Windows Azure Platform, v1.3--Chappell

INTRODUCINGTHEWINDOWSAZUREPLATFORMDAVIDCHAPPELLDECEMBER2009SPONSOREDBYMICROSOFTCORPORATION2CONTENTSAnOverviewoftheWindowsAzurePlatform.......................................................................................3WindowsAzure........................................................................................................................................4SQLAzure.................................................................................................................................................6WindowsAzurePlatformAppFabric........................................................................................................7ACloserLookattheTechnologies.........................................................................................................9WindowsAzure........................................................................................................................................9RunningApplications..........................................................................................................................9AccessingData..................................................................................................................................11SQLAzure...............................................................................................................................................13WindowsAzurePlatformAppFabric......................................................................................................15ServiceBus........................................................................................................................................16AccessControl...................................................................................................................................17PuttingthePiecesTogether:AnExample............................................................................................19LookingAhead....................................................................................................................................20Conclusions.........................................................................................................................................21AbouttheAuthor................................................................................................................................213ANOVERVIEWOFTHEWINDOWSAZUREPLATFORMUsingcomputersinthecloudcanmakelotsofsense.Ratherthanbuyingandmaintainingyourownmachines,whynotexploittheacresofInternet-accessibleserversonoffertoday?Forsomeapplications,bothcodeanddatamightliveinthecloud,wheresomebodyelsemanagesandmaintainsthesystemstheyuse.Alternatively,applicationsthatruninsideanorganization—on-premisesapplications—mightstoredatainthecloudorrelyonothercloudinfrastructureservices.Howeverit’sdone,exploitingthecloud’scapabilitiescanimproveourworld.Butwhetheranapplicationrunsinthecloud,usesservicesprovidedbythecloud,orboth,somekindofapplicationplatformisrequired.Viewedbroadly,anapplicationplatformcanbethoughtofasanythingthatprovidesdeveloper-accessibleservicesforcreatingapplications.Inthelocal,on-premisesWindowsworld,forexample,thisincludestechnologiessuchasWindowsServer,the.NETFramework,SQLServer,andmore.Toletapplicationsexploitthecloud,cloudapplicationplatformsmustalsoexist.Microsoft’sWindowsAzureplatformisagroupofcloudtechnologies,eachprovidingaspecificsetofservicestoapplicationdevelopers.AsFigure1shows,theWindowsAzureplatformcanbeusedbothbyapplicationsrunninginthecloudandbyon-premisesapplications.Figure1:TheWindowsAzureplatformsupportsapplications,data,andinfrastructureinthecloud.ThecomponentsoftheWindowsAzureplatformare:WindowsAzure:ProvidesaWindows-basedenvironmentforrunningapplicationsandstoringdataonserversinMicrosoftdatacenters.SQLAzure:ProvidesdataservicesinthecloudbasedonSQLServer.4WindowsAzureplatformAppFabric:Providescloudservicesforconnectingapplicationsrunninginthecloudoronpremises.EachpartoftheWindowsAzureplatformhasitsownroletoplay.Thisoverviewdescribesallthree,firstatahighlevel,theninabitmoredetail.Thegoalistoprovideabig-pictureintroductiontothisnewapplicationplatform.WINDOWSAZUREAtahighlevel,WindowsAzureissimpletounderstand:It’saplatformforrunningWindowsapplicationsandstoringtheirdatainthecloud.Figure2showsitsmaincomponents.Figure2:WindowsAzureprovidesWindows-basedcomputeandstorageservicesforcloudapplications.Asthefiguresuggests,WindowsAzurerunsonalargenumberofmachines,alllocatedinMicrosoftdatacentersandaccessibleviatheInternet.AcommonWindowsAzurefabricknitsthisplethoraofprocessingpowerintoaunifiedwhole.WindowsAzurecomputeandstorageservicesarebuiltontopofthisfabric.TheWindowsAzurecomputeserviceisbased,ofcourse,onWindows.Developerscanbuildapplicationsusingthe.NETFramework,unmanagedcode,orotherapproaches.ThoseapplicationsarewritteninordinaryWindowslanguages,suchasC#,VisualBasic,C++,andJava,usingVisualStudiooranotherdevelopmenttool.DeveloperscancreateWebapplications,usingtechnologiessuchasASP.NET,Windows5Comm