancement ...
by R Syam Kumar via Windows Azure on 12/15/2011 7:20:00 PM
This week we finalized the rollout of the SQL Azure Q4 2011 Service Release, and with this rollout we have significantly upgraded the SQL Azure Management Portal. The upgraded portal is an extension to the Windows Azure Management Portal, and is used to manage your SQL Azure logical servers and physical databases via a new Metro-style user interface. In this two part blog, I will walk through some of the new capabilities and show some tips and tricks along the way. With t ...
by CihanBiyikogluMS via Windows Azure on 12/13/2011 5:22:00 PM
One of the exciting new features in the just-released SQL Azure Q4 2011 Service Release is SQL Azure Federation. In a sentence, SQL Azure Federation enables building elastic and scalable database tiers. Video Presentation of SQL Azure Federation To accompany this blog post, you can also view my short video recording with a demonstration here. Imagine the canonical 3-tier application: these applications handle growing user workloads by adding and removing nodes to their front and middle tiers. Fe ...
by GregoryLeake via Windows Azure on 12/12/2011 7:00:00 PM
Today we are excited to announce the availability of the SQL Azure Q4 Service Release. Announced at PASS Summit in October 2011 and now available worldwide, the Q4 2011 Service Release offers greater flexibility for scaling on demand, and simplifies database monitoring and management. Specifically, we are tripling the maximum database size to 150 GB and introducing SQL Azure Federation to simplify the setup, management, and automation of shards for greater elastic scale. In addition ...
by Bob KellyMS via Windows Azure on 12/12/2011 4:00:00 PM
Today we are announcing multiple updates to Windows Azure that improve ease of use, interoperability, and overall value. Key Highlights: New Developer Experience and Enhanced Interoperability—Access to Windows Azure libraries for .NET, Java, and Node.js is now available under Apache 2 open source license and hosted on GitHub, a new Windows Azure SDK for Node.js makes Windows Azure a first-class environment for Node applications, and a limited preview of an Apache Hadoop based service for ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 12/9/2011 5:15:00 PM
As part of the Real World Windows Azure interview series, I talked to Yun Xu, Sr. director of business development at Gridsum about the migration of its Web Dissector service to Windows Azure. Here’s what he had to say. Himanshu Kumar Singh: Tell me about Gridsum. Yun Xu: Based in Beijing, China, Gridsum is a member of the Microsoft Partner Network and an independent software vendor that develops online business optimization solutions to help our customers measure and ana ...
by James_Conard via Windows Azure on 12/7/2011 8:37:00 PM
Join us LIVE from the Microsoft Redmond Campus next Tuesday, December 13, 2011 for “Learn Windows Azure”, a FREE event for developers to learn how to get started building applications for the cloud with Windows Azure. At this event you will learn how to get started building applications for the cloud from Scott Guthrie, Dave Campbell, and Mark Russinovich and several others. The entire event will broadcast live from Microsoft’s Redmond Campus so you can watch online from anywhe ...
by DavidMakogonMS via Windows Azure on 12/7/2011 5:45:00 PM
Good day! I’m David Makogon, a senior cloud architect for the Windows Azure ISV team. This team has one primary objective: Help ISVs worldwide architect and develop applications and services to Windows Azure. Our team would like to share some of its experiences with you, and we’ll be highlighting some of the accomplishments from the ISVs we’ve worked with during their Windows Azure application development and deployment. We’ll take a look at specific applications from ISV ...
by ElisaFlaskoMS via Windows Azure on 12/6/2011 5:35:00 PM
Over the past year, the Windows Azure Marketplace team has worked directly with data providers to onboard new data into the Marketplace. Today we have over a hundred datasets, from sports statistics to historical weather, available to build apps and perform analytics. Today we are making available tools so that anyone with valuable data can distribute it in the Marketplace through a simple self-service wizard. The publishing wizard allows you to design how your offer will appear on t ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 12/5/2011 6:14:00 PM
The final release of the Enterprise Library Integration Pack for Windows Azure is now available, according to the blog post, “Announcing the Enterprise Library Integration Pack for Windows Azure with Autoscaling, Transient Fault Handling and more”, which posted last Friday to Microsoft Senior Program Manager Grigori Melnik’s “Thoughts on Agile Software Engineering and Beyond” blog. According to the blog post, this release includes a comprehensive set of technical co ...
by ElisaFlaskoMS via Windows Azure on 11/30/2011 5:50:00 PM
Today we announce the release of two new data offers that have recently been added to the Windows Azure Marketplace: Worldwide Historical Weather Data: Provides weather information including historical daily maximum temperature, minimum temperature, precipitation, dewpoint, sea level pressure, windspeed, and wind gust for thousands of locations around the world. Data is available on-line from 2000 through the current week and historical data is added every week for the previous week for a ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 11/29/2011 6:15:00 PM
Microsoft UK Windows Azure Evangelists Eric Nelson and David Gristwood are pulling together what promises to be a great way for UK companies to really dig deep into Windows Azure. Starting January 23, 2012 they will offer Six Weeks of Windows Azure, a program that will provide FREE assistance to UK companies who want to build or extend applications with Windows Azure. During the six weeks they will deliver a series of webinars, surgeries and online support which will cover both the commercial an ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 11/23/2011 5:45:00 PM
Do you remember how to play the childhood game, Rock, Paper, Scissors? Are you a Windows Azure developer in the US? If so, then be sure to take the Rock, Paper, Azure Challenge for your chance at prizes and bragging rights. In this online game, based on Rock Paper Scissors, developers code their own player "Bot", host it on Windows Azure, and battle other competitors for weekly prizes. Here's how it works: Get Your Windows Azure Account: Don't have one? Get your FREE tri ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 11/22/2011 5:21:00 PM
A new series of webcasts about SQL Azure Data Sync are now available on Channel 9. These webcasts provide in-depth coverage and detailed demos of service capabilities and enterprise-to-cloud and cloud-to-cloud scenarios. Three webcasts are currently available: Overview of SQL Azure Data Sync: In this webcast, Mark Scurrell provides on overview of the service capabilities and target scenarios, including a demo showing how SQL Azure Data Sync can be used to share data between on-premi ...
by BradCalder via Windows Azure on 11/21/2011 8:41:33 PM
We recently published a paper describing the internal details of Windows Azure Storage at the 23rd ACM Symposium on Operating Systems Principles (SOSP). The paper can be found here. The conference also posted a video of the talk here. The slides are not really legible in the video, but you can view them separately here. The paper describes how we provision and scale out capacity within and across data centers via storage stamps, and how the storage location service is used to manage our stamps a ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 11/21/2011 5:20:00 PM
Microsoft created the Imagine Cup 10 years ago with the idea that students can and will change the world. This worldwide competition brings together the best and brightest technology students from more than 100 countries to apply their creativity and imagination to solve the world's toughest problems in areas such as education, environment and health care and others. For Imagine Cup 2012, students can choose from three team competitions—Software Design, Game Design: Xbox/Windows, and Game ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 11/17/2011 6:42:00 PM
The Real World Windows Azure series staff recently talked to Bert Craven, Enterprise Architect at easyJet, Europe’s leading low-fare airline, about using Windows Azure Service Bus to securely open up corporate applications to mobile devices at airports all over Europe. Let’s listen in: MSDN: Tell us about the challenges you were trying to solve with Windows Azure Service Bus. Craven: In most airports, we use Common Use platforms to provide departure control services such as bag drop, ...
