1. Introduction to Microsoft
Windows Azure Platform
Ramkumar Lakshminarayanan

2. Azure Key Services
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.

3. 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.

5. Windows Azure
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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. App Fabric
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.

10. 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.

11. SQL Azure
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.

12. Microsoft Codenamed “Dallas”
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.

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

14. Questions ?