Matias Bonaventura’s Blog

Comming soon!

Comming Soon!

Windows Azure is part of the Azure Services Platform which I introduced in my previous post.

This new platform will allow us (Developers) to run your applications directly in the cloud by hosting them in Windows Azure. This means that not only Web apps can be developed for Windows Azure but also background processes are also supported.

Windows Azure not only provides an environment to run applications but it also provides a platform for storing application’s data. This data is exposed using a RESTful approach, which means that applications running on Azure and applications running elsewhere can access this data in the same way.

Up to this date Windows Azure can run only applications built on the .NET Framework, but Microsoft has announced that it will also support running unmanaged code in 2009.

Why Use Windows Azure?

Windows Azure runs on a large number of machines, located in the huge Microsoft’s data centers. By running applications on the cloud, we are making use of the advantages of Microsoft’s infrastructure  which can have great benefits:

·         Save money. Instead of buying your own servers (even when you need your app to scale), use the ones provided by Azure and pay just for what you use .

·         Save Time. Installing and maintaining systems and servers take time and effort. Microsoft does this for you!

How to start?

The best way to start learning and coding for Windows Azure is doing the Training Kit Labs:

As everybody must already know, Microsoft annouced on PDC2008 it’s new cloud services platform called Azure Services Platform:

What is it?

Azure Services Platform (or just Azure) is a group of cloud technologies, at the moment composed by an Operating System (Windows Azure) and a set of services (.Net Services, SQL Services, Live Services, Sharepoint Services and Dynamics CRM Services).

Azure was built flexible enough to allow the two possible scenarios: Building new applications to be run in the cloud; Enhance already existing applications (web, desktop and mobile) by consuming cloud services.

Azure makes all this services available through open, standard, interoperable protocols such as HTTP, REST, SOAP, etc. This enables end users and both Microsoft and non-Microsoft programming languages to consume this services. In the near future also non Microsoft development environments will be released (such as Eclipse!).

Before getting deeper with each of the services provided, remember you can start coding and using this platform yourself!

•  A good place to start coding is the Azure Training Kit: download it here.
•  And a good technical overview of the hole platform can read from David Chappell  White Paper: Introducing the Azure Services: download it here.

To know each service a bit deeper you can check my other posts:

Windows Azure:
 http://blogs.southworks.net/matiasb/2008/11/08/windows-azure 

.Net Services:  
 http://blogs.southworks.net/matiasb/2008/11/08/net-services/

SQL Services:
 http://blogs.southworks.net/matiasb/2008/11/08/sql-services

Live Services:  
 http://blogs.southworks.net/matiasb/2008/11/08/live-services/