On Cloud Computing, Integration Technology, Mobility, RFID, ERP etc...
Sr, Program Manager at Microsoft and MBA from UNC Chapel Hill.My small world includes my beautiful wife Swati and our awesome twin boyz Arni and Abhi.
This is awesome news for all our customers. Windows Azure IaaS is not GA. Great article by Scott providing details and there is a link to Bill Hilf’s article below with some great customer case studies.
This morning we announced the general availability release of our Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) support for Windows Azure – including our new Virtual Machine and Virtual Network capabilities. This release is now live in production, backed by an enterprise SLA, supported by Microsoft Support, and is ready to use for production apps. If you don’t already have a Windows Azure account, you can sign-up for a free trial and start using it today. In addition to supporting all of the features and capabilities included during the preview, today’s IaaS release also includes some great new enhancements: New VM Image Templates (including SQL Server, BizTalk Server, and SharePoint images) New VM Sizes (including Larger Memory Machines) New VM Prices (we’ve reduced prices 21%-33% for IaaS and PaaS VMs) Below are more details on today’s release and some of the new enhancements. You can also read Bill Hilf’s blog post to learn about some of the customers who are already using the IaaS capabilities in production.
This morning we announced the general availability release of our Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) support for Windows Azure – including our new Virtual Machine and Virtual Network capabilities. This release is now live in production, backed by an enterprise SLA, supported by Microsoft Support, and is ready to use for production apps. If you don’t already have a Windows Azure account, you can sign-up for a free trial and start using it today.
In addition to supporting all of the features and capabilities included during the preview, today’s IaaS release also includes some great new enhancements:
Below are more details on today’s release and some of the new enhancements. You can also read Bill Hilf’s blog post to learn about some of the customers who are already using the IaaS capabilities in production.
Windows Azure: General Availability of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - ScottGu's Blog
Good CNET article on XBox Music.
Xbox Music is the new streaming music service from Microsoft. We'll show you how to get started with Xbox Music on Windows 8. by Ed Rhee October 31, 2012 12:06 PM PDT (Credit: Screenshot by Ed Rhee/CNET) Xbox Music was initially announced in June of this year and released toXbox 360 users first. When Windows 8 reached general availability on October 26, Xbox Music became available to all Windows 8 users as well. Like Spotify, Microsoft's new music service can stream full songs on demand, as well as play taste-based radio like Pandora. Here's what you need to know to get started with Xbox Music on Windows 8: To begin using Xbox Music, click on the orange Music tile on your Windows 8 Start screen and sign in with a Microsoft account. Streaming songs on demand To start listening to music right away, click on "Play an artist" and enter the name of an artist you want to listen to. A random selection of songs by that artist will begin playing immediately. To play specific songs or albums, you can browse music from the All Music and Top Music sections. You can also use the Win+Q shortcut to perform a quick search. Click to enlarge. (Credit: Screenshot by Ed Rhee/CNET) Once you've found music that you like, you can add it to a playlist by right-clicking on the track/album details. The control bar will appear at the bottom of the screen with the option to add the song or album to a playlist. In addition to playlists, you can also add songs or albums to My Music. When looking at track/album details, you'll see the option to "Add to my music." Click to enlarge. (Credit: Screenshot by Ed Rhee/CNET) Smart DJ Smart DJ is a taste-based radio feature, similar to Pandora and Spotify Radio. Just click on "New Smart DJ" and enter an artist. It will begin playing music right away and add the new Smart DJ station to My Music. Unfortunately, Smart DJ doesn't have a rating system, so you can't customize the station as you go along. Adding your own music To add your own music to My Music, open Windows Explorer (Win+E) and copy your music files to the My Music library. When you go back into Xbox Music, you'll see your music in the My Music section. (Credit: Screenshot by Ed Rhee/CNET) Managing My Music You can manage the music in My Music by clicking on the heading. You'll be able edit playlists, delete Smart DJ stations, and remove albums and songs. Click to enlarge. (Credit: Screenshot by Ed Rhee/CNET) That's it. Don't forget that you can also look at your account details and set other preferences from within the Xbox Music app by using the Win+I shortcut
by Ed Rhee
October 31, 2012 12:06 PM PDT
(Credit: Screenshot by Ed Rhee/CNET)
Xbox Music was initially announced in June of this year and released toXbox 360 users first. When Windows 8 reached general availability on October 26, Xbox Music became available to all Windows 8 users as well. Like Spotify, Microsoft's new music service can stream full songs on demand, as well as play taste-based radio like Pandora. Here's what you need to know to get started with Xbox Music on Windows 8:
To begin using Xbox Music, click on the orange Music tile on your Windows 8 Start screen and sign in with a Microsoft account.
Streaming songs on demand To start listening to music right away, click on "Play an artist" and enter the name of an artist you want to listen to. A random selection of songs by that artist will begin playing immediately.
To play specific songs or albums, you can browse music from the All Music and Top Music sections. You can also use the Win+Q shortcut to perform a quick search.
Click to enlarge.
Once you've found music that you like, you can add it to a playlist by right-clicking on the track/album details. The control bar will appear at the bottom of the screen with the option to add the song or album to a playlist. In addition to playlists, you can also add songs or albums to My Music. When looking at track/album details, you'll see the option to "Add to my music."
Smart DJ Smart DJ is a taste-based radio feature, similar to Pandora and Spotify Radio. Just click on "New Smart DJ" and enter an artist. It will begin playing music right away and add the new Smart DJ station to My Music. Unfortunately, Smart DJ doesn't have a rating system, so you can't customize the station as you go along.
Adding your own music To add your own music to My Music, open Windows Explorer (Win+E) and copy your music files to the My Music library. When you go back into Xbox Music, you'll see your music in the My Music section.
Managing My Music You can manage the music in My Music by clicking on the heading. You'll be able edit playlists, delete Smart DJ stations, and remove albums and songs.
That's it. Don't forget that you can also look at your account details and set other preferences from within the Xbox Music app by using the Win+I shortcut
Getting started with Xbox Music on Windows 8 | How To - CNET
Since November 2011, I have been working in Entertainment Services team as part of Xbox Live. Last week was a huge milestone for us, millions of customers around the globe started getting updates to their Xbox 360 and hopefully millions more will be buying and installing Windows 8 especially Surface from Microsoft. All these devices have a common and consistent entertainment experiences powered by services built by our team. Yes when you play a track on Xbox Music or watch a movie on Xbox Video that experience is powered by our team. It is amazing to be at the edge of a space that is changing so fast.
It was amazing experience to drive key discovery scenarios for the release including
Working on more amazing stuff but more on that once we launch.
Great news!!! ISVs in 12 new countries can now sell their apps & data on Windows Azure Marketplace.
