Windows Azure Platform Training Course
The Windows Azure Platform Training Course includes a comprehensive set of technical content including samples, demos, hands-on labs, and presentations that are designed to expedite the learning process for the set of technologies released as part of the Windows Azure Platform.
Units in this course
In this introductory unit, the Windows Azure Platform evangelism team welcomes you to the training course and goes over the significant changes to the platform since it was announced in 2008 and also cover what you’ll see in the course and how to follow along with the labs.
Learn about Windows Azure and discover how to build applications for the cloud.
Learn all about using Windows Azure Storage, including tables, blobs and queues.
Learn all about deploying applications to Windows Azure, including automating deployments, performing upgrades and scaling services.
SQL Azure is the relational database service for the Windows Azure platform built on SQL Server technology providing a familiar programming model. Here you will learn how to get started, how to migrate databases and tips for using SQL Azure.
Microsoft Codename "Dallas" is a new information service that lets you leverage data sets and web services from public and private sector in your applications through a simple consistent API. Here you can learn how to get started consuming "Dallas" data in your applications and analytics workloads.
In this unit you will learn all about the Service Bus and how you can use it for Service Remoting and Eventing Scenarios.
Whether you are looking at reusing your on-premises identity for SSO in the cloud or you are searching for a way to handle access control for your REST services, in this unit you will find useful indications on how to address your identity challenges with Windows Identity Foundation in Windows Azure or taking advantage of the Access Control Service.
What is the Windows Azure Platform?
There are various types of Cloud offerings that exist in the internet today. These offerings are Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). Figure 1 below shows each of these offerings and what they host. Understanding what each offering hosts, the relationship of the cloud vendor to the software owner, and the relationship of the cloud vendor to the end user is a good way to understand the differences between each of these offerings.
Figure 1 – Types of Cloud Offerings and what they host
Figure 2 – IaaS Vendors
Figure 3 – PaaS Vendors
Figure 4 – SaaS Vendors
When the word “Platform” is used in the context of software what is really meant is what is shown in Figure 5. The best way to visualize a software platform is to think of it as being composed of two parts. The first part is a runtime environment for your application or your custom code. The second part is a collection of tools that can be purchased (as opposed to built) that solve common problems.
Figure 5 – A Software Platform
Lucene.Net and Azure
“Lucene works on top of an abstract store object called Directory. There are several Directory objects, including FSDirectory, for file systems, and RAMDirectory, for in-memory store. Azure Library for Lucene.Net implements a smart blob-storage Directory object called AzureDirectory which enables the use of Lucene.NET on top of Azure Blob Storage. AzureDirectory automatically creates a local cache of blobs and intelligently auto-uploads them on the fly.
Building RESTful application using SQL Azure, WCF, ADO.NET Data Service & Telerik OpenAccess WCF Wizard
- Telerik OpenAccess WCF Wizard: How-to Video #1
- Telerik OpenAccess WCF Wizard: How-to Video #2- Astoria
- Telerik OpenAccess WCF Wizard: How-to Video #3- REST Collections
- Telerik OpenAccess WCF Wizard: How-to Video #4- ATOMPub
- Using WCF for Silverlight Development with Telerik OpenAccess
- Using ADO.NET Data Services with Telerik OpenAccess’s WCF Wizard
- Using The WCF REST Starter Kit and REST Collections with Telerik OpenAccess’s WCF Wizard
- Using The WCF REST Starter Kit and ATOMPub with Telerik OpenAccess’s WCF Wizard
- Building a RESTful application with SQL Azure
Comparing Windows Azure and Google App Engine – Kevin Marshall
Here are some reasons to use Google App Engine (GAE) and advantages of the platform compared to Azure
- Want to write code in Java, Python/Django or any language that runs on the JVM
- Need integrated mail functionality
- Azure requires your own SMTP server outside of the cloud environment
- Need integrated XMPP messaging
- Again, Azure would need an external server.
- Need scheduled processing jobs
- You can be creative and write something with queues and/or worker roles or perhaps a service running elsewhere to ping your web server on a schedule to run a job.
- Need distributed caching via memcahe
- There has been some talk of adding Velocity to Azure which would be comparable to memcache. Otherwise, if you only have one web instance you can use ASP.NET caching. If you have multiple web instances, then you need a way to invalidate the other server’s cache. Inter-role communication is coming soon which would make this possible. In the mean time you could use .NET service bus to communicate between web role instances (in theory it seems like this would work)
- Want mostly free hosting for small applications – GAE has a free quota
- Azure is free up to a limit in the CTP, but once live nothing is free. I’d really like to see Microsoft keep some free version for developers to experiment with or include CTP-like free quotas to BizSpark members. Developers like to tinker and release small apps. If App Engine is free, they are going to chose that and will probably be less likely to chose Azure once comfortable with GAE. It seems like a good approach to provide some level of free support until an app becomes large enough where a developer can afford to pay (or it’s too costly to provide them free service)
- GAE has a ridiculously fast deployment time. One click in GAE launcher or a console command and the application deploys in less than a minute
- Azure deployment is just brutally slow. Make a sandwich, grab a good book – it’s going to be awhile. This is especially an issue when you consider the next bullet point. Every time you deploy to Azure it’s provisioning a new virtual machine unlike GAE which is just copying files. I’m sure there are good reasons why this needs to be done, but I really wish it had some quick deploy / file copy option. There is nothing more gut wrenching then waiting 30 mins to finish deploying and you forgot to to change one line of code. Now you are stuck waiting another 30-45 mins to delete the current instance and redeploy.