by Nathan TottenMS via Windows Azure on 11/16/2011 10:00:00 PM
The Windows Azure Toolkit for Social Games makes it easier for developers to quickly build social and casual games using Windows Azure. Today, we have shipped a completely updated version of this toolkit that makes building these games and learning game development even easier. This version of the toolkit is available for download here. Additionally, you can view the full source here. The first version of the Windows Azure Toolkit for Social Games was built around the Tankster ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 11/16/2011 5:35:00 PM
Watch these new video interviews with Travelocity Software Architect Principal Ramon Resma and David Pallman, GM of Custom App Development at Neudesic to learn more about their experiences in the cloud with Windows Azure. Bytes by MSDN: Ramon Resma Join Brian Prince, Principle Developer Evangelist at Microsoft, and Ramon Resma, Software Architect Principal at Travelocity, as they discuss Windows Azure. During this interview Ramon talks about how using Windows Azure for a specific customer- ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 11/15/2011 5:20:00 PM
We’re excited to announce that a new series of free Windows Azure Developer Camps are coming to several cities around the world. Whether you’re a seasoned Windows Azure developer looking to learn about the latest Windows Azure features, or a new Windows Azure developer looking to get up to speed, Windows Azure Developer Camps have something for you. These camps are informal, no-fluff events for developers and by developers where you can learn from Windows Azure experts and have ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 11/14/2011 6:45:00 PM
Today we are simplifying the development experience on Windows Azure with three updates—a new version of the Windows Azure SDK, a new Windows Azure HPC Scheduler SDK, and an updated Windows Azure Platform Training Kit. Whether you are already using Windows Azure or looking for the right moment to get started, these updates make it easier than ever to build applications on Windows Azure. Highlights: Windows Azure SDK (November 2011)—Multiple updates to the Windows Azure T ...
by PaoloSalvatoriMS via Windows Azure on 11/11/2011 6:14:00 PM
The Windows Azure Service Bus Community Technology Preview (CTP), which was released in May 2011, first introduced queues and topics. At that time, the Windows Azure Management Portal didn’t provide a user interface to administer, create and delete messaging entities and the only way to accomplish this task was using the .NET or REST API. For this reason, I decided to build a tool called Service Bus Explorer that would allow developers and system administrators to connect to a Service Bus ...
by RuppertKoch via Windows Azure on 11/9/2011 6:33:00 PM
This post describes how to use the Service Bus brokered messaging features in a way to yield best performance. You can find more details in the full article on MSDN. Use the Service Bus Client Protocol The Service Bus supports the Service Bus client protocol and HTTP. The Service Bus client protocol is more efficient, because it maintains the connection to the Service Bus service as long as the message factory exists. It also implements batching and prefetching. The Service Bus client protocol i ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 11/8/2011 7:00:00 PM
Channel 9 was created in 2004 as a developer-focused community site featuring video channels, discussions and podcasts with Microsoft developers and customers. The goal of the site is to bring forward the people behind the products and connect them with the people who use them. Originally hosted on a third-party ISV, Channel 9 recently completed a move to Windows Azure. In this great new article, Channel 9 Developer Lead Duncan Mackenzie details the move and shares some great g ...
by ValeryMizonov via Windows Azure on 11/7/2011 5:40:00 PM
Integrating an on-premises process with processes running in Windows Azure opens up a wide range of opportunities that enable customers to extend their on-premises solutions into the cloud. Based on real-world customer projects, we have designed and implemented a reference architecture comprising of a production quality hybrid solution that demonstrates how customers can extend their existing on-premises BizTalk Server infrastructure into the Windows Azure environment. The solution is centered o ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 11/4/2011 4:20:00 PM
Cloud Cover is your eye on the Microsoft Cloud. In each episode, Wade and Steve cover Windows Azure, digging into features, discussing the latest news and announcements, and sharing tips and tricks. Here’s what Wade and Steve covered last month: Episode 63: Securely Sharing Files with Windows Azure In this episode, Wade shows a new sample application called BlobShare. The BlobShare Sample is a simple file sharing application that demonstrates the storage services of the Windows Azur ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 11/2/2011 5:13:00 PM
The October release of the Windows Azure Platform Training Kit (WAPTK) is now available as a free download. The Windows Azure Platform Training Kit includes hands-on labs (HOLs), presentations, and samples to help you understand how to build applications that utilize Windows Azure, SQL Azure, and the Windows Azure AppFabric. Download the full training kit including the hands-on labs, demo scripts, and presentations here. Browse through the individual hands-on labs on MSDN here. The O ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 11/1/2011 5:56:00 PM
Photosynth allows you to take multiple photos of the same scene or object and stitch them all together into one big, interactive 3D viewing experience that can be shared with anyone on the web. This translates to a lot of stored data stored - more than a million synths and panos, and more than 40 terabytes (TB) of data representing more than 100 terapixels. When Photosynth launched over three years ago, Windows Azure didn’t exist so they used a partner to provide storage and content distri ...
by ItaiRazMS via Windows Azure on 10/31/2011 4:00:00 PM
On Friday we added relay load balancing to the Service Bus with support for up to 25 listeners per relay endpoint. Relay load balancing greatly simplifies the task of achieving high availability, redundancy, and scalability by supporting multiple listeners per relay endpoint (up to 25) and distributing work across listeners. If your existing solution relies on failover through receiving an AddressAlreadyInUse exception for the same relay endpoint, you will no longer see this behavior. Addi ...
by StevenMartinMS via Windows Azure on 10/27/2011 4:30:00 PM
Effective immediately, we are lowering the price of Windows Azure Storage (from $0.15 to $0.14 per GB per month.) We are also adding commitment volume discounts, which will give high-volume customers additional savings. All Windows Azure Storage customers will automatically receive the reduced storage price effective October 26, 2011. High-volume customers with regular usage are eligible for additional savings through the Storage Core Offer. A breakdown of pricing discounts is listed ...
by PaoloSalvatoriMS via Windows Azure on 10/25/2011 4:49:00 PM
Microsoft BizTalk Server enables organizations to connect and extend heterogeneous systems across the enterprise and with trading partners. The Service Bus is part of Windows Azure and is designed to provide connectivity, queuing, and routing capabilities not only for the cloud applications but also for on-premises applications. Using both together enables a significant number of scenarios in which you can build secure, reliable and scalable hybrid solutions that span the cloud and on premises e ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 10/24/2011 5:23:00 PM
Did you know that you can build your next mobile app on Windows Azure? Better yet, the process of building mobile apps is now easier than ever with the Windows Azure Toolkits for Devices. With support for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone, these toolkits let you easily build apps that use Windows Azure cloud services. For additional inspiration, be sure to check out these case studies to learn how others are using Windows Azure for their mobile solutions. T-Mobile Speeds Time-to-Market for Innova ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 10/20/2011 5:20:00 PM
Once you’ve decided to make a move to the cloud, a million questions will arise about specific details and capabilities. Finding the answers to your questions isn’t always easy but Windows Azure partners can help by providing you with the building blocks you need that will answer your questions and address your specific needs. To help you learn more, we’ve created videos and case studies with some of our key partners that explain how they can help you build or improve your Soft ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 10/18/2011 12:00:00 PM
IBM mainframes have been a fixture of Fortune 1000 companies for decades. When these companies deployed their mission critical applications on the mainframe, they really were the best approach to get the scale and reliability they required. Technology has progressed significantly since those early days and today, with Windows Azure, companies can now achieve high-availability through a scale-out architecture. This enables such companies to scale far beyond the capab ...
by Molly Bostic via Windows Azure on 10/17/2011 6:17:00 PM
Last week we added 12 new articles to our growing collection of Real World Guidance available on windowsazure.com. These articles are written by developers, architects, and IT Pros from inside and outside Microsoft who are using Windows Azure. The articles provide an opportunity for these professionals to share detailas about their experiences using Windows Azure. Articles range from tips and trick to in-depth solutions. We have two series of articles available right now: Field ...