We are excited to announce the latest update to Windows Azure Marketplace, which brings some exciting new features, and commercial availability to 12 new countries. Now ISVs in 38 countries can benefit from the Windows Azure Marketplace. New Features Integration of a self-publish app catalog in the Seller Dashboard, Availability of the Bing API exclusively through the Marketplace, Expanded offers through the introduction of Sample Data, and Integration of PowerPivot. New Countries Currently, the Windows Azure Marketplace serves approximately 50,000 users and more than 70,000 subscriptions. The new release expands commercial availability to the following countries: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Greece, Israel, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Peru, Romania, South Korea, and Trinidad and Tobago.
We are excited to announce the latest update to Windows Azure Marketplace, which brings some exciting new features, and commercial availability to 12 new countries. Now ISVs in 38 countries can benefit from the Windows Azure Marketplace.
New Features
New Countries
Currently, the Windows Azure Marketplace serves approximately 50,000 users and more than 70,000 subscriptions.
The new release expands commercial availability to the following countries: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Greece, Israel, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Peru, Romania, South Korea, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Windows Azure Marketplace Update: New Features, Availability in 12 New Countries - Windows Azure - Site Home - MSDN Blogs
Azure SQL Reporting goes live. Finally we have started taking our core assets into the cloud.
Summary: Microsoft’s reporting services for Azure is finally generally available. Microsoft’s announcement of its Windows Azure spring update included a lot of moving parts. One that didn’t get as much attention as it deserved was the the general availability of reporting services for the Azure cloud. Windows Azure SQL Reporting is the new name of the reporting services component (which was formerly known as SQL Azure Reporting Services). With the new service, developers can use the Business Intelligence Development Studio and SQL Server Data Tools to author reports, the same way they can with SQL Server Reporting Services on Windows Server. Users can export reports to file formats including Excel, Word, HTML, PDF, XML, and CSV, according to a June 12 post on the Microsoft BI blog. Until August 1, the new reporting service is available for free; after that, it will be .88 per hour per reporting instance.”SQL Reporting on Azure offers a fully backed SLA (Service Level Agreement) and enables you to publish reports to the cloud or embed reports directly within on-premises applications that can be accessed via your browser, mobile devices or desktops,” the blog post noted. Microsoft announced plans for SQL Azure Reporting Services in the fall of 2010. The service has been available to testers since then, but didn’t reach the general availability milestone until last week.
Summary: Microsoft’s reporting services for Azure is finally generally available.
Microsoft’s announcement of its Windows Azure spring update included a lot of moving parts. One that didn’t get as much attention as it deserved was the the general availability of reporting services for the Azure cloud.
Windows Azure SQL Reporting is the new name of the reporting services component (which was formerly known as SQL Azure Reporting Services).
With the new service, developers can use the Business Intelligence Development Studio and SQL Server Data Tools to author reports, the same way they can with SQL Server Reporting Services on Windows Server. Users can export reports to file formats including Excel, Word, HTML, PDF, XML, and CSV, according to a June 12 post on the Microsoft BI blog.
Until August 1, the new reporting service is available for free; after that, it will be .88 per hour per reporting instance.”SQL Reporting on Azure offers a fully backed SLA (Service Level Agreement) and enables you to publish reports to the cloud or embed reports directly within on-premises applications that can be accessed via your browser, mobile devices or desktops,” the blog post noted.
Microsoft announced plans for SQL Azure Reporting Services in the fall of 2010. The service has been available to testers since then, but didn’t reach the general availability milestone until last week.
SQL Reporting for Microsoft's Windows Azure cloud goes live | ZDNet
CNN article on SmartGlass. SmartGlass has created some good buzz at E3. It is pretty awesome stuff. Check it out once we release it this fall.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS Xbox SmartGlass aims to make the console a key entertainment component App will tie TV and console with tablets and smartphones It uses Windows 8, but Apple and Android mobile devices also will work SmartGlass app will be free and available this fall (CNN) -- Perhaps the biggest splash in the early going of this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles was made by Microsoft with its unveiling of Xbox SmartGlass. And while there's a video-gaming aspect to it, the feature promises a lot more (which, to be honest, is the sort of thing that plays bigger in the rest of the world than it does at E3, where the crowd is heavily made up of hard-core gamers who were probably more excited about the preview of "Halo 4"). Less than a day after SmartGlass was introduced, details are still emerging about how it will work. But what's clear is that the application, which will work hand in hand with the upcoming Windows 8 operating system, is Microsoft's play to make the Xbox 360 an indispensable tool for all kinds of entertainment.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
(CNN) -- Perhaps the biggest splash in the early going of this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles was made by Microsoft with its unveiling of Xbox SmartGlass.
And while there's a video-gaming aspect to it, the feature promises a lot more (which, to be honest, is the sort of thing that plays bigger in the rest of the world than it does at E3, where the crowd is heavily made up of hard-core gamers who were probably more excited about the preview of "Halo 4").
Less than a day after SmartGlass was introduced, details are still emerging about how it will work.
But what's clear is that the application, which will work hand in hand with the upcoming Windows 8 operating system, is Microsoft's play to make the Xbox 360 an indispensable tool for all kinds of entertainment.
How Xbox SmartGlass will work - CNN.com
Video of Microsoft at E3. This is going to be great holiday season. Am working on some of the Xbox live features that power some of the features you see in the video.
Good article by Yusuf Mehdi.. Am looking forward to E3.
Next week, the Xbox team heads to Los Angeles for E3. Having recently joined the team, I have the benefit of fresh perspective, and one of the things that has struck me is the amount of opportunities we have ahead. Before joining Xbox, I had the fortune of being a part of some incredible periods of innovation and incubation such as in the early days of Windows and Internet Explorer, and, more recently, with the creation of Bing. I have also had a great passion for gaming and entertainment, and watched the growth of MSN into one of the world’s largest media sites on the Internet. Similar to many of those experiences, the Xbox has arrived at an important inflection point in its growth and development. In particular, in the last year, the Xbox has transcended from a gaming console to a broad entertainment device inclusive of movies, TV, music and sports. I will give you an example of what that means.
Next week, the Xbox team heads to Los Angeles for E3. Having recently joined the team, I have the benefit of fresh perspective, and one of the things that has struck me is the amount of opportunities we have ahead.
Before joining Xbox, I had the fortune of being a part of some incredible periods of innovation and incubation such as in the early days of Windows and Internet Explorer, and, more recently, with the creation of Bing. I have also had a great passion for gaming and entertainment, and watched the growth of MSN into one of the world’s largest media sites on the Internet.
Similar to many of those experiences, the Xbox has arrived at an important inflection point in its growth and development. In particular, in the last year, the Xbox has transcended from a gaming console to a broad entertainment device inclusive of movies, TV, music and sports. I will give you an example of what that means.
