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Cloud Cover Video series on Channel9

Today I stumbled over a great video series on Windows Azure: Ryan Dunn and Steve Marx have been leading through the Windows Azure platform in over 18 episodes now! Those episodes can be viewed on channel9.

Let’s see if I can provide a full list of topics they covered after having watched the series myself!

Here is the link to the channel9 show: http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/Cloud+Cover/

Put Your App in the Cloud in only 5 Minutes!

Hello again. In early February 2009 I did release the first round of Azure How-do-I-videos. Since launch a lot has changed. In particular the Migration to the Cloud has been a lot smoother. Today you can take a ASP.NET Application upload the database to SQL Azure, change the connection string and you are almost done.

See the 5-Minute Migration Videos and run your own app in the cloud using the free Windows Azure Test-Accounts available in Germany by simply writing an email to azurenow@microsoft.com

Also I highly recommend the Trainings provided in German that outline Migration of ASP.NET, Silverlight, Java, PHP Apps and discuss Security, SQL Azure, AppFabric
and ADFS in detail.
Source: http://msdn.microsoft.com/de-de/windowsazure/ff770837.aspx

Windows Azure: Cloud App talks to local SAP System

I wanted to highlight a stunning example of how a Cloud Application can talk to a local SAP System using the Windows Azure AppFabric.

Tim Fischer from Microsoft has expanded his Cool Blue Time Tracker Sample for Silverlight (which uses a modified version of my change tracking T4 Template for SL3) to run in the cloud and talk to a local SAP System.

You can see the full demo and get the source code here
http://www.microsoft.com/germany/net/WindowsAzure/EventPlayer.aspx 
(Bottom right corner of Trainingsmap):

Silverlight & Azure Tips&Tricks: WCF Data Services Relative Path, Default Button, Tooltips

While using Silverlight 4, WCF Data Services and Windows Azure I wanted to share some of the tricks I needed to apply:

1) To make WCF Data Services Tick correctly on Windows Azure you need to add a “/” after the path to the WCF Data Service in the Client due to the load-balancer.

2) If you need tooltips in Silverlight try this How do I video:
http://www.microsoft.com/germany/msdn/solve/codeclips/library.aspx?id=msdn_de_40503 [German]

3) If you need a default button in Silverlight try this How do I video:http://www.microsoft.com/germany/msdn/solve/codeclips/library.aspx?id=msdn_de_39850

SQL Azure Administration Console “Houston” CTP1

Project Code Named “Houston” provides a mySQL like Admin Console for SQL Azure. It is currently deployed in North US Data Center so it is only quick if your DB also sits there.

You can use it using this URL, if your SQL Azure firewall allows access from Windows Azure.

https://manage.sqlazurelabs.com/. (Login with your SQL Azure Login)

You can change the database tables using the design view

And you can also change the content of the database

How to use ToolTips in Silverlight applications

Another Silverlight CodeClip deals with ToolTips. It demonstrates how to use them in a simple, advanced and professional way.

• In the simplest case, ToolTips display some informative text to the user hovering over a control:
   
  
• But ToolTips can be more powerful:
  
  
• Or even contain dynamic data:
  

 

 

 

Watch the CodeClip here [German]: http://www.microsoft.com/germany/msdn/solve/codeclips/library.aspx?id=msdn_de_40503

Get the How-To-Guide [German]: http://www.microsoft.com/germany/msdn/solve/knowhow/howto/webentwicklung/WieKannIchToolTipsInSilverlightVerwenden.mspx

Windows Azure SDK (June 2010)

If you want to host .NET 4 based services in Windows Azure, you need to download the newest release of the Windows Azure Software Development Kit. This Update also enables Support for IntelliTrace, which allows you to debug Windows Azure services.

Go to the download page here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=21910585-8693-4185-826e-e658535940aa

Architecture of a Windows Azure Business App

When you really put a Business Application into the Cloud you will get several requirements from your customers. I will show you in this post how to address these requirements:

a) Single-Sign-On: Can be achieved using ADFS and WIF

b) ERP-System Integration can be accomblished using Windows Azure AppFabric
Services Bus to connect both.

c) Storing relational data can be done in SQL Azure

d) Security of ASP.NET can be implemented via Single-Sign-On and IPFilters (see codeplex for a sample)

e) Session Management: You need to make sure that session data is persisted to SQL Azure by using the SQL Session Provider for ASP.NET

Free Windows Azure test accounts

If you’re tired of running your Windows Azure applications in your development fabric only and would like to see how it’s doing in “the real world”, request one of Microsoft’s free Windows Azure test accounts.

Those accounts only run for 14 days but provide full functionality!
Just write an email to azurenow@microsoft.com.

Webcast on Running Java & PHP on Windows Azure

Holger Sirtl has posted a Video that shows how to run Java and PHP on Windows Azure.

In addition I want to note that there are great tools for Eclipse that PHP and Java developers can use to directly develop from inside Eclipse.

Video [German]
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/hsirtl/archive/2010/06/18/webcast-zur-interoperabilit-228-t-mit-windows-azure.aspx

Windows Azure Platform Training Kit

For all developers who are new to the Windows Azure platform or those who want to get even more insight to Windows azure – there is a new training kit available on Microsoft’s download center.

The June update consists of presentations, hands-on labs and even videos and demos designed to help developers understand Windows Azure and to learn using the Windows Azure platform. The current release includes updated resources for Visual Studio 2010.

Here is one of the basic videos of the training kit that answers the fundamental question “What is Windows Azure?”:

For a deep dive into Windows Azure get the Training kit:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=413e88f8-5966-4a83-b309-53b7b77edf78

PHP on Windows Azure

Holger Sirtl has posed great German blog post on running Windows Azure on PHP

Here is his post:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/hsirtl/archive/2010/06/07/interoperabilit-228-t-mit-windows-azure-ausf-252-hrung-von-php-anwendungen-auf-windows-azure.aspx

Free(!) Windows Azure Book

Windows Azure team blog announced a free Book about Windows Azure written by developers for developers. “Windows Azure Platform: Articles from the Trenches Volume 1” can be downloaded as PDF for free.

Visit http://bit.ly/downloadazurebookvol1 and download it!

The book is also available on slideshare.net:

Windows Azure Platform: Articles from the Trenches, Volume One

View more documents from Eric Nelson.

And for those who like to read books the traditional way: buy a hardcopy from lulu.com.

What does Azure provide and how fast are servers?

I get typically three questions, I want to provide answers on:

a) Why Azure – how does it make my life easier?
Here is the answer http://msdn.microsoft.com/de-de/ff728566(en-us).aspx 

b) What is the expected performance?
Here are a set of benchmarks that help you estimate the performance of the infrastructure provided by azure
http://azurescope.cloudapp.net/BenchmarkTestCases.aspx 

c) What is the data transfer to and from my computer and Azure?

Microsoft Research has released a throughput analyser that shows you the upload/download performance
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/5c8189b9-53aa-4d6a-a086-013d927e15a7/default.aspx