by GregoryLeake via Windows Azure on 10/14/2011 6:30:00 PM
Yesterday at the SQL PASS Summit, we announced several enhancements to SQL Azure that will be delivered with our next service release. The Q4 SR marks a further advancement to our scale on demand capabilities for the data tier. Key enhancements include a 3x increase in maximum database size from 50 GB to 150 GB, and SQL Azure Federation to greatly simplify database elastic scale. Existing applications should be unaffected by the upgrade, and further information on tool updates and ho ...
by GregoryLeake via Windows Azure on 10/14/2011 4:00:00 PM
We are very pleased to announce the broad availability of the next Community Technology Preview (CTP) release of SQL Azure Data Sync. This release supports customers' journey to the cloud by enabling hybrid IT environments between on-premises and the cloud, geo-location, and synchronization with remote offices. Key updates include a fresh UI, enhanced filtering, and improved sync group configuration for greater ease and flexibility for syncing data across and within cloud and on-prem ...
by GregoryLeake via Windows Azure on 10/13/2011 6:30:00 PM
We are excited to announce the immediate availability of the next SQL Azure Reporting Community Technology Preview (CTP). SQL Azure Reporting delivers on the promise of BI in the cloud, and developers can now author reports, just as they do today when running SQL Server Reporting services on-premises. SQL Azure Reporting provides consistent APIs to view, execute and manage reports along with rich formatting and data visualization options. The new CTP updates the previous CTP release ...
by CameronRogers via Windows Azure on 10/13/2011 4:45:00 PM
During the Day 2 keynote at the SQL PASS Summit 2011 this morning, Microsoft announced a number of updates, including some much requested advancements to SQL Azure. Key announcements on SQL Azure included the availability of new CTPs for SQL Azure Reporting and SQL Azure Data Sync, as well as a look at the upcoming Q4 2011 Service Release for SQL Azure. Details on each of these announcements can be found below, with additional posts coming from Greg Leake later this week with in-dept ...
by CameronRogers via Windows Azure on 10/12/2011 4:30:00 PM
Microsoft Corporate Vice President Ted Kummert kicked off the SQL PASS conference today in Seattle. For those of you who aren’t familiar with SQL PASS, it is an event for the SQL Server community, driven by the SQL Server community. During his opening keynote this morning, Kummert announced an end-to-end roadmap for Big Data that adopts Apache Hadoop ™ by distributing enterprise-class Hadoop based on solutions on both Windows Server and Windows Azure. This is great news f ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 10/11/2011 10:30:00 AM
Leading international security solutions group G4S is focused on protecting rock stars and sports stars as well as delivering cash and bullion worldwide. The company has developed a system called eViper in order to plan the most efficient routes and track the movement of cash and valuables worldwide. G4S transports more than £300 billion in cash each year so eViper is a mission critical system for G4S; quite simply if it fails then cash stops moving. G4S has just completed its ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 10/7/2011 8:00:00 AM
As we announced at BUILD 2011 last month, Windows Azure Marketplace is now available in 26 countries and supports 17 currencies. With this release we have delivered on the promise to provide a global marketplace for cloud applications and data, with a secure commerce platform. Customers in these new markets can now discover, explore and subscribe to premium data and applications on the Windows Azure Marketplace. Countries available (26): US, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech, Denmark, Finland, Fra ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 10/6/2011 8:00:00 AM
The folks over at the TechNet Evaluation Center have just released a new evaluation experience called Deploying And Managing Windows Azure Applications. In this evaluation, users will follow a step-by-step guide to deploy a sample application to Windows Azure and then use System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) to monitor and manage that application. SCOM enables IT Professionals to use existing skills and tools to monitor and manage applications on Windows Azure without purchasing additional ha ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 10/5/2011 8:00:00 AM
As part of the Real World Windows Azure customer interview series, I talked to Marc Slovak, Vice President Product Technology, and Manish Bhargava, Product Manager, at LexisNexis about their new offerings on Windows Azure Marketplace. Here’s what they had to say: Himanshu Kumar Singh: Tell me about LexisNexis. Marc Slovak: LexisNexis is a leading global provider of content-enabled workflow solutions designed specifically for professionals in the legal, risk management, corporate, gov ...
by GregoryLeake via Windows Azure on 10/4/2011 8:30:00 AM
The Professional Association for SQL Server will hold the PASS Summit 2011 from Oct 11-14 in Seattle, Washington. Are you attending? There are many reasons why you should be, including dozens of sessions with Windows Azure Platform content and keynotes by Microsoft leaders highlighting new technologies. PASS Summit is the largest SQL Server and BI conference in the world, planned and presented by the SQL Server community, for the SQL Server community. If you are attending the ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 10/3/2011 4:30:00 PM
Anyone who has worked on a software development project will be familiar with the concept of an “environment”. Simply put, an environment is a set of infrastructure that you can deploy your application to, supporting a specific activity in your software development lifecycle. Any significant project will have multiple environments, generally with names such as “Test”, “UAT”, “Staging” and “Production”. When teams first start working wit ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 9/30/2011 5:30:00 PM
All Windows Azure sessions from the BUILD Conference are now available for on-demand replay. Below is a list of sessions, including the Day 2 keynote with Server & Tools Business president Satya Nadella. For more information about any of the Windows Azure-related announcements made last week, be sure to read the blog post, “JUST ANNOUNCED @ BUILD: New Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows 8, Windows Azure SDK 1.5, Geo-Replication for Windows Azure Storage, and More&rdquo ...
by Himanshu_Singh via Windows Azure on 9/29/2011 10:00:00 PM
The Future of Web Apps (FOWA) is a three-day conference that brings together web visionaries to discuss the technologies, platforms and business models that will launch the next generation of web, mobile and social applications. The following Windows Azure experts will speak at FOWA: You're in the Cloud, Now What? - Getting the Most Out of Your Cloud Platform – with Steve Marx (@smarx), Windows Azure technical product manager Building HTML5 Games (includes demo hosted in Windows Azu ...
by James_Conard via Windows Azure on 9/29/2011 8:01:00 PM
Earlier this month we released an updated version of the Windows Azure Platform Training Kit. The September 2011 update of the training kit includes updated hands-on labs for the Windows Azure SDK/Tools version 1.5 (September 2011.) The September update also includes a new hands-on lab for Service Bus Messaging, which demonstrates how to send and receive messages using the new Service Bus Message Queues and Topics that were just released. Download Now - You can download the full tra ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 9/22/2011 6:42:00 PM
Game hero Serious Sam is among the first ambassadors for Danish start-up Roozz.com and its software, which allows users to run games and applications in any PC browser. Designed to enable businesses to avoid paying for expensive software they may only use occasionally, Roozz is implemented as a browser plugin with integrated payment and copyright protection. Roozz runs on Windows Azure, which enables the company to: easily adjust capacity up and down depending on the number of users; operate sm ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 9/21/2011 4:55:00 PM
As part of the Real World Windows Azure series, we talked to Dan Scarfe, Chief Executive Officer at Dot Net Solutions, about how the company is using Windows Azure to expand business opportunities, explore new revenue models, and help customers reduce costs. Here’s what he had to say: MSDN: What does Dot Net Solutions do? Scarfe: We’re a systems integrator and a software development house. We build tailored solutions for organizations where there are no off-the-shelf solutions availa ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 9/20/2011 8:43:00 PM
Windows Azure Platform PowerShell Cmdlets 2.0 are now available for download on CodePlex. Designed to make deploying and managing your Windows Azure applications simpler, the new Windows Azure Platform PowerShell Cmdlets have been updated to improve consistency and ease deployment. Changes include: Improved Support for Hosted Services Management, Affinity Groups, Storage Accounts, Storage and Instance Management. Enhanced Diagnostics Support: Manage all aspects of Windows Azure Diagnostic ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 9/19/2011 7:11:00 PM
Here’s a great way to get two days of technical content and one-on-one assistance from Windows Azure experts. Sign up for the Seattle Interactive Conference (SIC), to be held November 2-3, 2011 at The Conference Center of the Washington State Convention Center in downtown Seattle. Windows Azure experts will be on hand for technical sessions and to share their products and technical expertise as part of the SIC’s Cloud Experience track. This track is designed for experienc ...