Xbox Beyond the Box - The Official Microsoft Blog – News and Perspectives from Microsoft - Site Home - TechNet Blogs
It is great to see Amazon app go live on XBox 360.. Already installed it and looks great
If you've bought or are currently renting movies or TV shows from Amazon Instant Video, you'll now be able to watch them via an Xbox 360 console. It's part of the new Amazon Instant Video app that Amazon.com and Microsoft introduced today for Xbox Live Gold subscribers. The app also offers access to Prime Instant Video, if you're an Amazon Prime member. The Xbox 360 joins other devices, including the Roku box and Sony's PlayStation console, that can stream Amazon Instant Video. "Working with Amazon.com marks a significant milestone in our mission to make the entertainment you love more amazing on Xbox," Ross Honey, general manager of Microsoft's Xbox LIVE Entertainment and Advertising, said in a news release. It's all part of Microsoft's move to make its Xbox not just a gaming console but also the hub of all living room entertainment, as well as a gateway for entertainment on everything from PCs to tablets to phones. With the launch of Windows 8, which many speculate will happen in October, "we'll bring Xbox entertainment to everyone," Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft's chief marketing officer for its Interactive Entertainment Division, wrote in an official blog post previewing the Xbox team's appearance at the E3 conference next week. "With Xbox on Windows 8 devices, we rapidly accelerate the reach of Xbox entertainment from more than 60 million people to hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Since the Xbox 360's launch in 2005, about 67 million consoles have been sold, according to Mehdi. It currently holds 47 percent of the console market. In the past six months, Microsoft has increased its entertainment library to include more than 200,000 movies and TV shows and Xbox Live subscribers now spend an average of 84 hours per month on the console, compared with the 150 hours per month of TV the average American watches, Mehdi wrote.
If you've bought or are currently renting movies or TV shows from Amazon Instant Video, you'll now be able to watch them via an Xbox 360 console.
It's part of the new Amazon Instant Video app that Amazon.com and Microsoft introduced today for Xbox Live Gold subscribers. The app also offers access to Prime Instant Video, if you're an Amazon Prime member.
The Xbox 360 joins other devices, including the Roku box and Sony's PlayStation console, that can stream Amazon Instant Video.
"Working with Amazon.com marks a significant milestone in our mission to make the entertainment you love more amazing on Xbox," Ross Honey, general manager of Microsoft's Xbox LIVE Entertainment and Advertising, said in a news release.
It's all part of Microsoft's move to make its Xbox not just a gaming console but also the hub of all living room entertainment, as well as a gateway for entertainment on everything from PCs to tablets to phones.
With the launch of Windows 8, which many speculate will happen in October, "we'll bring Xbox entertainment to everyone," Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft's chief marketing officer for its Interactive Entertainment Division, wrote in an official blog post previewing the Xbox team's appearance at the E3 conference next week. "With Xbox on Windows 8 devices, we rapidly accelerate the reach of Xbox entertainment from more than 60 million people to hundreds of millions of people worldwide.
Since the Xbox 360's launch in 2005, about 67 million consoles have been sold, according to Mehdi. It currently holds 47 percent of the console market.
In the past six months, Microsoft has increased its entertainment library to include more than 200,000 movies and TV shows and Xbox Live subscribers now spend an average of 84 hours per month on the console, compared with the 150 hours per month of TV the average American watches, Mehdi wrote.
Amazon Instant Video now on Xbox 360 | Microsoft Pri0 | The Seattle Times
Kinect for Windows is now available. Below are details from the Kinect for Windows Blog …
On January 9th, Steve Ballmer announced at CES that we would be shipping Kinect for Windows on February 1st. I am very pleased to report that today version 1.0 of our SDK and runtime were made available for download, and distribution partners in our twelve launch countries are starting to ship Kinect for Windows hardware, enabling companies to start to deploy their solutions. The suggested retail price is $249, and later this year, we will offer special academic pricing of $149 for Qualified Educational Users. In the three months since we released Beta 2, we have made many improvements to our SDK and runtime, including: Support for up to four Kinect sensors plugged into the same computer Significantly improved skeletal tracking, including the ability for developers to control which user is being tracked by the sensor Near Mode for the new Kinect for Windows hardware, which enables the depth camera to see objects as close as 40 centimeters in front of the device Many API updates and enhancements in the managed and unmanaged runtimes The latest Microsoft Speech components (V11) are now included as part of the SDK and runtime installer Improved “far-talk” acoustic model that increases speech recognition accuracy New and updated samples, such as Kinect Explorer, which enables developers to explore the full capabilities of the sensor and SDK, including audio beam and sound source angles, color modes, depth modes, skeletal tracking, and motor controls A commercial-ready installer which can be included in an application’s set-up program, making it easy to install the Kinect for Windows runtime and driver components for end-user deployments. Robustness improvements including driver stability, runtime fixes, and audio fixes More details can be found here. As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, without many years of intense R&D efforts, including research investments of hundreds of millions of dollars, and deep partnership between our research teams, software teams, hardware teams, manufacturing teams, and games studios, Kinect simply wouldn’t exist. Shipping Kinect for Windows was another cross-Microsoft effort: not only did the hardware and software teams work closely together to create an integrated solution, but our support, manufacturing, supply chain, reverse logistics, and account teams have all been working hard to prepare for today’s launch. As well, our research, speech, and Xbox NUI teams have contributed to making Kinect for Windows a better product. Microsoft’s ability to make these kinds of deep investments makes Kinect for Windows a product that companies can deploy with confidence, knowing you have our support and our ongoing commitment to make Kinect for Windows the best it can be
On January 9th, Steve Ballmer announced at CES that we would be shipping Kinect for Windows on February 1st. I am very pleased to report that today version 1.0 of our SDK and runtime were made available for download, and distribution partners in our twelve launch countries are starting to ship Kinect for Windows hardware, enabling companies to start to deploy their solutions. The suggested retail price is $249, and later this year, we will offer special academic pricing of $149 for Qualified Educational Users.
In the three months since we released Beta 2, we have made many improvements to our SDK and runtime, including:
More details can be found here.
As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, without many years of intense R&D efforts, including research investments of hundreds of millions of dollars, and deep partnership between our research teams, software teams, hardware teams, manufacturing teams, and games studios, Kinect simply wouldn’t exist. Shipping Kinect for Windows was another cross-Microsoft effort: not only did the hardware and software teams work closely together to create an integrated solution, but our support, manufacturing, supply chain, reverse logistics, and account teams have all been working hard to prepare for today’s launch. As well, our research, speech, and Xbox NUI teams have contributed to making Kinect for Windows a better product. Microsoft’s ability to make these kinds of deep investments makes Kinect for Windows a product that companies can deploy with confidence, knowing you have our support and our ongoing commitment to make Kinect for Windows the best it can be
Kinect for Windows Blog - Site Home - MSDN Blogs
Great use of Azure platform for voting…
Democracy Live is playing an important role in the presidential primaries in Florida, Virginia and California by making it easier for American military personnel stationed overseas and other citizens living abroad to vote in U.S. elections. Since voting began, more than 1,200 Florida voters in 40 countries have accessed ballots using LiveBallot, a technology developed by Issaquah-based Democracy Live and hosted on Microsoft’s Windows Azure platform.
Democracy Live is playing an important role in the presidential primaries in Florida, Virginia and California by making it easier for American military personnel stationed overseas and other citizens living abroad to vote in U.S. elections.
