This book will teach you about Windows Azure, Microsoft’s cloud computing platform. We’ll cover all aspects and components of Windows Azure from a developer’s point of view.
The book is written from the perspective of a .NET developer who’s using C#. We feel that most developers using Azure will be using .NET. Everything in this book applies to any platform that uses Azure. You’ll need to use the appropriate SDK for your development tools and platform of choice.
You should be fairly familiar with .NET, but you don’t have to be an expert. We expect a developer with a few years of experience to be able to get the most out of this book. Someone new to development, or perhaps even a manager, can still read the book to get a grasp of the broad concepts of Azure. If that’s your situation, skip over the code samples and try to understand what the moving parts are.
Roadmap
This book is broken into six parts, each with its own focus.
Part 1 is titled “Welcome to the cloud” and that’s exactly what it is: a welcome to the world of cloud computing. Chapters 1 and 2 explain what cloud computing is, and what the big moving parts of Windows Azure are. You’ll build and deploy some simple applications in this part, just to whet your appetite.
Part 2 is called “Understanding the Azure service model.” Chapter 3 gives you a peek behind the curtain and shows you how Azure works. Chapters 4 and 5 cover how to run and configure your applications in Azure.
Part 3, “Running your site with web roles,” covers running web applications in Azure. This part includes chapter 6, which describes scaling your application, and chapter 7, which covers using native code in Azure.
Part 4 is called “Working with BLOB storage,” and covers the first part of Windows Azure storage, BLOBs. Chapter 8 discusses the conceptual basics of BLOBs, chapter 9 covers how to work with them in your code, and chapter 10 tells you when to use BLOBs outside Azure.
Part 5, “Working with structured data,” tells you all about Windows Azure tables and SQL Azure. Chapters 11 and 12 focus on tables, chapter 13 dives into SQL Azure, and chapter 14 takes a broader look at how to work with data in the cloud and how to make decisions on what strategies to use.
Part 6, titled “Doing work with messages,” covers the last several parts of Azure, including specialized aspects of using worker roles, which is detailed in chapter 15. We discuss working with queues in chapter 16. Connecting your applications together and securing your services are delved into in chapter 17. Finally, chapter 18 describes how to work with diagnostics and how to manage your infrastructure in the cloud.
About the source code
All source code in listings or in text is in a fixed-width font like this to separate it from ordinary text. Code annotations accompany many of the listings, highlighting important concepts. In some cases, numbered bullets link to explanations that follow the listing.
Source code for all working examples in this book is available for download from the publisher’s website at www.manning.com/AzureinAction.
To work with the sample code in this book, you’ll need Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows Server 2008. You’ll also need either Visual Studio 2008 or 2010. We used VS2010 in this book for samples and screen shots. Additionally, you need to install the Azure SDK and the AppFabric SDK. Both of these can be found at Azure.com.