by ClemensVasters via Windows Azure on 9/16/2011 6:15:00 PM
As announced at BUILD this week, the Service Bus September 2011 Release is now available. This is the biggest feature update in the production environment since the service launched in January 2010. The Service Bus provides secure connectivity and messaging capabilities that enable building distributed and loosely coupled applications in the cloud, as well as hybrid applications across both on-premises and the cloud. It enables a variety of communication and messaging protocols and patterns, and ...
by BradCalder via Windows Azure on 9/16/2011 4:35:00 PM
During the BUILD Day two keynote, we announced the release of geo-replication and a new version of the REST API to enable functionality improvements for Windows Azure Blobs, Tables, and Queues. At this time we are now geo-replicating all Windows Azure Blob and Table data between two data centers. Geo-Replication Customers have continually emphasized the importance of Disaster Recovery capabilities in Azure as well as other cloud platforms. Wednesday’s announcement on Geo ...
by SudhirHasbe via Windows Azure on 9/15/2011 6:15:00 PM
Yesterday at BUILD, Microsoft Server and Tools Business President, Satya Nadella made two announcements around the Windows Azure Marketplace and shared details on how Ford Motor Company and eBay are using the Marketplace to add further value to their business. This post will dive deeper into both of these announcements. International Availability Microsoft announced the upcoming availability of the Windows Azure Marketplace in 25 new markets around the world, including: Austria, Belg ...
by VijayRajagopalan via Windows Azure on 9/15/2011 4:22:00 PM
During yesterday’s Day two keynote at the BUILD, Microsoft announced the availability of the Windows Azure SDK 1.5 and Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio 2010. You can download the tools here using the Web Platform Installer. All three of these releases are aimed at simplifying development, deployment, and management on the Windows Azure platform. The Windows Azure SDK includes the following new features: Re-architected emulator enabling higher fidelity between local &a ...
by Nick_Harris via Windows Azure on 9/14/2011 7:00:00 PM
The Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows 8 is designed to make it easier for developers to create a Windows Metro style application that can harness the power of Windows Azure Compute and Storage. It includes a Windows 8 Cloud Application project template for Visual Studio that makes it easier for developers to create a Windows Metro style application that utilizes services in Windows Azure. This template generates a Windows Azure project, an ASP.NET MVC 3 project, and a Windows Metro style JavaScr ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 9/14/2011 4:00:00 PM
NOTE: This post was updated Wednesday, September 21, 2011 to include updated information about the Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows 8. NOTE: This post was updated Friday, September 16, 2011 to include links to related blog posts about each of the announcements made at BUILD. Today from the BUILD Conference in Anaheim, California, Server and Tools President, Satya Nadella outlined a changing world of application development, connected devices, and continuous services, and articulated how M ...
by GregoryLeake via Windows Azure on 9/10/2011 12:40:00 AM
This post, which is the second part of a two-part series on SQL Azure, focuses on the features and functionality in the new SQL Azure Management Portal. Click here to read Part I. (Updated on 13 September 2011 with additional information on pre-requisites, system requirements and known issues.) We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of the new SQL Azure Management Portal, which provides an enhanced user interface and additional functionality to administer your SQL Azure ...
This post, which is the second part of a two-part series on SQL Azure, focuses on the features and functionality in the new SQL Azure Management Portal. Click here to read Part I. We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of the new SQL Azure Management Portal, which provides an enhanced user interface and additional functionality to administer your SQL Azure server and databases. The new SQL Azure Management portal replaces the online Database Manager tool that previousl ...
by GregoryLeake via Windows Azure on 9/10/2011 12:20:00 AM
This post, which is the first part of a two-part series on SQL Azure, focuses on the new features and functionality in the SQL Azure Q2 2011 Service Release. Today we are excited to announce that we have finished the rollout of the Q2 2011 Service Release for the SQL Azure database service. The Q2 2011 Service Release is foundational in many ways, with significant upgrades to the underlying engine designed to increase overall performance and scalability. This upgrade is also significant in ...
by Windows Azure Field Notes Group via Windows Azure on 9/7/2011 8:15:00 PM
This is the first in a series of articles focused on sharing “real-world” technical information from the Windows Azure community. This article was written by Walter Myers III, Principal Consultant, Microsoft Consulting Services. Problem I have seen various Windows Azure-related posts where developers have chosen to use symmetric key schemes for the encryption and decryption of data. An important scenario is when a developer needs to store encrypted data in SQL Azure, which will ...
by Windows Azure Information Experience Team via Windows Azure on 9/7/2011 4:57:00 PM
We've recently introduced new pages to the Windows Azure web site to help you find information about a variety of technical subjects. The cornerstone of the new pages is the Windows Azure Learn page, which acts as an information hub for accessing pages on all of the available technical subjects. Subjects include Plan and Design, Develop Applications, Migrate Services and Data, Store and Access Data, and more. The technical subject pages (such as the one shown below) are designed to Highlight fe ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 9/6/2011 5:42:00 PM
Microsoft IT Showcase delivers the best practices and experiences from Microsoft IT to provide an inside view into how the organization plans for, deploys, and manages its own enterprise solutions. The goal of sharing these best practices and cost saving scenarios is to help customers make decisions about how best to plan for, deploy, and manage Microsoft solutions in their own environment. If you’re interested in how Microsoft IT has implemented Windows Azure across its global enterprise, ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 9/2/2011 4:41:00 PM
Windows Azure Developer Evangelist David Gristwood, spotlights several UK customers who have had great success on Windows Azure in his most recent post, “Who Else is Using Windows Azure…?” The post also includes videos taken during a recent TechDays UK event with four partners talking about why they chose Windows Azure and what their customers are building. Click on each logo to watch the video. ...
by AppFabric Team via Windows Azure on 9/1/2011 8:15:00 PM
We’re excited to announce that the Workflow Foundation (WF) Activity Pack for Windows Azure has just been released! Please refer to our CodePlex page for the download information. The package is also available via NuGet, you can type “Install-Package WFAzureActivityPack” in your package manager console to install the activity pack. The Activity Pack is built on top of Windows Azure SDK (August Update, 2011). Please install the SDK on your development machine. Introduction The W ...
by CoreySanders via Windows Azure on 9/1/2011 4:55:00 PM
Windows Azure has increased the maximum number of roles allowed in a deployment from 5 to 25. This change allows customers to deploy up to 25 distinct roles, which can be a mixture of Web Roles, Worker Roles, and Virtual Machine Roles, as part of a single deployment. This increase gives application developers a more granular level of control over the lifecycle of different aspects of their deployment, since each of these 25 roles can be scaled and updated independently. Additionally, Windows Azu ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 8/31/2011 2:59:00 PM
Today Wade Wegner has released the Windows Azure Toolkit for Android, along with significant updates to the toolkits for Windows Phone and iOS. You can get the toolkits here: Windows Phone iOS (iPhone & iPad) Android The purpose of these toolkits are to make it easier for mobile device developers – across device platforms – to build applications that use Windows Azure to host services. Some of the more notable updates are: Initial release of the Windows Azure Toolkit for Andro ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 8/26/2011 7:47:00 PM
Nathan Totten’s latest blog post, “Windows Azure Toolkit for Social Games & Tankster Version 1.0”, announces the release of the latest version of the Windows Azure Toolkit for Social Games and the Tankster game. This release adds several new features, improves the performance and stability of the server APIs, and contains many user interface improvements to the sample game. These tools make it easier for developers to build great game experiences across devices in less time ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 8/25/2011 10:00:00 PM
Bytes by MSDN interviews offer a great way to learn from cloud experts and Microsoft developers as they talk about user-experience, the cloud, phone, and other topics they’re passionate about. This week's featured video is with Rob Gillen and Dave Neilson, who discuss how the scientific community harnesses the cloud for high performance computing. Rob, from Planet Technologies, illustrates how Cloud Computing fits into the areas of computational biology and image processing and shares a ne ...