Since voting began, more than 1,200 Florida voters in 40 countries have accessed ballots using LiveBallot, a technology developed by Issaquah-based Democracy Live and hosted on Microsoft’s Windows Azure platform.
With Microsoft backing, Democracy Live brings ballot box to G.I.s overseas
Good overview of SQL Azure Federation by Cihan Biyikoglu .
This is another great addition to this weeks releases. After we launched XBox live update and XBox companion app we now have IPhone and iPad app for XBox. It allows you to check out your XBox live points etc.. I installed it on my iPad yesterday and it is pretty cool…
By Christina Bonnington, WIRED updated 7:47 AM EST, Thu December 8, 2011 | Filed under: Gaming and Gadgets Windows Phone users have had Xbox Live services packaged into their mobile experience for a while now. STORY HIGHLIGHTS My Xbox Live lets users edit their 3-D avatars, chat with Xbox Live friends iOS users who download the app get a screen similar to Windows Phone-style interface My Xbox Live is available free for download on the iPhone and iPad in the App Store (WIRED) -- Microsoft released an Xbox Live app for iOS devices on Wednesday, bringing features of Microsoft's gaming service to Apple devices for the first time. My Xbox Live lets users edit their 3-D avatars, chat with Xbox Live friends and revel in their achievements. You can also check out more information about the newest apps and games on Xbox, as well as gaming tips and breaking news. Windows Phone users have had Xbox Live services packaged into their mobile experience for a while now, but now iOS users can get a piece of the action. And whether they like it or not, iOS users who download the app are also getting a screen similar to a Windows Phone-style user interface. The iPhone app features the horizontal bar across the bottom of the screen that houses the same sort of circular icons you'd find in a Windows Phone 7 app. Also included: a clever browser-based demo that lets you virtually explore the UI of a Windows Phone from your Android or iPhone handset. While you may already be on a phone of a different OS, it has potential to lure potential defectors over to Microsoft's mobile platform. It's been a good week for Microsoft. On Tuesday, the company unveiled the details of its upcoming Windows Store for Windows 8, the newest version of the world's most popular desktop platform. And on Monday, the company announced that the Xbox was getting a user interface refresh, with dozens of new content channels and the addition of a Windows Phone app you can use to control your Xbox. Microsoft's iOS apps are now icing on top of the cake. Now when are we going to get those Microsoft Office apps on the iPad? My Xbox Live is available free for download on the iPhone and iPad in the App Store.
By Christina Bonnington, WIRED
updated 7:47 AM EST, Thu December 8, 2011 | Filed under: Gaming and Gadgets
Windows Phone users have had Xbox Live services packaged into their mobile experience for a while now.
(WIRED) -- Microsoft released an Xbox Live app for iOS devices on Wednesday, bringing features of Microsoft's gaming service to Apple devices for the first time.
My Xbox Live lets users edit their 3-D avatars, chat with Xbox Live friends and revel in their achievements. You can also check out more information about the newest apps and games on Xbox, as well as gaming tips and breaking news.
Windows Phone users have had Xbox Live services packaged into their mobile experience for a while now, but now iOS users can get a piece of the action. And whether they like it or not, iOS users who download the app are also getting a screen similar to a Windows Phone-style user interface.
The iPhone app features the horizontal bar across the bottom of the screen that houses the same sort of circular icons you'd find in a Windows Phone 7 app. Also included: a clever browser-based demo that lets you virtually explore the UI of a Windows Phone from your Android or iPhone handset.
While you may already be on a phone of a different OS, it has potential to lure potential defectors over to Microsoft's mobile platform.
It's been a good week for Microsoft. On Tuesday, the company unveiled the details of its upcoming Windows Store for Windows 8, the newest version of the world's most popular desktop platform.
And on Monday, the company announced that the Xbox was getting a user interface refresh, with dozens of new content channels and the addition of a Windows Phone app you can use to control your Xbox. Microsoft's iOS apps are now icing on top of the cake.
Now when are we going to get those Microsoft Office apps on the iPad?
My Xbox Live is available free for download on the iPhone and iPad in the App Store.
Microsoft launches Xbox Live app for iPhone, iPad - CNN.com
Just downloaded and started playing with XBox Companion App which we launched today. It is really amazing. I loved the ability to search for movies on the phone and then directly play on the TV through XBox. Really cool stuff… Good reason to buy a Windows Phone if you are a XBox fan.
From: Xbox Facebook Page - The moment you’ve been waiting for is here. The Xbox update is currently on its way to all 35 million Xbox LIVE members around the world. We apologize for today’s delay and hope that you will be thrilled with your new Xbox experience and the new apps launching in the coming weeks! http://xbx.lv/uxmHet
Good to see Azure picking up with environmental agency.
Cloud computing can be a powerful tool for scientists and researchers sharing massive amounts of environmental data. At the United Nations climate conference (COP 17) in Durban, South Africa this week, The European Environment Agency, geospatial software company Esri and Microsoft showed off the “Eye on Earth” network. The community uses Esri’s cloud services and Microsoft Azure to create an online site and group of services for scientists, researchers and policy makers to upload, share and analyze environmental and geospatial data. While the Eye on Earth network has been under development since 2008, the group launched three services for different types of environmental data at COP 17, including WaterWatch, which uses the EEA’s water data; AirWatch, which uses the EEA’s air quality data; and NoiseWatch, which combines environmental data with user-generated info from citizens.
Cloud computing can be a powerful tool for scientists and researchers sharing massive amounts of environmental data. At the United Nations climate conference (COP 17) in Durban, South Africa this week, The European Environment Agency, geospatial software company Esri and Microsoft showed off the “Eye on Earth” network. The community uses Esri’s cloud services and Microsoft Azure to create an online site and group of services for scientists, researchers and policy makers to upload, share and analyze environmental and geospatial data.
While the Eye on Earth network has been under development since 2008, the group launched three services for different types of environmental data at COP 17, including WaterWatch, which uses the EEA’s water data; AirWatch, which uses the EEA’s air quality data; and NoiseWatch, which combines environmental data with user-generated info from citizens.
http://gigaom.com/cleantech/microsoft-cloud-to-power-environmental-big-data/
Amazing News!!! Almost million consoles sold.
Entering the seventh year of its lifecycle, Xbox 360 just closed the biggest sales week in the history of the hit digital entertainment system, selling more than 960,000 consoles in the U.S. during the week of Black Friday. Sales highlights in the U.S. during the week of Black Friday include: · Xbox 360 sold more than 960,000 consoles in the U.S. alone, with more than 800,000 sold within a period of 24 hours. · More than 750,000 Kinect for Xbox 360 sensors were sold in the U.S. – standalone and bundled. Xbox 360 has a growing Kinect portfolio of more than 75 new Kinect for Xbox 360 titles – four times more than last holiday season. New titles include sequels to best sellers, including “Kinect Sports: Season Two” and “Dance Central 2.” Xbox 360 also released exclusive games this holiday season with titles like “Gears of War 3,” “Forza Motorsport 4” and “Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary.” Below is a screenshot of “Kinect Sports: Season Two”: In addition to games, on Dec. 6th, the next generation of TV entertainment will begin with the availability of a new Xbox 360 experience, and the launch of the first group of custom entertainment apps on Xbox LIVE. By the end of the year, nearly 40 world-leading TV and entertainment providers, including Comcast and HBO GO, will be available on Xbox LIVE. Xbox 360 should deliver its eleventh straight month as the number one console in the US. Given the robust holiday portfolio and the new Xbox LIVE dashboard going live on Dec. 6th, Microsoft expects holiday momentum to continue, driving Xbox 360 to finish the year as the number one console in the U.S. Posted by Jeff Meisner Editor, The Official Microsoft Blog
Entering the seventh year of its lifecycle, Xbox 360 just closed the biggest sales week in the history of the hit digital entertainment system, selling more than 960,000 consoles in the U.S. during the week of Black Friday.
