Windows Azure

Introduction to Microsoft

Windows Azure Platform

Ramkumar Lakshminarayanan

The first one is Windows Azure which is the Cloud OS from Microsoft.

The second service is the AppFabric which enables the integration of on-premise services with the Cloud.

The third service is a Database on the Cloud called SQL Azure which is based on Microsoft SQL Server.

The latest addition to the platform is a service Codenamed “Dallas” which is a marketplace to publish, discover, consume and analyze premier content.

Azure Key Services

Windows Azure Platform is designed for the developers building applications on the Microsoft platform.

Can also be leveraged by developers building applications on Java and PHP environments.

Windows Azure is the heart & soul of the Azure Platform. It is the OS that runs on each and every server running in the data centers across multiple geographic locations.

Windows Azure abstracts the underlying hardware and brings an illusion that it is just one instance of OS. Because this OS runs across multiple physical servers, there is a layer on the top that coordinates the execution of processes. This layer is called the Fabric.

Windows Azure

In between the Fabric and the Windows Azure OS, there are hundreds of Virtual Machines (VM) that actually run the code and the applications.

As a developer, you will only see two services at the top of this stack. They are 1) Compute and, 2) Storage.

Applications are expected to run within one of the two roles called Web Role or Worker Role. Web Role is meant to host typical ASP.NET web applications or any other CGI web applications.

Worker Role is to host long running processes that do not have any UI.

Windows Azure offers a Compute and Storage service.

Compute service is consumed by deploying a Web Application in a Web Role and long running process in the Worker Role.

Storage can be consumed through Blobs, Tables and Queues.

Windows Azure platform AppFabric was earlier called the .NET Services.

This service enables seamless integration of services that run within an organization behind a firewall with those services that are hosted on the Cloud.

It forms a secure bridge between the legacy applications and the Cloud services.

App Fabric

AppFabric also brings the federated identity to the Cloud based applications.

The two key components of AppFabric are 1) Service Bus and, 2) Access Control.

SQL Azure can be treated exactly like a DB server running in your data center without the overhead of maintaining and managing it by your teams.

Because Microsoft is responsible for installation, maintenance and availability of the DB service, business can only focus on manipulating and accessing data as a service.

With the Pay-as-you-go approach, there is no upfront investment and you will only pay for what you use.

SQL Azure

This service is an exchange setup by Microsoft for parties that can publish useful data/content and parties that can consume this data in their applications.

Data can be published in a variety of forms including BLOBS, CSV files, Spreadsheets and RSS feeds. The dataset published on Dallas can be consumed directly through tools like Microsoft Excel or can be integrated into custom applications by calling the REST based API.

Microsoft Codenamed “Dallas”

By integrating the .NET Platform, Windows Azure lot of features for the application developers.

Questions ?