by GregoryLeake via Windows Azure on 8/25/2011 4:50:00 PM
As the SQL Azure July 2011 Service Release is being rolled out, we want to advise you of an important consideration for your application logic. Some customers may be programmatically checking to determine if their application is connected to SQL Azure or another edition of SQL Server. Please be advised, you should not base your application logic on the server version number, since it changes across upgrades and service releases. It is okay, however, to use the version number for logging purposes ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 8/23/2011 5:48:00 PM
A recent survey of Australian IT organizations identified cloud computing as one of the most important technology trends right now. That’s why Tech-Ed Australia 2011, which will take place August 30 – September 2, 2011 at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre, is diving deeply into the cloud. Attendees will hear from experts about where the market is headed and return to their organizations with an extended skill set to help them harness the full power of the cloud. T ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 8/22/2011 9:37:00 PM
If you’re a developer who wants to stay on top of the latest news, tips and tricks about developing open source applications and cloud services for mobile devices on Windows Azure, you should check out the new Windows Azure Silver Lining Blog. Launched today by Brian Swan and Larry Franks, the aim of this new blog is to “be a treasure trove of information for OSS and mobile device developers who want to understand how to take advantage of the Windows Azure platform to build world-cla ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 8/22/2011 4:23:00 PM
Check out these new videos to hear how customers Sogeti, Quosal and Paladin Systems have each tapped into the power of Windows Azure to cost-effectively grow their business and serve their customers. Sogeti Creates the Windows Azure Privilege Club Sogeti is a leading provider of professional technology services, specializing in application and infrastructure management and testing. Sogeti created the Windows Azure Privilege Club to bring together some of their enterprise clients and introduce t ...
by Yvonne_Muench via Windows Azure on 8/19/2011 4:26:00 PM
We’ve heard from Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) that the technical aspect of building a Windows Azure application is sometimes the easier part. Coming up with the business strategy and transitioning a traditional company to Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is often more challenging. My team, part of the Developer and Platform Evangelist (DPE) organization, works with ISVs who are building on Windows Azure. We’ve been talking to our early adopter ISVs to see what they're ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 8/17/2011 7:56:00 PM
Nathan Totten just announced the release of an update to the Windows Azure Accelerator for Web Roles in his post, “Windows Azure Accelerator for Web Roles Version 1.1”. This accelerator enables you to deploy websites to Windows Azure web roles with multiple instances using web deploy in less than 30 seconds. Today’s update also adds new features such as improved logging, Windows Azure CDN support, and makes it easier to test your sites running on the accelerator. Additionally, ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 8/17/2011 4:16:00 PM
If you’re looking for a deeper dive into the technical considerations for making a move to the cloud with Windows Azure you should check out these great books from Microsoft patterns & practices. Click on each title for more information. A Guide to Claims-based Identity and Access Control Imagine a world where you don't have to worry about authentication. Imagine instead that all requests to your application already include the information you need to make access control decision ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 8/15/2011 4:17:00 PM
MSDN: Tell us about General Mills. Alcocer: With more than 33,000 employees, General Mills is one of the world’s leading food companies. Our brands include Betty Crocker, Cheerios, Nature Valley and Pillsbury. MSDN: What led the company to develop Gluten Freely? Alcocer: Gluten, a protein naturally found in certain grains common in a modern diet, can cause health problems for a small but growing number of people who have sensitivities to it, including those with celiac di ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 8/11/2011 8:29:00 PM
Do you want to be on the leading edge of innovation and get in on the ground floor of helping software vendors accelerate and revolutionize their business with cloud computing? If you are, this is your lucky day! We’re looking for individuals around the world to support Cloud Service Vendors in developing commercially available applications on the Windows Azure Platform. The Developer and Platform Evangelism (DPE) organization is looking for architect evangelists, developer eva ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 8/10/2011 4:50:00 PM
Opportunities for developers in the cloud continue to multiply. Today Intuit provided yet another great example of this trend with the announcement that the company is increasing its investment to more tightly integrate the Intuit Partner Platform with Windows Azure. This will provide developers and channel partners the tools to deliver solutions that reach the millions of people that use QuickBooks and other Intuit financial software. This move has a few really exciting opportunities for ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 8/8/2011 6:18:00 PM
The Microsoft TechNet Wiki is always chock-full of the latest and greatest user-generated content about Microsoft technologies. Two new articles that dig deeper into SQL Azure just posted to the wiki are worth checking out: Connecting to SQL Azure from Ruby Applications How to Manage SQL Azure Servers using Windows PowerShell You should also check out the updated SQL Azure FAQ, which is available in multiple languages. Please visit the wiki index page for a full list of the l ...
by Windows Azure Storage Team via Windows Azure on 8/3/2011 10:57:00 PM
We are excited to announce the release of Windows Azure Storage Analytics. This feature offers developers and operations the ability to track, analyze, and debug usage of Windows Azure Storage (Blobs, Tables and Queues). You can use this data to analyze storage usage to improve the design of your applications and their access patterns to Windows Azure Storage. Analytics data consists of: Logs Provide trace of executed requests for Blobs, Tables and Queues Metrics Provide s ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 8/3/2011 4:16:00 PM
Today we released the Windows Azure Platform Training Kit – August 2011. The Windows Azure Platform Training Kit (WAPTK) includes a comprehensive set of technical content including hands-on labs, presentations, and demos that are designed to help you learn how to use the Windows Azure platform. In addition to the offline training kit above, we have pushed updates to the Windows Azure Platform Training Course on MSDN. For more information, please see Microsoft Technical Evangelist Wade Weg ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 8/3/2011 3:45:00 PM
We are very pleased to announce the August 2011 release of the Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio 2010. You can download the tools here using the Web Platform Installer. New in this release: Profile applications running in Windows Azure. Create ASP.Net MVC3 Web Roles. Manage multiple service configurations in one cloud project. Improved validation of Windows Azure packages. With profiling support in the Windows Azure Tools you can easily detect performance bottlenecks in your appl ...
by BharatAhluwalia via Windows Azure on 8/2/2011 4:00:00 PM
August 2, 2011 Update: In addition to fixing a variety of bugs, we have also adopted the latest version of the service management API. For most operations there will be little or no resulting impact from this change. However, in order to properly account for the latency involved in propagating DNS records, the ‘create’ and ‘delete’ operations for storage accounts will now take longer to complete. We’re pleased to announce immediate availability of an up ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 8/1/2011 9:15:00 PM
For the past few months, we have offered the Windows Azure AppFabric Caching service free of charge for the promotional period that ends July 31, 2011. For all billing periods beginning on August 1, 2011 onward, we will begin charging at the following standard monthly rates: $45.00 for a 128MB cache $55.00 for a 256MB cache $75.00 for a 512MB cache $110.00 for a 1GB cache $180.00 for a 2GB cache $325.00 for a 4GB cache If you are signed up for one of the Windows Azure Platform offers, it may i ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 8/1/2011 5:51:00 PM
Don’t miss the latest episode of Cloud Cover on Channel 9, which includes a discussion about Windows Azure with Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president, Server & Tools Business. In this episode Scott talks with Steve and Wade about what he's been focused on with Windows Azure and, during this conversation, he talks about the good, the bad, and the ugly and also shares some code along the way. Join Wade and Steve each week as they cover Windows Azure; click here to subscribe to C ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 7/29/2011 6:46:00 PM
Fujitsu announced the global availability of a new line of middleware products to support the Windows Azure Platform, which comes on the heels of their announcement of the Fujitsu Global Cloud Platform service, powered by Windows Azure. The middleware products launching today will run on both FGCP/A5 and the Windows Azure public cloud service, as well as provide customers around the world with the ability to build and deploy with Java and COBOL language runtime environments, migrate existing lis ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 7/29/2011 5:00:00 PM
As part of the Real World Windows Azure series, we talked to David Holecek, Digital Strategy Manager at Volvo Car Corporation about using Windows Azure to host the company’s interactive, online game that has a tie-in to the Twilight movie franchise. Here’s what he had to say: MSDN: Can you tell us more about Volvo and how you market to consumers? Holecek: Volvo is one the car industry’s most-recognized brands and has a long history of innovative designs that take a human-center ...