Sales highlights in the U.S. during the week of Black Friday include:
· Xbox 360 sold more than 960,000 consoles in the U.S. alone, with more than 800,000 sold within a period of 24 hours.
· More than 750,000 Kinect for Xbox 360 sensors were sold in the U.S. – standalone and bundled.
Xbox 360 has a growing Kinect portfolio of more than 75 new Kinect for Xbox 360 titles – four times more than last holiday season. New titles include sequels to best sellers, including “Kinect Sports: Season Two” and “Dance Central 2.” Xbox 360 also released exclusive games this holiday season with titles like “Gears of War 3,” “Forza Motorsport 4” and “Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary.” Below is a screenshot of “Kinect Sports: Season Two”:
In addition to games, on Dec. 6th, the next generation of TV entertainment will begin with the availability of a new Xbox 360 experience, and the launch of the first group of custom entertainment apps on Xbox LIVE. By the end of the year, nearly 40 world-leading TV and entertainment providers, including Comcast and HBO GO, will be available on Xbox LIVE.
Xbox 360 should deliver its eleventh straight month as the number one console in the US. Given the robust holiday portfolio and the new Xbox LIVE dashboard going live on Dec. 6th, Microsoft expects holiday momentum to continue, driving Xbox 360 to finish the year as the number one console in the U.S.
Posted by Jeff Meisner Editor, The Official Microsoft Blog
http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2011/11/29/xbox-360-sells-nearly-1m-consoles-in-biggest-week-in-xbox-history.aspx
Microsoft Acquires Video Content Discovery Company VideoSurf VideoSurf's technology will enhance video discovery capabilities for Xbox LIVE. REDMOND, Wash., and SAN MATEO, Calif., Nov. 22, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Microsoft Corp. has announced the acquisition of California-based video discovery technology company VideoSurf Inc. Founded in 2006, VideoSurf offers a back-end computer vision technology that "sees" frames inside videos to make discovering content fast, easy and accurate. Over time, Microsoft will integrate this technology across its entertainment platform to augment the Xbox 360 ecosystem and evolve search and discovery of entertainment content on Xbox LIVE. "VideoSurf's content analytics technology will enhance the search and discovery of entertainment content across our platform," said Alex Garden, director of Xbox LIVE for the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. "This holiday we will launch voice search across our entertainment partners on Xbox LIVE. Over time, as we integrate VideoSurf's technology into our system, we are excited about the potential to have content tagged in real time to increase the speed and relevance of the search results." "Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Division is at the leading edge of connected entertainment," said Lior Delgo, CEO and co-founder of VideoSurf. "We are incredibly excited to be working together on our mutual passion for creating amazing consumer experiences and reinventing how consumers search, discover and enjoy content on their televisions." In the coming months, Microsoft will bring nearly 40 world-leading TV and entertainment providers to Xbox LIVE, including Bravo, Comcast, HBO GO, Verizon FiOS and Syfy in the U.S.; BBC in the U.K.; Telefonica in Spain; Rogers On Demand in Canada; Televisa in Mexico; ZDF in Germany; and Mediaset in Italy. This acquisition will also make it easier for world-class video partners to take full advantage of advanced features such as voice search enabled by Kinect for Xbox 360. With Kinect, users will be able to easily search and discover content across multiple entertainment providers within Xbox LIVE and then interact with and enjoy content in extraordinary ways using voice search powered by Bing on the Xbox 360. About Xbox LIVE Xbox LIVE is the online entertainment service for your Xbox 360, connecting you to an ever-expanding world of games, movies, TV, music, sports and social entertainment. Xbox LIVE lets you play the best games, enjoy one of the world's largest on-demand libraries on any console, listen to millions of songs and share the fun with friends around the world. Xbox LIVE is also the exclusive home of controller-free online entertainment through Kinect, making your Xbox 360 more intuitive and interactive than ever before. With an active community of nearly 35 million people across 35 countries, Xbox LIVE, together with Xbox 360, provides you with instant access to the entertainment you want, shared with the people you care about, wherever you are. More information about Xbox LIVE can be found online at http://www.xbox.com/live . About Xbox 360 Xbox 360 is a premier home entertainment and video game system. Thanks to the addition of Kinect, Xbox 360 will forever transform social gaming and entertainment with a whole new way to play -- no controller required. Xbox 360 is also home to the best and broadest games as well as one of the world's largest on-demand libraries of music, standard- and high-definition movies, TV shows and digital games, all in one place. The entertainment center of the living room, Xbox 360 blends unbeatable content with a leading social entertainment network of nearly 35 million Xbox LIVE members to create a limitless entertainment experience that can be shared at home or across the globe. More information about Xbox 360 can be found online at http://www.xbox.com . About Microsoft Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. SOURCE Microsoft Corp. Copyright (C) 2011 PR Newswire. All rights reserved
REDMOND, Wash., and SAN MATEO, Calif., Nov. 22, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Microsoft Corp. has announced the acquisition of California-based video discovery technology company VideoSurf Inc.
Founded in 2006, VideoSurf offers a back-end computer vision technology that "sees" frames inside videos to make discovering content fast, easy and accurate. Over time, Microsoft will integrate this technology across its entertainment platform to augment the Xbox 360 ecosystem and evolve search and discovery of entertainment content on Xbox LIVE.
"VideoSurf's content analytics technology will enhance the search and discovery of entertainment content across our platform," said Alex Garden, director of Xbox LIVE for the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. "This holiday we will launch voice search across our entertainment partners on Xbox LIVE. Over time, as we integrate VideoSurf's technology into our system, we are excited about the potential to have content tagged in real time to increase the speed and relevance of the search results."
"Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Division is at the leading edge of connected entertainment," said Lior Delgo, CEO and co-founder of VideoSurf. "We are incredibly excited to be working together on our mutual passion for creating amazing consumer experiences and reinventing how consumers search, discover and enjoy content on their televisions."
