Book Image

Windows Azure programming patterns for Start-ups

By : Riccardo Becker
Book Image

Windows Azure programming patterns for Start-ups

By: Riccardo Becker

Overview of this book

Leverage different Windows Azure components together with your existing Microsoft .NET skills to fully take advantage of the power of Windows Azure. Use this book to start small and end big by creating and using storage, cloud services, sql databases, networking, caching and other innovative technology to realize your first top-class Windows Azure service! "Windows Azure for Start-ups" is an incremental guide that will take you from the essentials of the Windows Azure platform up to the realization of your own cloud services running on the platform. You will learn how to apply different technologies of the Windows Azure platform with the help of examples all focusing on one single fictitious start-up scenario. This book is centred around a fictitious company called Geotopia that wants to build a brand new social network by using the Windows Azure platform. It will take the reader from the theory and rationale behind Windows Azure right to building services and coding C#. The books starts by outlining the concepts of Windows Azure. It then demonstrates how to set up a development environment and how to build your application by using different storage mechanisms, applying different features from the Windows Azure platform and ending with the newest features explained from the latest release. Windows Azure for Startups will help you take full advantage of the Windows Azure platform and bring your new service online as quickly as possible.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Windows Azure Programming Patterns for Start-ups
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Overview


Microsoft Windows Azure SQL Database is the cloud equivalent of Microsoft SQL Server (with some differences) and runs in one of the datacenters all around the world.

SQL Database and Microsoft SQL Server do have a lot of similarities but also some important differences. They both rely on the TDS interface for using T-SQL statements. Because of this similarity, it is fairly easy to switch from your traditional on-premises SQL Server to a SQL database instance on the cloud. Like other Windows Azure services, SQL Database is also a managed service that releases you from the administration burden. SQL Database is exposed as a logical database, and any physical hardware plumbing is done by the platform. Obviously, you are still responsible for managing the actual databases, logins, and users.

As with Windows Azure Storage, databases on Windows Azure are replicated automatically to uphold maximum availability. Also, load balancing and failover is part of the deal. SQL Database maintains...