by AppFabric Team via Windows Azure on 7/28/2011 5:30:00 PM
Good news for all PHP and Java developers: today we are publishing some Windows Azure AppFabric Service Bus samples just for you. Since the AppFabric Service Bus REST API can be used from almost all programming languages and operating systems, it makes it very easy for applications written on any platform to interoperate with each another through Windows Azure. To illustrate the point, we took the chat application that is already available as part of the Silverlight samples and made sample clien ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 7/27/2011 4:03:00 PM
Wade Wegner just announced in his blog post, “Windows Azure Toolkit for iOS Now Supports the Access Control Service” the release of an update to the Windows Azure Toolkit for iOS. This new version of the toolkit includes three key components Wade describes as incredibly important when trying to develop iOS applications that use Windows Azure: Cloud Ready Packages for Devices Configuration Tool Support for ACS Read Wade’s blog post to learn more about these updates and downlo ...
by MikeTillman via Windows Azure on 7/26/2011 7:00:00 PM
We’re pleased to announce four new Getting Started Tutorials that will help developers and IT pros who are interested in trying out Windows Azure to get up-and-running quickly. In addition to these tutorials, we just launched a new tutorials section on the Windows Azure product website that catalogs tutorial content covering all aspects of the Windows Azure platform. The new getting started tutorials cover several common scenarios: Installing the SDK and Getting a Subscription walks throu ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 7/25/2011 8:11:00 PM
We are very excited today to announce our latest content release, which makes some great new data available on the Windows Azure Marketplace, as well as the release of our new Offer Submission page! Are you looking to publish your application or data on the Marketplace? Check out https://marketplace.windowsazure.com/publishing for all the information you need including samples, documentation and to access the new Offer Submission page! Also available today is BranchInfo™ 2011 from our ...
by AppFabric Team via Windows Azure on 7/25/2011 4:09:00 PM
Today we are excited to announce several updates and enhancements made to the Windows Azure AppFabric Management Portal and the Access Control service. Management Portal Localization As announced in the blog post on the Windows Azure team blog, Windows Azure Platform Management Portal Updates Now Available, the Windows Azure Platform Management Portal now supports localization in 11 languages. The newly supported languages are Japanese, German, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, French, It ...
by MikeTillman via Windows Azure on 7/22/2011 6:01:00 PM
We're very happy to announce the new Windows Azure Code Samples Gallery that makes it easier for you to find the code samples that you need and provides the ability to add and maintain code samples in our growing catalog. This page is built on Microsoft's Code Gallery site, and has been customized to allow you to browse code samples within the familiar context on the Windows Azure website. One of the nice features of the gallery is that you can filter the samples based on programming ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 7/21/2011 4:25:00 PM
As part of the Real World Windows Azure series, we talked to Henning Volkmer, CEO of ThinPrint, Inc., about using the Windows Azure platform to deliver its innovative print solution. Here’s what he had to say: MSDN: Provide a quick overview of your company and the services you offer. Volkmer: Cortado and ThinPrint specialize in offering innovative print solutions and leading mobile business applications for any cloud strategy. Our solutions range from print management solution ...
by AppFabric Team via Windows Azure on 7/20/2011 11:37:00 PM
This post was just published on the AppFabric Team Blog. In this tutorial, Alan Smith (MVP) uses the Windows Azure AppFabric June CTP to create a basic custom external service to call the BingMaps Geocode service. This is a great starting point on how to write a basic custom external service fully integrated with the Windows Azure AppFabric designer June CTP. Look for the webcast version coming soon on AppFabric.tv and follow up posts to add more capabilities to this custom external service, suc ...
by AppFabric Team via Windows Azure on 7/20/2011 4:59:00 PM
This post by Justin Beckwith was just published on the AppFabric Team Blog. As the hosting of applications moves from our local staging environments to the cloud, one of the areas that needs to improve is the ability to include deployment in our automated build processes. Using the June CTP AppFabric bits, Visual Studio does an excellent job of enabling developers to design, build, and deploy AppFabric applications. However, the current tools do not provide a way to integrate t ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 7/20/2011 3:58:00 PM
You’ve just built the best Zombie-Ninja-gardening game for Facebook. The game was steadily gaining popularity and then you were “boingboinged.” Two minutes later your servers melted and your users moved on to the next game. For most, this kind of disaster spells the end to a promising start. To deal with this volatility, developers can rely on Windows Azure to provide a platform that lets them focus on development and the business model, and scale in the face of unp ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 7/19/2011 4:05:00 PM
Winners of the ninth annual Microsoft Imagine Cup were announced last Wednesday night at the Imagine Cup World Festival and Awards Ceremony at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center in New York. Ireland’s team Hermes took home top honors in the Software Design competition. The team designed a device that plugs into a car and monitors dangerous driving behavior and road conditions, providing instant feedback to both the driver and the car owner. The team’s solution uses embedded ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 7/18/2011 11:20:00 PM
This post by adamab originally appeared last Friday, July 15, 2011 on the AppFabric Team Blog. In the previous blog post on developing AppFabric Applications, we showed you how to create a simple AppFabric application. This app was an ASP.NET web site that used a SQL Database. In this blog post, we’ll use the AppFabric Application Manager to configure, deploy, and monitor that application. Here is a breakdown of what we will cover: The AppFabric Player application has been imported (where ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 7/18/2011 7:19:00 PM
This post by Vikram Desai originally appeared last Friday, July 15, 2011 on the AppFabric Team Blog. In this post, we will go through developing an AppFabric application that contains a web frontend and a database. Before we can develop an application, we’ll sign into the AppFabric LABS Portal at https://portal.appfabriclabs.com using our Live Id. Since this is a limited CTP, only approved users will have access to the service, but all users can try the SDK and VS Tools on their local mach ...
by BharatAhluwalia via Windows Azure on 7/18/2011 6:07:00 PM
We’re pleased to announce immediate availability of an updated Windows Azure Platform Management Portal. This updated portal is designed to make the Windows Azure management experience more intuitive and efficient. Enhancements in this new release include: Localization: The Portal is now available in 11 languages; newly supported languages are Japanese, German, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, French, Italian, Spanish, Korean, Russian, and Brazilian Portuguese. Us ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 7/14/2011 11:44:00 PM
MSDN: Tell us about your company and the solution you have created for Windows Azure. O’Connor: InishTech is a little bit unusual. Our Software Licensing and Protection Services (SLPS) platform is a classic multi-tenant Windows Azure application, utilizing the Windows Azure SDK, Windows Azure Dev Fabric and Visual Studio 2008. It has over 100 tenants and serves hundreds of thousands of end users. But it’s what SLPS actually does that makes us different – our customers are ...