In the coming months, Microsoft will bring nearly 40 world-leading TV and entertainment providers to Xbox LIVE, including Bravo, Comcast, HBO GO, Verizon FiOS and Syfy in the U.S.; BBC in the U.K.; Telefonica in Spain; Rogers On Demand in Canada; Televisa in Mexico; ZDF in Germany; and Mediaset in Italy. This acquisition will also make it easier for world-class video partners to take full advantage of advanced features such as voice search enabled by Kinect for Xbox 360. With Kinect, users will be able to easily search and discover content across multiple entertainment providers within Xbox LIVE and then interact with and enjoy content in extraordinary ways using voice search powered by Bing on the Xbox 360.
About Xbox LIVE
Xbox LIVE is the online entertainment service for your Xbox 360, connecting you to an ever-expanding world of games, movies, TV, music, sports and social entertainment. Xbox LIVE lets you play the best games, enjoy one of the world's largest on-demand libraries on any console, listen to millions of songs and share the fun with friends around the world. Xbox LIVE is also the exclusive home of controller-free online entertainment through Kinect, making your Xbox 360 more intuitive and interactive than ever before. With an active community of nearly 35 million people across 35 countries, Xbox LIVE, together with Xbox 360, provides you with instant access to the entertainment you want, shared with the people you care about, wherever you are. More information about Xbox LIVE can be found online at http://www.xbox.com/live .
About Xbox 360
Xbox 360 is a premier home entertainment and video game system. Thanks to the addition of Kinect, Xbox 360 will forever transform social gaming and entertainment with a whole new way to play -- no controller required. Xbox 360 is also home to the best and broadest games as well as one of the world's largest on-demand libraries of music, standard- and high-definition movies, TV shows and digital games, all in one place. The entertainment center of the living room, Xbox 360 blends unbeatable content with a leading social entertainment network of nearly 35 million Xbox LIVE members to create a limitless entertainment experience that can be shared at home or across the globe. More information about Xbox 360 can be found online at http://www.xbox.com .
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
SOURCE Microsoft Corp.
Copyright (C) 2011 PR Newswire. All rights reserved
Microsoft Acquires Video Content Discovery Company VideoSurf - MarketWatch
This is pretty cool. Maybe I should start playing with Kinect on Windows.
Posted by Janet I. Tu Last month, Microsoft announced it would be launching a program for more established businesses to develop commercial uses for Kinect for Windows. Now, Microsoft, teaming up with TechStars, has launched Kinect Accelerator, a program for startups with ideas for commercial applications using Kinect's motion- and voice-sensing technologies. Applicants, who must be prepared to relocate to Seattle, have until Jan. 25 to apply for one of 10 spots in a three-month incubation program running March to May 2012. The 10 companies will each receive an investment of $20,000, an Xbox development kit, the Windows Kinect software development kit, office space, the resources of BizSpark (Microsoft's program to aid startups), technical training and support, and mentorship from entrepreneurs, investors and Microsoft executives, according to Microsoft's posting. The program uses startup accelerator TechStars' mentoring method. (The Seattle Times recently wrote about TechStars here.) According to the program rules, in exchange for the program and seed funding, TechStars will receive six percent equity in each of the companies chosen, in the form of common stock. Microsoft does not retain equity in the participating companies, nor does it retain intellectual property developed during the program. In the meantime, PCWorld has an entertaining list of some Kinect hacks it's written about recently. (Photo of Kinect sensor from Microsoft)
Last month, Microsoft announced it would be launching a program for more established businesses to develop commercial uses for Kinect for Windows.
Now, Microsoft, teaming up with TechStars, has launched Kinect Accelerator, a program for startups with ideas for commercial applications using Kinect's motion- and voice-sensing technologies.
Applicants, who must be prepared to relocate to Seattle, have until Jan. 25 to apply for one of 10 spots in a three-month incubation program running March to May 2012.
The 10 companies will each receive an investment of $20,000, an Xbox development kit, the Windows Kinect software development kit, office space, the resources of BizSpark (Microsoft's program to aid startups), technical training and support, and mentorship from entrepreneurs, investors and Microsoft executives, according to Microsoft's posting.
The program uses startup accelerator TechStars' mentoring method. (The Seattle Times recently wrote about TechStars here.)
According to the program rules, in exchange for the program and seed funding, TechStars will receive six percent equity in each of the companies chosen, in the form of common stock. Microsoft does not retain equity in the participating companies, nor does it retain intellectual property developed during the program.
In the meantime, PCWorld has an entertaining list of some Kinect hacks it's written about recently.
(Photo of Kinect sensor from Microsoft)
Microsoft Pri0 | Microsoft and TechStars launch Kinect Accelerator incubation program | Seattle Times Newspaper
I was never a huge gamer but I still remember playing Halo when it first came out. It is amazing to see the new version.
Forbes Article: http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/11/20/halo-remake-honors-xbox-10-year-anniversary/
This week was 10th anniversary of Xbox and it was my 1st week anniversary at Xbox engineering. Yes you heard me right. I moved to Xbox live team and will be working on content services. Content services are web services that power your Xbox console. My area of focus will be content discovery and search. It is a fascinating space and am sure tons for me to learn. Super excited to go from team that build cloud computing platform to team that is building one of the most saleable cloud application that powers millions of devices.
I enjoyed every bit of my time in Windows Azure Product Management especially working with the team to deliver Windows Azure Marketplace in 26 countries. Will miss my team but am looking forward to my time in Xbox now.
Xbox Turns Ten!
Ten years ago, we launched the first Xbox console. Since then, we’ve launched Xbox LIVE, Xbox 360, Xbox 360 S, Kinect, and lots more. We couldn’t do this without you! Thank you for the first ten years and more to come!
Ten Years of Fun with Xbox - Xbox.com
As Promised at Build conference Windows Azure Marketplace is now live in 26 countries with support for 17 currencies. With this release we have delivered on a promise to our ISVs to have a global marketplace for cloud applications and data with secure commerce platform.
Benefits to ISVS:
Countries(26) Supported: US, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore
Currencies(17) Supported: USD, EUR, CAD, CZK, DKK, HUF, NOK, PLN, SEK, CHF, GBP, AUD, HKD, JPY, MXN, NZD, SGD
Marketplace already has 500+ apps and 100+ datasets. This is great time for partners with Azure apps to get them on Windows Azure Marketplace. Please see more details on publishing here.
Yesterday at BUILD, Microsoft Server and Tools Business President, Satya Nadella made two announcements around the Windows Azure Marketplace and shared details on how Ford Motor Company and eBay are using the Marketplace to add further value to their business. This post will dive deeper into both of these announcements.
International Availability
Microsoft announced the upcoming availability of the Windows Azure Marketplace in 25 new markets around the world, including: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, and Singapore. Customers in these new markets will be able to discover, explore and subscribe to premium data and applications on the Marketplace starting next month.
Starting today, partners can submit their applications & datasets to publish on the marketplace. Interested partners can learn how to get started here.
Microsoft also announced the coming availability of a number of exciting data offerings on the Windows Azure Marketplace. The first of these, the Microsoft Translator APIs are available today, along-side a fast-growing collection of data sets and applications, with more being introduced through the remainder of the year. The Microsoft Translator APIs, which were previously available here, allow developers and webmasters to provide translation and language services in more than 35 languages, as part of their applications, websites or services. This is the same cloud service that delivers translations to millions of users every day via Bing, Microsoft Office and other Microsoft products.
