Buck Woody : Web, VM Role

Windows Azure – Write, Run or Use Software

BuckWoody — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 22:47:00 GMT

Windows Azure is a platform that has you covered, whether you need to write software, run software that is already written, or Install and use “canned” software whether you or someone else wrote it. Like any platform, it’s a set of tools you can use where it makes sense to solve a problem.

You can click on the graphic below for a larger picture of these components, or download a poster with more details here.

The primary location for Windows Azure information is located at http://windowsazure.com. You can find everything there from the development kits for writing software to pricing, licensing and tutorials on all of that.

I have a few links here for learning to use Windows Azure – although it’s best if you focus not on the tools, but what you want to solve. I’ve got it broken down here into various sections, so you can quickly locate things you want to know. I’ll include resources here from Microsoft and elsewhere – I use these same resources in the Architectural Design Sessions (ADS) I do with my clients worldwide.

There is also a great video series on Cloud Fundamentals here, if you have some time to watch them. It's a great series that covers a lot of ground.

Write Software

Also called “Platform as a Service” (PaaS), Windows Azure has lots of components you can use together or separately that allow you to write software in .NET or various Open Source languages to work completely online, or in partnership with code you have on-premises or both – even if you’re using other cloud providers. Keep in mind that all of the features you see here can be used together, or independently. For instance, you might only use a Web Site, or use Storage, but you can use both together. You can access all of these components through standard REST API calls, or using our Software Development Kit’s API’s, which are a lot easier. In any case, you simply use Visual Studio, Eclipse, Cloud9 IDE, or even a text editor to write your code from a Mac, PC or Linux.

Components you can use:

Azure Web Sites: Windows Azure Web Sites allow you to quickly write an deploy websites, without setting a Virtual Machine, installing a web server or configuring complex settings. They work alone, with other Windows Azure Web Sites, or with other parts of Windows Azure. Read more about deciding to use Web Sites or Roles.

Web and Worker Roles: Windows Azure Web Roles give you a full stateless computing instance with Internet Information Services (IIS) installed and configured. Windows Azure Worker Roles give you a full stateless computing instance without Information Services (IIS) installed, often used in a "Services" mode. Scale-out is achieved either manually or programmatically under your control.

Storage: Windows Azure Storage types include Blobs to store raw binary data, Tables to use key/value pair data (like NoSQL data structures), Queues that allow interaction between stateless roles, and a relational SQL Server database.

Other Services: Windows Azure has many other services such as a security mechanism, a Cache (memcacheD compliant), a Service Bus, a Traffic Manager and more. Once again, these features can be used with a Windows Azure project, or alone based on your needs.

Windows Azure Mobile Services: A simple framework service which enables you to quickly develop the back-end for mobile services. For the front-end, check out the iOS SDK, news about the Android SDK, and the Windows Phone SDK.

Various Languages: Windows Azure supports the .NET stack of languages, as well as many Open-Source languages like Java, Python, PHP, Ruby, NodeJS, C++ and more.

Use Software

Also called “Software as a Service” (SaaS) this often means consumer or business-level software like Hotmail or Office 365. In other words, you simply log on, use the software, and log off – there’s nothing to install, and little to even configure. For the Information Technology professional, however, It’s not quite the same. We want software that provides services, but in a platform. That means we want things like Hadoop or other software we don’t want to have to install and configure.

Components you can use:

Kits: Various software “kits” or packages are supported with just a few clicks, such as Umbraco, Wordpress, and others.

Windows Azure Media Services: Windows Azure Media Services is a suite of services that allows you to upload media for encoding, processing and even streaming – or even one or more of those functions. We can add DRM and even commercials to your media if you like. Windows Azure Media Services is used to stream large events all the way down to small training videos.

High Performance Computing and “Big Data”: Windows Azure allows you to scale to huge workloads using a few clicks to deploy Hadoop Clusters or the High Performance Computing (HPC) nodes, accepting HPC Jobs, Pig and Hive Jobs, and even interfacing with Microsoft Excel.

Windows Azure Marketplace: Windows Azure Marketplace offers data and programs you can quickly implement and use – some free, some for-fee.

Run Software

Also known as “Infrastructure as a Service” (IaaS), this offering allows you to build or simply choose a Virtual Machine to run server-based software.

Components you can use:

Persistent Virtual Machines: You can choose to install Windows Server, Windows Server with Active Directory, with SQL Server, or even SharePoint from a pre-configured gallery. You can configure your own server images with standard Hyper-V technology and load them yourselves – and even bring them back when you’re done. As a new offering, we also even allow you to select various distributions of Linux – a first for Microsoft.

Windows Azure Connect: You can connect your on-premises networks to Windows Azure Instances.

Storage: Windows Azure Storage can be used as a remote backup, a hybrid storage location and more using software or even hardware appliances.

