Recently several Windows Azure December updates are announced to improve ease of use, interoperability, and overall value. Here are my favorites and see here for complete details.

imageSimplified Risk Free 90-Days Free Trial
  • Eliminating usage above free quota limits that lead to overage charges; see below Monthly
    Allocations
    • Compute (750 small compute hours)
    • Storage – Relational (1G Web Edition)
    • Storage – Non-Relational (20GB with 50K transactions)
    • Bandwidth (Unlimited Inbound, and 20GB Outbound)
  • Default Monthly Spending Limit of $0 USD
  • A Windows Live ID and credit card are required for proof of identity. There is no obligation to
    purchase at the end of the free trial.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Usage Cap (Spending Limit)    StopSpending
  • Experience Cloud without worry of excess charges (charged at Standard Rates)
    beyond your monthly usage limits
  • View real-time usage and billing details directly from the Windows Azure Management
    Portal
  • Usage Cap is applicable for all offers including 90-Days Trial, MSDN Subscriptions,
    BizSpark
  • Receive automatic credit during signup based upon your eligibility (MSDN Subscription, BizSpark, …)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unlimited  Management Portal
The new portal has a Metro-style user interface with new features including new workspaces with the ability to more easily monitor databases, drill-down into schemas, query plans, spatial data, indexes / keys, and query performance statistics.

 

 

 

 

 

SQL Azure Federation and Increased Database Sizeimage
  • scale out Databases elastically and manage with greater ease using a new sharding
    pattern
  • Increased Databases Size limit from 50 GB to 150 GB

 

 

 

 

 

image Windows Azure SDK for Node.js
  • Libraries for Windows Azure Storage (Blob, Table, Queue)
  • Windows Azure PowerShell for Node.js, providing command-line tools for development and
    deployment of Node.js applications
  • Source code for Node.js client libraries is also available on GitHub

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apache Hadoop Based Distribution for Windows Azureimage
  • The Developer Preview is available by invitation, with following highlights:
  • Install and setup Hadoop on Windows Azure in hours instead of days thanks to a new set
    of installers that simplify setup and deployment.
  • New JavaScript libraries that enable millions of JavaScript developers to build
    MapReduce jobs for the first time using the new Hadoop based Service on Windows
    Azure.
  • Hive ODBC Driver and Hive Add-in for Excel enable data analysis of unstructured data through familiar
    tools including Excel and PowerPivot.

 

New Tools for OSS Technologies
Java image image image Memcached

Tools to work with following OSS Technologies. See the additional details on the Port 25 Blog

  • Eclipse/Java
  • MongoDB
  • SQL Azure Federation
  • Solr/Lucene
  • Memcached