Through the Windows Azure Marketplace, Microsoft will make available both a free, limited throughput version of the Microsoft Translator APIs, as well as a number of paid, higher throughput versions of the APIs. Starting today, Microsoft is offering customers a 3 month promotional period during which the higher throughput versions of the APIs will be available free of charge.
Developers can now start using Microsoft Translator APIs through Windows Azure Marketplace in web or in client applications to perform machine language translations from or to any of the following languages (list updated regularly).
How are others using the Windows Azure Marketplace?
Ford Motor Company
Ford will launch its first battery-powered electric passenger vehicle at the end of the year. Fully charging the vehicle at home or a business should take just over 3 hours to complete, however as the cost of electricity can vary by the time of day, when you charge the vehicle can have an important impact on costs of ownership. So, every new Focus Electric will offer the Value Charging system powered by Microsoft, to help owners in the US charge their vehicles at the cheapest utility rates, lowering cost of ownership. To do this, Ford will rely on an electric utility rates dataset on the Windows Azure Marketplace that currently has information from 100 utilities covering more than 10,000 US zip codes and 1,500 Canadian Postal Codes.
eBay
eBay has a popular mobile application on Windows Phone 7 called eBay mobile, with more than 300k downloads to date. In the coming weeks, eBay will release a major update including faster payment flows and selling capabilities as well as the ability to have listing details automatically translated to and from 37 different languages. This is accomplished by leveraging the Microsoft Translator API, which is now available in the Windows Azure Marketplace. By leveraging the Translator API, eBay is able to create a more global product - delivering product listings in multiple languages to a broad global audience.
ESRI
Esri, a leading provider of geospatial software and services, is extending their ArcGIS system to Windows Azure Platform. With ArcGIS Online customers can create “intelligent maps” (starting with Bing, topography, ocean and other base maps) to visualize, access, consume and publish data-sets from Windows Azure Marketplace and their own data services. This will make a rich set of geographic tools, once only available to geographic information professionals, broadly available to anyone interested in working with geospatial data e.g. environmental scientists interested in visualizing air quality metrics against specific geographies. These maps can then be served up to the cloud and shared between individuals and their defined groups, across organizations and devices. This solution is available today, and can be accessed here.
To read more about all of the Windows Azure-related announcements made at BUILD, please read the blog post, "JUST ANNOUNCED @ BUILD: New Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows 8, Windows Azure SDK 1.5, Geo-Replication for Windows Azure Storage, and More". For more information about BUILD or to watch the keynotes, please visit the BUILD Virtual Press Room. And follow @WindowsAzure and @STBNewsBytes for the latest news and real-time talk about BUILD.
Visit the Windows Azure Marketplace to learn more.
At Build we announced support for geo replication which I think is the key differentiator in the industry. You want to store you data in the cloud and make sure it will be highly available and we now geo replicate your data for disaster recovery scenarios. More details below…
During the BUILD Day two keynote, we announced the release of geo-replication and a new version of the REST API to enable functionality improvements for Windows Azure Blobs, Tables, and Queues. At this time we are now geo-replicating all Windows Azure Blob and Table data between two data centers. Geo-Replication Customers have continually emphasized the importance of Disaster Recovery capabilities in Azure as well as other cloud platforms. Wednesday’s announcement on Geo-replication helps in this area and does so without increasing costs to our customers. Geo-replication replicates your Windows Azure Blob and Table data between two locations that are hundreds of miles apart and within the same region (i.e., between North Central and South Central US, between North Europe and Europe West, and between East and South East Asia). We do not replicate data across different regions. Geo-replication is now turned on for all Windows Azure Storage accounts for Blobs and Tables. Note that there is no change in existing performance as updates are asynchronously geo-replicated. New Blob, Tables and Queue features For REST API improvements, we have just released the new version (“2011-08-18”), which contains: Table Upsert – allows a single request to be sent to Windows Azure Tables to either insert an entity (if it doesn’t exist) or update/replace the entity (if it exists). Table Projection (Select) – allows a client to retrieve a subset of an entity’s properties. This improves performance by reducing the serialization/deserialization cost and bandwidth used for retrieving entities. Improved Blob HTTP header support – improves experience for streaming applications and browser downloads. Queue UpdateMessage – allows clients to have a lease on a message and renew the lease while it processes it, as well as update the contents of the message to track the progress of the processing. Queue InsertMessage with visibility timeout - allows a newly inserted message to stay invisible on the queue until the timeout expires Table Upsert The Table Upsert allows a client to send a single request to either update or insert an entity; the appropriate action is taken based on if the entity already exists or not. This saves a call in the scenario where an application would want to insert the entity if it doesn’t exist or update it if it does exist. This feature is exposed via the InsertOrReplace Entity and InsertOrMerge Entity APIs. InsertOrReplace Entity – inserts the entity if it does not exist or replaces the existing entity if it does exist. InsertOrMerge Entity – inserts the entity if it does not exist or merges with the existing one if it does exist. Table Projection (Select) Table Projection allows you to retrieve a subset of the properties of one or more entities, and only returns those properties/columns from Azure Tables. Projection improves performance by reducing latency when retrieving data from a Windows Azure Table. It also saves bandwidth by returning only the properties of interest. Improved Blob Download Experience We have added additional HTTP header support to Windows Azure Blobs to improve the experience for streaming applications and resuming download. Without this support, some browsers would have to restart reading a blob from the beginning if there was an interruption in the download. Queue UpdateMessage With the current Queue API, once a worker retrieves a message from the queue, it has to specify a long enough visibility timeout so that it can finish processing the message before the timeout expires. In many scenarios, the worker may want to extend the visibility timeout if it needs more time to process the message. This new UpdateMessage API enables such scenarios. It allows the worker to use the visibility timeout as a lease on the message, so that it can periodically extend the lease and maintain the ownership of the message until the processing completes. The UpdateMessage API also supports updating the content of the message. This allows the worker to update the message in the Queue to record progress information. Then if the worker crashes, this allows the next worker to continue processing the message from where the prior worker left off. This functionality enables worker roles to take on longer running tasks than before. It also allows faster failover time, since the leases can be set at fairly small intervals (e.g. 1 minute) so that if a worker role fails, the message will become visible within a minute for another worker role to pick up. Queue InsertMessage with Visibility Timeout We have added support in the InsertMessage API to allow you to specify the initial visibility timeout value for a message. This allows a newly inserted message to stay invisible on the queue until the timeout expires. This allows scheduling of future work by adding messages that become visible at a later time. For more information see our BUILD talk or one of the following blog posts Windows Azure Storage BUILD talk Geo-replication New Table Features New Queue Features New Blob Features To read more about all of the Windows Azure-related announcements made at BUILD, please read the blog post, "JUST ANNOUNCED @ BUILD: New Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows 8, Windows Azure SDK 1.5, Geo-Replication for Windows Azure Storage, and More". For more information about BUILD or to watch the keynotes, please visit the BUILD Virtual Press Room. And follow @WindowsAzure and @STBNewsBytes for the latest news and real-time talk about BUILD.