- and much much more…
Notifications and Subscriptions in Live Framework
Notifications and Subscriptions
In this post, we will explain how to make use of notifications in the Live Framework. When you subscribe to a specific resource, the Live Framework provides notifications when changes are made to that resource. This allows you to optimize interactions with the Live Operating Environment (both client and cloud) and only retrieve information when something has changed
Azure Services How do I Videos
Windows Azure "How Do I" Videos
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#1 | How Do I: Deploy a Windows Azure Application?
(7 Minutes 24 seconds)
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#2 | How Do I: Get Started Developing on Windows Azure?
(5 Minutes 29 seconds)
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#3 | How Do I: Store Blobs in Windows Azure Storage?
(20 Minutes 24 seconds)
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#4 | How Do I: Leverage Queues in Windows Azure?
(12 Minutes 0 seconds)
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#5 | Debugging Tips for Windows Azure Applications
(7 Minutes 24 seconds)
.NET Services "How Do I" Videos
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#1 | How Do I: Get Started with .NET Services?
(11 Minutes 1 seconds)
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#2 | How Do I: Harness the Microsoft .NET Service Bus?
(13 Minutes 28 seconds)
Live Services "How Do I" Videos
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#1 | How Do I: Get Started with the Live Framework?
(15 Minutes 46 seconds)
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#2 | How Do I: Use the Microsoft Live Framework Resource Browser?
(15 Minutes 37 seconds)
.NET Services Videos on Channel 9
Watch videos about .NET Services including Access Control Service, Service Bus and Workflow Service.
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#1 | A Lap Around the Azure Services Platform
(1 hour, 12 minutes, 3 seconds)
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#2 | Architecture of the .NET Services
(1 hour, 18 minutes, 14 seconds)
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#3 | .NET Services: Access Control In Microsoft .NET Services
(1 hour, 17 minutes, 47 seconds)
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#4 | .NET Services: Messaging Services – Protocols, Protection, and How We Scale
(1 hour 16 minutes, 4 seconds)
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#5 | .NET Services: Orchestrating Services and Business Processes Using Cloud-Based Workflow
(51 minutes, 20 seconds)
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#6 | NET Services: Access Control Service Drilldown
(1 hour, 15 minutes, 27 seconds)
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#7 | .NET Services: Connectivity, Messaging, Events, and Discovery with the Service Bus
(1 hour, 16 minutes, 40 seconds)
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#8 | NET Services: Logging, Diagnosing, and Troubleshooting Applications Running Live in the Cloud
(1 hour, 15 minutes)
Windows Azure: FAQs and resources
Resources:
Windows Azure Tech Page : http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cc994380.aspx
Windows Azure SDK documentation : http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd179367.aspx
Cloud Computing Tools team Technology page: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/cc972640.aspx
Walkthroughs:
Introduction
Quick Lap around the Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual StudioUsing the Cloud Service Project Roles Node
Windows Azure Tools Development Fabric and Storage Integration
Deploying a Service (Interesting for folks who don’t have a token yet but want to see the experience)
Deploying a Service on Windows Azure
Channel 9 Videos :
A Lap around Windows Azure – Manuvir Das (PDC)
Essential Cloud Storage Services – Brad Calder (PDC)
Introducing Windows Azure – Channel 9 Interview with Manuvir Das
Windows Azure for Developers – Channel 9 Interview with Steve MarxeBooks & White Paper:
e-books and white papers on Microsoft.com regarding these new technologies.
1. Introducing the Azure™ Services Platform
Using computers in the cloud can make lots of sense. Rather than buying and maintaining your own machines, why not exploit the acres of Internet-accessible servers on offer today? Get an early look into the Azure Services Platform in this White Paper by David Chappell.
2. Getting Started with Microsoft SQL Data Services – A Developer’s Focus
Microsoft® SQL Data Services (SDS) offers highly scalable, Internet-facing, enterprise-class database and advanced query processing for customers who want to build new applications or extend existing investments into the cloud. This paper explains the key features and architecture of SDS, and describes how you can start programming with SDS in your own applications.
3. Microsoft SQL Data Services – Under the Hood
Microsoft SQL Data Services (SDS) is a cloud-deployed database service from Microsoft. SDS provides a web-facing database, retrieval, and manipulation features in a hosted, Web-facing solution. Cloud-deployed database solutions such as SDS can provide many benefits to the enterprise, including rapid provisioning, cost-effective scalability, high availability, and reduced management overhead. This paper provides an architectural overview of SDS, and describes how you can use SDS to augment your existing on-premises data infrastructure.
Via Welcome To Windows Azure Forum : FAQs and resources : Windows Azure : Azure : MSDN Forums
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Vincent Leung
More than 15 years experience in Windows software development using C# and .NET
Specialties:
C# 3.0, .NET 3.5, LINQ, ASP.NET 3.5, WCF, MVC, jQuery, Ajax, Silverlight
