Storage

Azure Webjobs

By Marcel Meijer

During the past Dutch Microsoft Techdays 2014 I did a session about Azure Cloud Services. A recording (in Dutch) can be found on Channel 9. In the beginning of Azure, Cloud services were the “way to go”. Cloud Services is a very powerful concept, but it had some small cons. Existing applications could not moved to the Cloud via a Lift and Shift method. Mostly because the application wasn’t well designed itself. Most applications were not pure stateless, a-synchronic in base and most applications were not able to run in concurrent identical instances. In the past years the Azure platform … Continue reading Azure Webjobs

Microsoft Azure Websites Backup

By Marcel Meijer

If you are using a Microsoft Azure Website, then it is now possible to make regular and automatic backups. This backup routine can also include the linked database or the linked resources. This makes the Microsoft Azure websites a lot more interesting.

Backup on Windows Azure

By Marcel Meijer

Windows Azure is build on the fact that services and applications will never be unavailable by hardware failures. The Windows Azure platform made self healing. Your website runs on a server, in case the physical hardware should break down, the platform will move your website to another server. Also possible with virtual machines and Cloud Services if you have al least two instances of your service. Many think this a great feature of the platform, but they are worried about the failures made by users. How could the platform help us with that? I am not trying to start a … Continue reading Backup on Windows Azure

Windows Azure tools 2.2

By Marcel Meijer

Evert now and then a new version of the Windows Azure tools for Visual Studio is released. With the arrival of the version of Visual Studio that would be a great update moment. This time not just a refresh of the tools, but there a great jewels of additions. Which are also available for Visual Studio 2012. This time the process to manage your Windows Azure subscriptions in Visual Studio is redesigned and changed. In previous versions you did need to download a .publishsettings xml file (on https://windows.azure.com/download/publishprofile.aspx). This file contained all the information about your subscriptions. By importing this … Continue reading Windows Azure tools 2.2

Windows Azure Mobile Services

By Marcel Meijer

Since some time the Windows Azure Mobile Services are available via de Windows Azure management portal. These Mobile Services make it easier to quickly create a mobile application with Windows Azure as backend. It is not limited to Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8, but also iOS is a target platform. Like we getting used to the new possibilities on the Windows Azure portal and the Cloud services are rapidly added and enhanced. We already were able to create Mobile applications with Windows Azure SQL Databases as backend, use push notifications and use different identity providers. But now there is … Continue reading Windows Azure Mobile Services

Windows Azure Websites and Storage

By Marcel Meijer

Windows Azure Websites are very handy to get a website quickly available. You can choose from a gallery of products. This gallery contains Blogs (WordPress), Content management systems (DotNetNuke), Wiki’s etc. And if you look closely their not all .NET based. Some need SQL Server database and others need MySQL. No problem at all. With a few clicks your website is up and running. But if you have a existing website, that one can also be hosted on Windows Azure websites. Also with a few more clicks you are up en running. Does the Website need to know about the … Continue reading Windows Azure Websites and Storage

Windows Azure Portal Updates

By Marcel Meijer

Like it supposed to be in a Cloud environment, with steady updates come new features and updates to the Windows Azure portal. Since today new updates and features are added to the Windows Azure portal. Here is a small summary. Updates 1) With the Windows Azure portal you could already edit the settings from the ServiceConfiguration.cscfg. In the beginning the size of the fields were to little, from now on that is changed. 2) On the Storage pages you could not do much. Of course with the different tools from third party vendors, but to create a container could be … Continue reading Windows Azure Portal Updates

Windows Azure Renewed!

By Marcel Meijer

Since last week Thursday (June 7 2012) is the new HTML portal of Windows Azure live and available for everyone. This new portal is a relief compared to the Silverlight one. And that was really better then this predecessor. Remember? http://marcelmeijer.net/blogs/marcel/archive/2010/11/30/windows-azure-1-3.aspx The first portal gave the feeling to paint your hallway through the letterbox slot in the door. There was not much to manage. But that is the past, what is new on the Windows Azure Management Portal. He is now available through the https://manage.windowsazure.com. And like I said before no more Silverlight, but pure HTML. The consequence of that … Continue reading Windows Azure Renewed!

SQL Azure Databases

By Marcel Meijer

When I do sessions on Windows Azure, then SQL Azure is always part of that. Most of the time remarks about the maximum sizes of SQL Azure database come from the audience. Quick summary. There are 2 SQL Azure editions available: Web and Business. I have not found any differences between the two, but perhaps this will come in the future. The Web edition comes in sizes of 1 Gb and 5 Gb. The Business edition starts at 10 Gb and ends with 50 Gb, in steps of 10 Gb. In December the maximum will be 150 Gb (here). The … Continue reading SQL Azure Databases

Windows Azure Storage vs Local Storage

By Marcel Meijer

If I do sessions on Windows Azure, I always point out that we as software engineers/architects should think about costs again. Because Windows Azure may look more expensive in comparison of an on premise situation, but we as developers have influence on it. Ok, the different VM’s of course have standard costs. And as I told in my previous blogpost, when you combine roles this could help you. Hereby a list of the standard costs of a VM per month. Please notice the table goes for 1 instance of a VM. Look here for the calculation with more instances.   … Continue reading Windows Azure Storage vs Local Storage