by BharatAhluwalia via Windows Azure on 7/14/2011 9:30:00 PM
by Robert_Duffner via Windows Azure on 7/14/2011 5:01:00 PM
Jared Wray is the CTO and architect of the Tier 3’s Enterprise Cloud Platform. Wray founded Tier 3 in 2006 to address the emerging need for enterprise on-demand services. Wray oversees the company’s development, support and operations teams and is responsible for the company’s intellectual property strategy and new product development. A serial entrepreneur, Wray previously founded Dual, an interactive development firm with clients such as Microsoft and Ninten ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 7/13/2011 9:00:00 PM
MSDN: Tell us about Cenzic and the solutions you offer. Khera: Business and governments increasingly rely on Web-based applications to interact with their customers and partners. These Web applications may contain many security vulnerabilities, which makes them ideal targets for attacks. As the only stand-alone provider of dynamic, black box testing of Web applications, Cenzic addresses these security risks head on by detecting vulnerabilities for remediation in order to stay ahead ...
by Steve-Yi via Windows Azure on 7/13/2011 6:00:00 PM
We’re about to make some updates to the SQL Azure service, which will pave the way for some significant enhancements and announcements we plan to make later this year. This July 2011 Service Release is foundational in many ways, with significant upgrades to the underlying engine designed to increase overall performance and scalability. This upgrade is also significant in that it represents a big first step towards providing a common base and feature set between the cloud SQL Az ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 7/13/2011 4:05:00 PM
Yesterday at WPC11 in Los Angeles, we announced CTP 3 of SQL Server Codename “Denali”, which includes a key new feature called Data Quality Services. Data Quality Services enables customers to cleanse their existing data stored in SQL databases, such as customer data stored in CRM systems that may contain inaccuracies created due to human error. Data Quality Services leverages Windows Azure Marketplace to access real-time data cleansing services from leading providers, such as Meliss ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 7/12/2011 10:39:00 PM
News from WPC11 this week has demonstrated that the partner opportunity with Microsoft has never been stronger. Validating that opportunity, a recently commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting, “The ISV Business Case For The Windows Azure Platform” found that software partners deploying solutions on Windows Azure are generating 20% - 250% revenue growth after nine to 14 months of operations. Available for download here, the report examines the economic impact and bu ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 7/12/2011 8:25:00 PM
We are excited to announce the release of the Windows Azure Accelerator for Web Roles. This accelerator makes it quick and easy for you to deploy one or more websites across multiple Web Role instances using Web Deploy in less than 30 seconds. Feature highlights: Deploy websites to Windows Azure in less than 30 seconds. Enable deployments to multiple Web Role instances using Web Deploy from both Visual Studio and WebMatrix. Saves Web Deploy packages & IIS configuration in Windows Azure stor ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 7/12/2011 4:15:00 PM
Launched last November, the Windows Azure Marketplace is an online marketplace for developers to share, find, buy and sell building block components, training, service templates, premium data sets plus finished services and applications needed to build Windows Azure applications. Today at WPC 2011 in Los Angeles, we are pleased to announce that we have expanded the capability of the marketplace to sell finished applications built on Windows Azure in US markets. As of today, we now have 578 offer ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 7/11/2011 9:22:00 PM
The Windows Azure Content Delivery Network (CDN) helps improve the solution experience by putting content closer to the end-user, enhances availability, geo-distribution, scalability, lower latency delivery, and performance. If that’s the goal, you’ll want to be sure that when you instantiate the source of this content at the origin it’s as CDN friendly as you need. If you’re looking for help doing this, be sure to check out the latest blog post from Microsoft ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 7/8/2011 10:04:00 PM
If you’re still putting the final touches on your schedule for WPC11 next week in Los Angeles, here are four sessions you won’t want to miss. Each of these sessions will focus on the latest Windows Azure news and opportunities for partners. All times PDT. Note: session locations are subject to change; please check onsite for any room changes. What’s New on Windows Azure (SC06)Tuesday, July 12 1:30 PM - 2:30 PMRoom 502A, Los Angeles Convention Cente ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 7/7/2011 4:15:00 PM
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is outpacing traditional packaged software in terms of market growth according to some recent market research. As new ISVs develop SaaS solutions or traditional ISVs transform their business to the SaaS model, they face some challenges in terms of building core SaaS framework that includes scaling, managing and metering their service. In building SaaS solutions, multi-tenancy helps ISVs optimize resource utilization and lower the cost of goods sold (COGS ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 7/6/2011 5:00:00 PM
Neil Mackenzie a Windows Azure MVP has written a great blog post regarding Windows Azure AppFabric Applications which were introduced as part the Windows Azure AppFabric June CTP. Neil summed up the concept very nicely in his post: “I am a great advocate of the PaaS model of cloud computing. I believe that AppFabric Applications represents the future of PaaS for use cases involving the composition of services that can benefit from the cost savings of running in a multi-tenanted environment ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 7/6/2011 4:15:00 PM
With any deployment in Windows Azure, a single public IP address, known as a virtual IP address (VIP), is assigned to the service for the customer to use for all input endpoints associated with roles in the service. Even if the service has no input endpoints specified in the model, the VIP is still allocated and used as the source address assigned to outbound traffic coming from each role. Throughout the lifetime of a deployment, the VIP assigned will not change, regardless of the operation ...
by CoreySanders via Windows Azure on 7/6/2011 4:15:00 PM
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 7/1/2011 4:15:00 PM
Are you a baseball fan? Would you like to know the best Major League Baseball (MLB) players right now or compare real-time stats for two MLB teams head-to-head? What if you could see it all in a real-time dashboard for free? Sound Good? Then we have great news for you: welcome to the MLB Head-to-Head Stats Dashboard! The MLB Head-to-Head Stats Dashboard is built on Windows Azure and the STATS.com datasets available on the Windows Azure Marketplace DataMarket, ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 6/30/2011 9:15:00 PM
A new end-to-end sample application called StockTrader 5.0 is now available for free download. This sample application illustrates the use of secure services to integrate private on-premises resources (business services and SQL Server) with the public-cloud Web application running in a Windows Azure Web Role. The application also demonstrates the use of SQL Azure and/or SQL Server to store and manage application configuration data, with one-click changes to configuration settings that automatica ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 6/29/2011 6:30:00 PM
The essence of High Performance Computing (HPC) is processing power, and Windows Azure’s ability to provide on-demand access to a vast pool of computing resources will put HPC at the fingertips of a broader set of users. With this in mind we're excited to announce the release of a second ‘service pack’ (SP2) for Windows HPC Server 2008 R2. This release is focused on providing customers with a great experience when expanding their on-premises clusters to Windows Azur ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 6/29/2011 4:59:00 PM
In this post, I will describe how to enable Client-side traces for AppFabric Caching Service. I will also touch upon some basic problems you might face while trying out the same. To configure the cache client to generate System.Diagnostic.Traces pertaining to the AppFabric cache, please follow the below steps: Configuration File Option In your app.config/web.config you need to add <tracing sinkType="DiagnosticSink" traceLevel="Verbose" />, to the appropriate location as per the cases below ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 6/28/2011 10:54:00 PM
Don’t miss these two new Academy Live Sessions to learn more about how to monetize your solutions on Windows Azure and options for migrating to Windows Azure. Both FREE Academy Live sessions start at 8:00 a.m. PT and run 60 minutes. Click on the session title below to learn more and to register. Windows Azure Based Unified Ad Serving Platform, Out of the Box Monetization MagicThursday, June 30, 2011, 8:00 – 9:00 am PTWatch this session to learn more about TicTacTi’s ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 6/28/2011 5:12:00 PM
MSDN: Where did the idea for nioovo come from? Skowron-Moszkowicz: In July 2010, polish Internet company GPC Sp. z o.o. did a study that found that the average paper-based address book contains 137 entries, while electronic versions average 161 entries and only 4.7 percent of those entries contain complete contact information. The study concluded that the primary reason for incomplete contact data is the time-consuming, manual nature of entering and updating information. To address t ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 6/27/2011 6:44:00 PM
