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• Application Lifecycle Management Overview for Windows Azure

  Developing in Windows Azure is at once not that much different from what you’re familiar with in on-premises systems, and different in significant ways. Because of these differences, developers often ask about the specific process to develop and deploy Read More... Posted Tuesday, February 07, 2012 7:58 AM by BuckWoody | 0 Comments Filed under: Application Architecture, Azure, Best Practices, Cloud, Cloud Computing, Concepts, Design, Developer, Development, Links, Planning, Process, System Center Operations Manager, Tips, Windows Azure

• Bug-Out Bags and Cloud Architecture Considerations

  I served in the U.S. Military for a while, and as part of my training we had to maintain a “Bug-Out Bag”, which was a large duffle-bag full of certain items that we could live on/fight with in an emergency. I’ve carried the spirit of that idea forward Read More... Posted Friday, January 20, 2012 10:00 AM by BuckWoody | 0 Comments Filed under: Application Architecture, Azure, Best Practices, Cloud, Cloud Computing, Concepts, Disaster Recovery

• Windows Azure Best Practices: Affinity Groups

  When you create a Windows Azure application, you’ll pick a subscription to put it under. This is a billing container - underneath that, you’ll deploy a Hosted Service. That holds the Web and Worker Roles that you’ll deploy for your applications. Read More... Posted Monday, November 28, 2011 9:43 PM by BuckWoody | 1 Comments Filed under: Azure, Best Practices, Windows Azure

• Rip and Replace or Extend and Embrace?

  As most of you know, I don’t like the term “cloud” very much. It isn’t defined, which means it can be anything. I prefer “distributed computing”, which is more technically accurate and describes what you’re doing Read More... Posted Tuesday, September 13, 2011 5:20 AM by BuckWoody | 0 Comments Filed under: Application Architecture, Application Fabric, Azure, Azure Use Cases, Best Practices, Cloud, Cloud Computing, Computing, Data, Design, Developer, Development, Windows Azure

• Plan for Diagnostics in Cloud Computing From the Git-Go

  “Git-Go” is something we say in the South that means “right at the start”. I’ve seen several applications for on-premise systems that don’t have much in the way of diagnostics - the developers rely on a debugger, the event logs on the server and client Read More... Posted Tuesday, September 06, 2011 7:11 AM by BuckWoody | 0 Comments Filed under: Azure, Best Practices, Cloud, Cloud Computing, Concepts, Design, Developer, Development, Error Codes, Link Lists, Monitoring, Testing, Troubleshooting, Windows Azure

• How I Prepare For Presentations, And My Speaking Schedule For This Quarter

  I do a little speaking here and there and I’ve been asked about the method I use to get ready for a talk. I thought I might share the method I use, although as you read through this remember that not everyone has the same style, processes and procedures Read More... Posted Tuesday, August 16, 2011 8:04 AM by BuckWoody | 1 Comments Filed under: Best Practices, Career, Community, Conferences, Customer Contact, How I work, Process, Tips

• Should All Data Be Encrypted By Default?

  Recently several IT industry information outlets have reported that there has been a 10-year concentrated, organized effort on breaking through computer security at some of the largest companies in the world. Government sites have also been attacked in Read More... Posted Tuesday, August 09, 2011 7:45 AM by BuckWoody | 0 Comments Filed under: Azure, Best Practices, Cloud, Cloud Computing, Data, Encryption, Security, SQL Azure, Windows Azure

• Windows Azure Security Review

  Current as of 08/01/2011 - Check the Resources listed below for more up-to-date information on this topic Background: Security for any computing platform involves three primary areas: Principals (users or programmatic access to an asset or other program) Read More... Posted Tuesday, August 02, 2011 7:24 AM by BuckWoody | 0 Comments Filed under: Application Architecture, Application Fabric, Azure, Best Practices, Cloud, Cloud Computing, Concepts, Data, Design, Encryption, Platform Independence, SOA, SQL Azure, Walkthroughs, Web, Windows Azure

• The Conundrum of Cloud Computing Evidence

  “Who is using Windows Azure? How are they doing it?” I get asked this all the time as I speak to our clients when we mention Windows or SQL Azure as a possible solutions to an architectural problem the company has. I completely understand the question. Read More... Posted Tuesday, July 26, 2011 6:56 AM by BuckWoody | 0 Comments Filed under: Azure, Azure Use Cases, Best Practices, Cloud Computing, Customer Contact, Windows Azure

• Using the @ in SQL Azure Connections

  The other day I was working with a client on an application they were changing to a hybrid architecture – some data on-premise and other data in SQL Azure and Windows Azure Blob storage. I had them make a couple of corrections - the first was that Read More... Posted Tuesday, June 21, 2011 7:49 AM by BuckWoody | 1 Comments Filed under: Best Practices, Cloud, Cloud Computing, Connections, Data Professional, DBA, SQL Azure

• Cloud Computing and the Importance of Code Diagrams

  Most mature development shops use various code diagrams to give a symbolic representation of high-level and database code structures. Standards such as Business Process Model Notation (BPMN), Entity Relationship Diagrams (ERD) and the Unified Modeling Read More... Posted Tuesday, May 03, 2011 7:59 AM by BuckWoody | 0 Comments Filed under: Azure, Best Practices, Cloud, Cloud Computing, Data, Design, Developer, Development, Documentation

• More than one way to skin an Audit

  I get asked quite a bit about auditing in SQL Server. By "audit", people mean everything from tracking logins to finding out exactly who ran a particular SELECT statement. In the really early versions of SQL Server, we didn't have a great story for very Read More... Posted Thursday, May 20, 2010 7:40 AM by BuckWoody | 2 Comments Filed under: Administration, Best Practices, DBA, Security

• Use Those Schemas, People!

  Database Schemas are just containers – they aren’t users or anything else – think of a sub-directory on the hard drive. In early versions of SQL Server we “hid” schemas, placing all objects under “dbo”, which gave the erroneous perception that Schemas Read More... Posted Tuesday, May 18, 2010 6:39 AM by BuckWoody | 8 Comments Filed under: Best Practices, DBA, Design, Developer, SQL Server

• Testing and Validation – You Really Do Have The Time

  One of the great advantages in my role as a Technical Specialist here at Microsoft is that I get to work with so many great clients. I get to see their environments and how they use them, and the way they work with SQL Server. I’ve been a data professional Read More... Posted Tuesday, May 04, 2010 7:20 AM by BuckWoody | 3 Comments Filed under: Best Practices, SQL Server

• Backup those keys, citizen

  Periodically I back up the keys within my servers and databases, and when I do, I blog a reminder here. This should be part of your standard backup rotation – the keys should be backed up often enough to have at hand and again when they change. The first Read More... Posted Tuesday, April 20, 2010 6:14 AM by BuckWoody | 2 Comments Filed under: Administration, Best Practices, DBA, Disaster Recovery, Maintenance, Maintenance Plans, Security, SQL Server, Tips