During the BUILD Day two keynote, we announced the release of geo-replication and a new version of the REST API to enable functionality improvements for Windows Azure Blobs, Tables, and Queues. At this time we are now geo-replicating all Windows Azure Blob and Table data between two data centers.
Customers have continually emphasized the importance of Disaster Recovery capabilities in Azure as well as other cloud platforms. Wednesday’s announcement on Geo-replication helps in this area and does so without increasing costs to our customers. Geo-replication replicates your Windows Azure Blob and Table data between two locations that are hundreds of miles apart and within the same region (i.e., between North Central and South Central US, between North Europe and Europe West, and between East and South East Asia). We do not replicate data across different regions. Geo-replication is now turned on for all Windows Azure Storage accounts for Blobs and Tables. Note that there is no change in existing performance as updates are asynchronously geo-replicated.
For REST API improvements, we have just released the new version (“2011-08-18”), which contains:
The Table Upsert allows a client to send a single request to either update or insert an entity; the appropriate action is taken based on if the entity already exists or not. This saves a call in the scenario where an application would want to insert the entity if it doesn’t exist or update it if it does exist. This feature is exposed via the InsertOrReplace Entity and InsertOrMerge Entity APIs.
Table Projection allows you to retrieve a subset of the properties of one or more entities, and only returns those properties/columns from Azure Tables. Projection improves performance by reducing latency when retrieving data from a Windows Azure Table. It also saves bandwidth by returning only the properties of interest.
We have added additional HTTP header support to Windows Azure Blobs to improve the experience for streaming applications and resuming download. Without this support, some browsers would have to restart reading a blob from the beginning if there was an interruption in the download.
With the current Queue API, once a worker retrieves a message from the queue, it has to specify a long enough visibility timeout so that it can finish processing the message before the timeout expires. In many scenarios, the worker may want to extend the visibility timeout if it needs more time to process the message. This new UpdateMessage API enables such scenarios. It allows the worker to use the visibility timeout as a lease on the message, so that it can periodically extend the lease and maintain the ownership of the message until the processing completes.
The UpdateMessage API also supports updating the content of the message. This allows the worker to update the message in the Queue to record progress information. Then if the worker crashes, this allows the next worker to continue processing the message from where the prior worker left off.
This functionality enables worker roles to take on longer running tasks than before. It also allows faster failover time, since the leases can be set at fairly small intervals (e.g. 1 minute) so that if a worker role fails, the message will become visible within a minute for another worker role to pick up.
We have added support in the InsertMessage API to allow you to specify the initial visibility timeout value for a message. This allows a newly inserted message to stay invisible on the queue until the timeout expires. This allows scheduling of future work by adding messages that become visible at a later time.
For more information see our BUILD talk or one of the following blog posts
Now Available: Geo-Replication and new Blob, Table and Queue features for Windows Azure Storage - Windows Azure - Site Home - MSDN Blogs
We are excited to announce the release of Windows Azure Storage Analytics. This feature offers developers and operations the ability to track, analyze, and debug usage of Windows Azure Storage (Blobs, Tables and Queues). You can use this data to analyze storage usage to improve the design of your applications and their access patterns to Windows Azure Storage. Analytics data consists of: Logs Provide trace of executed requests for Blobs, Tables and Queues Metrics Provide summary of key capacity and request statistics for Blobs, Tables and Queues Logs This feature provides a trace of all executed requests for your storage accounts as block blobs in a special container called $logs. Each log entry in the blob corresponds to a request made to the service and contains information like request id, request URL, http status of the request, requestor account name, owner account name, server side latency, E2E latency, source IP address for the request etc. This data now empowers you to analyze your requests much more closely. It allows you to run the following types of analysis: How many anonymous requests is my application seeing from a given range of IP address? Which containers are being accessed the most? How many times is a particular SAS URL being accessed and how? Who issued the request to delete a container? For a slow request –where is the time being consumed? I got a network error, did the request reach the server? Metrics Provide summary of key statistics for Blobs, Tables and Queues for a storage account. The statistics can be categorized as: Request information: Provides hourly aggregates of number of requests, average server side latency, average E2E latency, average bandwidth, total successful requests and total number of failures and more. These request aggregates are provided at a service level and per API level for APIs requested in that hour. This is available for Blob, Table and Queue service. Capacity information: Provides daily statistics for the space consumed by the service, number of containers and number of objects that are stored in the service. Note, this is currently only provided for the Windows Azure Blob service. All Analytics Logs and Metrics data are stored in your user account and is accessible via normal Blob and Table REST APIs. The logs and metrics can be accessed from a service running in Windows Azure or directly over the Internet from any application that can send and receive HTTP/HTTPS requests. You can opt in to store either the log data and/or metric data by invoking a REST API to turn on/off the feature at a per service level. Once the feature is turned on, the Windows Azure Storage stores analytics data in the storage account. Log data is stored as Windows Azure Blobs in a special blob container and metrics data is stored in special tables in Windows Azure Tables. To ease the management of this data, we have provided the ability to set a retention policy that will automatically clean up your analytics blob and table data. Please see the following links for more information: MSDN Documentation Logging: Additional information and Coding Examples Metrics: Additional information and Coding Examples Windows Azure Storage Team
We are excited to announce the release of Windows Azure Storage Analytics. This feature offers developers and operations the ability to track, analyze, and debug usage of Windows Azure Storage (Blobs, Tables and Queues). You can use this data to analyze storage usage to improve the design of your applications and their access patterns to Windows Azure Storage. Analytics data consists of:
Logs
This feature provides a trace of all executed requests for your storage accounts as block blobs in a special container called $logs. Each log entry in the blob corresponds to a request made to the service and contains information like request id, request URL, http status of the request, requestor account name, owner account name, server side latency, E2E latency, source IP address for the request etc.
This data now empowers you to analyze your requests much more closely. It allows you to run the following types of analysis:
Metrics
Provide summary of key statistics for Blobs, Tables and Queues for a storage account. The statistics can be categorized as:
All Analytics Logs and Metrics data are stored in your user account and is accessible via normal Blob and Table REST APIs. The logs and metrics can be accessed from a service running in Windows Azure or directly over the Internet from any application that can send and receive HTTP/HTTPS requests. You can opt in to store either the log data and/or metric data by invoking a REST API to turn on/off the feature at a per service level. Once the feature is turned on, the Windows Azure Storage stores analytics data in the storage account. Log data is stored as Windows Azure Blobs in a special blob container and metrics data is stored in special tables in Windows Azure Tables. To ease the management of this data, we have provided the ability to set a retention policy that will automatically clean up your analytics blob and table data.
Please see the following links for more information:
Windows Azure Storage Team
Announcing Windows Azure Storage Analytics - Windows Azure - Site Home - MSDN Blogs