Decision Matrix

With all of these options, you can use Windows Azure to solve just about any computing problem. It’s often hard to know when to use something on-premises, in the cloud, and what kind of service to use.

I’ve used a decision matrix in the last couple of years to take a particular problem and choose the proper technology to solve it. It’s all about options – there is no “silver bullet”, whether that’s Windows Azure or any other set of functions. I take the problem, decide which particular component I want to own and control – and choose the column that has that box darkened. For instance, if I have to control the wiring for a solution (a requirement in some military and government installations), that means the “Networking” component needs to be dark, and so I select the “On Premises” column for that particular solution. If I just need the solution provided and I want no control at all, I can look as “Software as a Service” solutions.

Security, Pricing, and Other Info

Security: Security is one of the first questions you should ask in any distributed computing environment. We have certification info, coding guidelines and more, even a general “Request for Information” RFI Response already created for you.

Pricing: Are there licenses? How much does this cost? Is there a way to estimate the costs in this new environment?

New Features: Many new features were added to Windows Azure - and you can keep up to date with community information released monthly here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/davidmcg/

Windows Azure Cookbooks: Great resource for architecture solutions - http://www.notsotrivial.net/blog/category/Architecture.aspx

Support: Software Support on Virtual Machines, general support, support plans

Hands-On Labs: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/jj618399

Windows Azure Capability Discussion Presentation and Windows Azure Solution Implementer Guide and Windows Azure Business Priorities Guide

Should I learn Cloud Computing Next?

BuckWoody — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 13:45:42 GMT

My previous role at Microsoft was in the SQL Server team. I spent quite a bit of time there, and had some really great experiences. I was able to travel and speak as well as doing my “regular” job in the programming team, so I got to meet a lot of people. I also teach at the University of Washington, and see a lot of companies and students in that role. Last year I moved into the Windows and SQL Azure team, and from all of those sets of experiences I am now getting the same question quite frequently:

“What should I learn next in my technical career? Cloud Computing? Azure, something else?”

Well, I don’t think it’s a great idea to leave something that you know well to start out in a new area, just for the sake of change. If you enjoy what you’re doing and where you’re doing it, the key there is to enhance that value as much as you can. If, however, you are looking to stay on the cutting edge, or you’re looking to make a change for other reasons, there are a few places that I’m finding are evolving quickly. I’ve also found that in a new market, be a generalist, in a mature one, be a specialist. It’s all about supply and demand, so whatever is needed, try to fill that role.

Note that these are my observations. My particular set of customers and students stretch across the US and into Europe, so I don’t have as much visibility into the Asia region. You may find that your area has a different emphasis, so your mileage may vary. These are the areas that I am finding that have a growing interest, and places where I see people getting new jobs. Most of these are within companies, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use these skills as a self-employed consultant.

Security

Just like the “junk drawer” we all have in our kitchens at home, the data we store on our systems is often out-of-sight, out-of-mind in both IT and in a company. But with the latest high-profile break-ins, hacks, leaks and just plain thefts companies are starting to realize that a security breach hits the bottom line, in their reputation, and in their ability to attract and retain customers. So your next move - before you consider Windows Azure or anything else - should be security.

Am I suggesting that you leave your current role and become a general security specialist? Well, you could do that, but you would actually raise your profile significantly right in your current role if you become an expert in hardening the areas you are responsible for. Make sure that management and the rest of your team know that you’re the “go-to” person for security in your area. You’re not only helping your career, you’re helping your company and you’re helping my data - and yours - stay private.

Virtualization

Many companies are afraid to trust the cloud, often because of security. So they take an interim step of using Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), often on-site and controlled by the IT department, which is a “private cloud”. In all aspects of computing, this has an impact. While the service model (how things are deployed automatically) comes later, you first have to be familiar with virtualization. So take time after you learn about security and find out how virtualization works, how each vendor implements it, and how it impacts your area.

Cloud Computing Technologies

It’s everywhere. Open any technical magazine or navigate to any IT website and you’ll see the cloud mentioned. Your company is hearing it, so you need to learn it. I recommend understanding the difference between IaaS, PaaS and SaaS, and of course learning Windows Azure. I have a full learning plan here that will get you started. Again, it’s not something that will necessarily replace what you have today - but it should certainly be an option for your computing paradigms going forward.

Departmental Application Development

Wait - am I talking about something like <gasp> Microsoft Access programming? Why yes, I am. But not necessarily Access. Let me explain.

Because of the cloud, savvy technical business folks can “go around” IT with a simple credit-card. When they need to author a simple application to do what they need to do and share it amongst themselves, they may just do that without you. And they might use Access, or any number of other technologies. I’ve been seeing this quite a lot lately.

So why not help them? Hold some classes in proper, secure lightweight application design. I recommend Lightswitch, personally - it was designed for this very purpose. Or any programming language that you’re comfortable with. Just show them the right way to either write the code themselves, or the right way to engage you to do it.