http://blogs.msdn.com/alikl/archive/tags/Azure/default.aspxTags: Azureen-USCommunityServer 2.1 SP1 (Build: 61025.2)http://blogs.msdn.com/alikl/archive/2009/06/01/high-level-digest-on-windows-azure-services-platform.aspxMon, 01 Jun 2009 09:52:12 GMT91d46819-8472-40ad-a661-2c78acb4018c:9675125alikl0http://blogs.msdn.com/alikl/comments/9675125.aspxhttp://blogs.msdn.com/alikl/commentrss.aspx?PostID=9675125http://blogs.msdn.com/alikl/rsscomments.aspx?PostID=9675125<a href="http://practicethis.com/" rel="external nofollow" target="_blank"><img title="Alik Levin" border="0" alt="Alik Levin" src="http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/mcs/WindowsLiveWriter/d20b00ba5cce_FD44/image_5.png" width="50" height="50" /></a>&#160;&#160;&#160; I was reading a white paper called An <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5057e2b3-c8e5-4b26-a601-ff9621589ce3&amp;DisplayLang=en">Introduction to Microsoft .NET Services for Developers</a> while taking few quick notes. The notes might be beneficial to those who wants to quickly get an idea what Windows Azure is. Here is what I have captured: <ul> <li><strong>Azure – Windows in the cloud</strong>, software and data stored and running in Microsoft owned data servers.</li> <li>.Net Services platform consists of the following building blocks:</li> </ul> <p><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="Windows Azure" border="0" alt="Windows Azure" src="http://blogs.msdn.com/blogfiles/alikl/WindowsLiveWriter/HighLevelDigestOnWindowsAzureServicesPla_8768/image_3.png" width="545" height="254" /> </p> <ul> <li>Windows Azure:</li> <ul> <li>Hosted in<strong> MS data centers</strong>.</li> <li>Allows creating deploying, scaling, managing, distributing application and services in Internet.</li> </ul> <li>Business benefits - <strong>shields</strong> you from <strong>costs</strong> related to</li> <ul> <li><strong>Provisioning</strong>,</li> <li><strong>Configuring</strong>,</li> <li>…and <strong>Managing</strong> physical servers and the software running on them</li> </ul> <li>Windows® <strong>Azure </strong><strong>storage services</strong> are designed to be very simple and <strong>highly scalable</strong>:</li> <ul> <li><strong>BLOB</strong> storage, <strong>queue</strong> storage, and <strong>simple table</strong> storage, </li> <li>but it <strong>doesn’t provide</strong> the capabilities of a <strong>relational</strong> database (Microsoft® SQL Services does offer all these)</li> </ul> <li>Microsoft®<strong> .NET Services</strong></li> <ul> <li>.NET <strong>developer-oriented</strong> services and a software development kit (SDK) for building .NET applications <strong>to run in the cloud</strong>.</li> <li>Based on industry standard protocols - REST, SOAP, and WS-*</li> </ul> <li>Microsoft® <strong>SQL Services</strong></li> <ul> <li>Set of data-oriented services designed to extend the <strong>capabilities SQL Server</strong> into the <strong>cloud</strong>.</li> <li>Microsoft® SQL Data Services (SDS), which offers<strong> full relational database capabilities</strong>.</li> </ul> <li><strong>Live Services</strong> provides a set of <i><strong>user-centric services</strong></i> focused primarily on social applications and experiences:</li> <ul> <li>Mesh Services</li> <li>Identity Services</li> <li>Directory Services</li> <li>User-Data Storage Services</li> <li>Communication and Presence Services</li> <li>Search Services, and Geospatial Services</li> <li>Embraces REST, Atom, and AtomPub</li> </ul> <li><strong>Domain-specific</strong> service offerings</li> <ul> <li>Microsoft® <strong>SharePoint</strong> Services</li> <li>Microsoft® <strong>Dynamics CRM</strong> Services</li> </ul> <li>Using Windows Azure:</li> <ul> <li>Register at <a href="http://www.azure.com">www.azure.com</a></li> <li>Download SDK</li> </ul> </ul><img src="http://blogs.msdn.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=9675125" width="1" height="1">ArchitectureAzure