We announced several updates to Windows Azure at MIX11. One was a Community Technology Preview (CTP) of Windows Azure Traffic Manager, which allows you to load-balance traffic to multiple hosted services. Today we are pleased to announce that an updated version of the Windows Azure Traffic Manager CTP, which offers enhanced visibility of your policy’s monitoring status, is now available. The new version offers a Poll State column in the Windows Azure Platform Management Portal that d ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 6/27/2011 4:19:00 PM
The Adoption Program Insights series describes experiences of Microsoft Services consultants involved in the Windows Azure Technology Adoption Program assisting customers deploy solutions on the Windows Azure platform. This post is by Tom Hollander. Many developers choose to use service oriented techniques to break large systems into smaller, loosely coupled services. Frequently, each service will be hosted on a different machine and use WS-* protocols for standards-based communication. However ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 6/24/2011 8:11:00 PM
The June 2011 CTP (Community Technology Preview) of the Windows Azure Plugin for Eclipse with Java is now available for download. This plugin is intended to help Eclipse users create and configure deployment packages of their Java applications for the Windows Azure cloud. Key features include: Windows Azure project creation wizard Helpful project structure Sample utility scripts for downloading or unzipping files, or logging errors in the startup script when running in the cloud Shortcuts to te ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 6/24/2011 6:08:00 PM
[This article was contributed by the AppFabric team.]The Windows Azure June CTP has only been released a few days ago, and we already have great samples built by our customers that show how to use the CTP capabilities. Alan Smith has created two webcasts on CloudCasts that show how easy it is to develop AppFabric applications using the June CTP capabilities: Introduction to AppFabric Applications – shows how to use various capabilities released in the June CTP. Using AppFabric Service Bus ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 6/24/2011 4:00:00 PM
[This article was contributed by the AppFabric team.]We are combining all Windows Azure platform related content into one place: the Windows Azure Platform Team Blog at www.WindowsAzureBlog.com. This will be the new destination for all product releases, resources, tools and news around the Windows Azure platform. You can bookmark this new blog location and sign up for the Windows Azure AppFabric RSS feed there. We will continue to post about Windows Azure AppFabric on this blog, as well as post ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 6/24/2011 3:59:00 PM
We are continually looking for ways to make it easier for you to stay on top of the latest product releases, resources, tools and news around Windows Azure & SQL Azure. Today, we’re happy to announce another step in that direction with the consolidation of the SQL Azure, Windows Azure AppFabric and Windows Azure Marketplace DataMarket blogs into this Windows Azure blog, which will now be called the ‘Windows Azure Platform Team Blog’. Starting today, this is where you& ...
We are continually looking for ways to make it easier for you to stay on top of the latest product releases, resources, tools and news around Windows Azure & SQL Azure. Today, we’re happy to announce another step in that direction with the consolidation of the SQL Azure, Windows Azure AppFabric and Windows Azure Marketplace DataMarket blogs into this Windows Azure blog, which will now be called the ‘Windows Azure Team Blog’. Starting today, this is where you’ll ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 6/24/2011 8:00:00 AM
[This article was contributed by the SQL Azure team.]In an effort to make it easier for you to stay on top of the latest product releases, resources, tools and news around the Windows Azure platform, today, we’re excited to announce that the SQL Azure blog is moving into what will now be called the ‘Windows Azure Platform Team Blog’. From now on, you can find all SQL Azure blog posts at www.WindowsAzureBlog.com. This one-stop-shop blog is where you’ll be able t ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 6/23/2011 10:00:00 PM
[This article was contributed by the AppFabric team.]In the Windows Azure AppFabric May 2011 CTP, we released enhancements to Service Bus including the new message-oriented middleware features around Queues and Topics. More details regarding these features can be found here: Introducing the Windows Azure AppFabric Service Bus May 2011 CTP. These enhancements will go live with an update to the commercially available service in a few months. Currently we have two versions of the Access Control ser ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 6/23/2011 8:39:00 PM
Earlier this week the Windows Azure platform was named Best Cloud Service at the Cloud Computing World Forum in London. Now in its third year, the Cloud Computing World Series Awards celebrate outstanding achievements in the IT market. This year’s winners were selected by an independent panel of industry experts. “It’s fantastic for us to see this type of recognition for the Windows Azure platform. We’re seeing companies creating business solutions in record times, ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 6/23/2011 4:15:00 PM
Looking for code samples? Have you visited the Windows Azure Code Samples page? We have been working hard to add and update the code samples based on customer feedback. Please visit the Code Samples page and let us know not just what you think but also if there are other samples that you would like to see on this page. We want to help you create great applications by providing a comprehensive list of code samples. To do this, we need your help to decide which samples should be at the top of our ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 6/22/2011 8:06:00 PM
Would you like to code your own player "bot" and test your skills online against other Windows Azure developers in the United States, Canada, China, Germany, New Zealand, Sweden and the United Kingdom for bragging rights AND a chance at $5,000? Then be sure to sign up for the Rock Paper Azure Grand Tournament*, which will take place LIVE on July 13, 2011. The challenge is the same as it was the last time we blogged about it but the prizes and the field of play are bigger than ever. The Gra ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 6/22/2011 5:24:00 PM
Today we’re pleased to announce a change in pricing for the Windows Azure platform that will provide significant cost savings for customers whose cloud applications experience substantial inbound traffic, and customers interested in migrating large quantities of existing data to the cloud. For billing periods that begin on or after July 1, 2011, all inbound data transfers for both peak and off-peak times will be free. Customers and partners with whom we’ve shared this announcement ar ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 6/21/2011 8:30:00 PM
As announced today in the post, ““Tribune Releases Mosaic App for Windows 7”, on the Windows Team Blog, Tribune Company today unveiled the final release of Mosaic by Tribune. Mosaic is a free, customizable application that offers a rich news reading experience optimized for Windows 7 touch-capable devices including Slate PCs. Mosaic enables readers to enjoy aggregated premium content from Tribune’s own world-class news operations, including the Los Angeles Tim ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 6/21/2011 5:07:00 PM
If you’d like to hear Satya Nadella, president of Microsoft Server and Tools Business, talk about cloud computing trends and how Microsoft and the Windows Azure platform are helping customers realize these trends, then don't miss the Live Stream of Nadella’s on-stage Q&A with Forbes’ Eric Savitz at the GigaOm Structure conference in San Francisco, on Wednesday, June 22, at 11:10 AM, PT. You can follow Nadella’s presentation live by clicking here. Nadella is one of ver ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 6/21/2011 5:30:00 AM
As just announced on the AppFabric Team Blog, the Windows Azure AppFabric June CTP is now available. This CTP includes capabilities that make it easy for developers to build, deploy, manage and monitor multi-tier applications across web, business logic and database tiers as a single logical entity on the Windows Azure Platform. This CTP release includes: AppFabric Developer Tools AppFabric Application Manager The Composition Model - a set of .NET Framework extensions for composing applica ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 6/21/2011 3:31:00 AM
[This article was contributed by the AppFabric team.]Today we are excited to announce the release of the Windows Azure AppFabric June CTP which includes capabilities that make it easy for developers to build, deploy, manage and monitor multi-tier applications across web, business logic and database tiers as a single logical entity on the Windows Azure Platform. This CTP release consists: AppFabric Developer Tools - Enhancements to Visual Studio that enable to visually design and build end-to-en ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 6/21/2011 3:30:00 AM
[This article was contributed by the AppFabric team.]Posted by Karandeep Anand Last October, at the PDC 2010 keynote, we shared our vision of building, running, and managing applications reliably and at scale in Windows Azure. Since then, the team has been heads-down to make the vision a reality, and last month at TechEd 2011, we announced that we’ll soon be releasing a rich set of new capabilities to build AppFabric Applications using AppFabric Developer Tools, run them in the AppF ...
by Windows Azure Team via Windows Azure on 6/20/2011 5:45:00 PM
[This article was contributed by the SQL Azure team.]Cihan Biyikog
