Thursday, February 28, 2013

Microsoft Azure cloud storage service worldwide SSL certificate issue

Microsoft's Azure Cloud Storage service suffered a worldwide SSL secure certificate issue apparently due to the fact that the certificate had expired inadvertently as reported my most news sources.

Below are links to some websites and a link to Windows Azure Service Dashboard.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/02/22/azure_problem_that_should_never_happen_ever/

http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/support/service-dashboard/


Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Windows Azure Mobile Services

Over the last few years mobile services have taken a gigantic growth and to support it there has been a spurt of BAAS (Backend-as-a-service) offerings to go with.

Developing a cloud backed backend for your mobile app requires lot more effort and when getting your mobile app developed, tested and on to the store, your backend could well be the botteneck.

Not to talk of scaling well for millions of users (when your app gets really popular).

Though there are some BAAS providers out there such as parse.com, stackmob.com and kinvey.com to name a few, Microsoft has entered this space with Azure Mobile Services.

You can check out their blog announcement here: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2012/08/28/announcing-windows-azure-mobile-services.aspx

There is even a comparison from one the BAAS players aptly named Why is Microsoft competing with Backend as a Service startups? ( http://www.kinvey.com/blog/144/why-is-microsoft-competing-with-backend-as-a-service-startups)


Windows Azure Mobile Services Home Page:
 http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/mobile/

Getting Started tutorial:
http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/mobile/tutorials/get-started/


Azure Table Storage - Dynamic Columns

The Windows Azure Table storage service stores large amounts of structured data in the form of entities ( An entity contains a set of properties).
It's a NoSQL kind of datastore and are ideal for storing structured, non-relational data.

Each entity can hold up to 255 properties (including 3 required properties) and the combined size cannot exceed 1 MB.

The three required properties are
"PartitionKey"
"RowKey"
"timestamp"

So, effectively that leaves us with 252 properties to work with.
Entities map to C# Objects. So, programmatically you would declare a class that inherits from "TableEntity".

eg.,
public class CustomerEntity : TableEntity
{
    public CustomerEntity(string lastName, string firstName)
    {
        this.PartitionKey = lastName;
        this.RowKey = firstName;
    }

    public CustomerEntity() { }

    public string Address { get; set; }
   
    public string Email { get; set; }
   
}


If you would like to keep your schema design dynamic as azure table storage supports, there are couple of ways you could do to achieve that.

Here are some links that help you solve it:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/avkashchauhan/archive/2011/03/28/reading-and-saving-table-storage-entities-without-knowing-the-schema-or-updating-tablestorageentity-schema-at-runtime.aspx

http://developenator.blogspot.in/2011/09/dynamic-type-factory-for-azure-table.html

http://blog.tylerdoerksen.com/2011/10/23/intermediate-table-storage-custom-columns/

http://ruiromanoblog.wordpress.com/2009/05/15/azure-table-storage-with-dynamic-entities-objects/


Wednesday, February 6, 2013

SQL Azure Federation

SQL Azure Federations allows DBAs to scale out their database by federating (sharding) their database. SQL Azure Federation makes it easier to set up the federated databases, and automate the process of adding new federation members.

If you are new to SQL Azure Federation, check out this great blog post on this (SQL Azure Federation – Introduction) by Shaun Xu.

There is a codeplex project that facilitates the process of migrating data from a single database to multiple federation members in SQL Azure Federation.

http://sqlazurefedmw.codeplex.com/

The Project home page also includes links to other resources for learning SQL Azure Federations.






SQL Server vs Azure SQL Database differences

SQL Server Comparison

Focus on logical vs. physical administration
Database and log files automatically placed (no support for Log Shipping, Database Mirroring, etc)
Three high-availability replicas maintained for every database
Tables require a clustered index
Maximum database size is 150 GB (Business edition) 5GB (Web edition)
SQL Server Authentication only

Unsupported SQL Server Features

Use command, distributed transactions, distributed views
Service Broker
Common Language Runtime (CLR)
SQL Agent
Native Encryption
*Backup / Restore


For a more exhaustive list of differences check out this TechNet link (Compare SQL Server with Windows Azure SQL Database) http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/996.compare-sql-server-with-windows-azure-sql-database.aspx

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Windows Azure Learning Series

The Windows Azure Learning Series takes you through examples utilizing the features in Windows Azure Caching and Service Bus.

Project Description
This is a video series which demonstrates to developers and architects the basics of Windows Azure.

The videos are hosted on Microsoft Showcase and the following content below will be posted here:

Friday, January 18, 2013

Windows Azure - Screencasts

1. Building Cloud Applications with the Windows Azure Platform

Session 01: Windows Azure Overview
Session 02: Introduction to Compute
Session 03: Windows Azure Lifecycle, Part 1
Session 04: Windows Azure Lifecycle, Part 2
Session 05: Windows Azure Storage, Part 1
Session 06: Windows Azure Storage, Part 2
Session 07: Introduction to SQL Azure
Session 08: Windows Azure Diagnostics
Session 09: Windows Azure Security, Part 1
Session 10: Windows Azure Security, Part 2
Session 11: Scalability, Caching & Elasticity, Part 1
Session 12: Scalability, Caching & Elasticity, Part 2, and Q&A

http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Windows-Azure-Jump-Start-01-Windows-Azure-Overview

2. Windows Azure Cloud Cover Show

http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/Cloud+Cover

3. Windows Azure Podcasts

http://www.developerfusion.com/t/azure/media/
http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/DevRadio
http://azurecast.blogspot.in/





Windows Azure - Free ebooks

Windows Azure Learning Resources

Thursday, January 17, 2013

What is Cloud Computing

 NIST Cloud Computing Definition

After years in the works and 15 drafts, the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) working definition of cloud computing, the 16th and final definition has been published as The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing (NIST Special Publication 800-145).

Cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.
This cloud model is composed of five essential characteristics, three service models, and four deployment models.
 
Link to Download:
The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing


Wikipedia Definition of Cloud Computing:

    Cloud computing is the use of computing resources (hardware and software) that are delivered as a service over a network (typically the Internet). The name comes from the use of a cloud-shaped symbol as an abstraction for the complex infrastructure it contains in system diagrams. Cloud computing entrusts remote services with a user's data, software and computation.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing