To prevent your Windows Azure applications from potentially experiencing a loss of availability during platform upgrades, we recommend deploying more than one instance of your web-facing roles. Doing so also enforces the Windows Azure Compute Service Level Agreement (SLA), which guarantees 99.95% external connectivity for Internet-facing roles when two or more role instances are deployed for a given application. Please click here to download the full Windows Azure Compute SLA.
Check out the new post, "Cloud Computing a Catalyst for Server Growth?" on the Windows Server blog to read a good commentary in response to yesterday's Computerworld article, "Cloud computing by the numbers: What do all the statistics mean?"
In the article, author Ryan Nichols asks the question "if virtualization is growing and cloud computing is growing, how can the market for private enterprise servers also be growing?" He describes this situation as a head scratcher, but the Windows Server post does a great job explaining how there's room for both markets to be grow at the same time, pointing to our momentum with both Windows Server and Windows Azure platform as proof points. Be sure to add share your comments and feedback with the team; they look forward to hearing from you!
We are happy to announce that two additional nodes for the Windows Azure Content Delivery Network are now live in Seoul, Korea and Taipei, Taiwan. These two new nodes bring the total number of CDN physical nodes available globally to 22, with six of these nodes available in the Asia-Pacific region. These two new locations expand our service in the Asia-Pacific region and enhance the delivery of performance-sensitive content for customers choosing to serve data through the CDN*.
Please read our previous post, "20 Nodes Available Globally for the Windows Azure CDN" for a list of the other 20 locations.
Offering pay-as-you-go, one-click-integration with Windows Azure Storage, the Windows Azure CDN is a system of servers containing copies of data, placed at various points in our global cloud services network to maximize performance for access to data for clients throughout the network. The Windows Azure CDN can only deliver content from public blob containers in Windows Azure Storage - content types can include web objects, downloadable objects (media files, software, documents), applications, real time media streams, and other components of Internet delivery (DNS, routes, and database queries).
For details about pricing for the Windows Azure CDN, read our earlier blog post here.
*A Windows Azure CDN customer's traffic may not be served out of the physically "closest" node; many factors are involved including routing and peering, Internet "weather", and node capacity and availability. We are continually grooming our network to meet our Service Level Agreements and our customers' requirements.
As part of the Real World Windows Azure series, we talked to Melvin Greer, Chief Strategist of Cloud Computing, Information Systems, and Global Solutions at Lockheed Martin, about using the Windows Azure platform to develop the company's ThundercloudTM design pattern. Here's what he had to say:
MSDN: Tell us about Lockheed Martin and the services you offer.
Greer: Lockheed Martin is well known as a premier defense contractor. We are principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration, and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products, and services. We also develop innovative IT solutions for government, healthcare, and energy markets.
MSDN: What were the biggest challenges that Lockheed Martin faced prior to implementing the Windows Azure platform?
Greer: We wanted to give our customers the benefits of cloud computing, such as high performance, flexibility, and a consumption-based pricing model. At the same time, though, particularly for our federal government customers, we need to enable them to balance security, privacy, and confidentiality concerns.
MSDN: Can you describe the solution you built with Windows Azure to deliver the benefits of cloud computing while addressing security and privacy issues?
Greer: We used the Windows Azure platform to develop Thundercloud design patterns, which help customers integrate on-premises IT infrastructure with computing, storage, and application services in the cloud and then extend those applications to a remote, portable, or handheld mobile device. By powering Thundercloud applications with Windows Azure, our customers can add or remove computing resources to a solution quickly, paying only for what they use. Developers can also use Windows Azure platform AppFabric to enhance Thundercloud-based applications by integrating on-premises enterprise data sets and security methods to computing resources in the cloud.
MSDN: What makes your solution unique?
Greer: Design patterns are important tools used by engineers, architects, and software developers to provide technical solutions faster, with consistent compliance to best practices, all at a lower cost. With Windows Azure, customers can take advantage of Thundercloud design patterns to build applications with familiar tools, such as the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 and Microsoft SQL Azure.
MSDN: Have you offered Thundercloud to any new markets since implementing the Windows Azure platform?
Greer: What we have done is built five innovative mission-focused end-user applications: Healthcare Case Management, Augmented Reality for First Responders, Weather and Ocean Observing, Records and Information Management, and Biometric-Enabled Identity Management. We did this in order to effectively demonstrate the viability of the pattern, data portability from one cloud to another, interoperability between clouds, and extension of cloud services to multiple mobile devices.
MSDN: What kinds of benefits are you realizing with Windows Azure?
Greer: By using Windows Azure, we're able to give our customers the IT capacity that comes with cloud computing and storage, but at a savings of 40 to 60 percent over traditional infrastructure costs; the federal government spends nearly U.S.$80 billion on IT capabilities, so that's potentially a significant savings. At the same time that customers reap the benefits of cloud computing, they can do so while still preserving their confidential data in their own on-premises infrastructure-that's the beauty of the Windows Azure platform and AppFabric.
Read the full story at: www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?CaseStudyID=4000007971
To read more Windows Azure customer success stories, visit: www.windowsazure.com/evidence
You may have seen a letter in USA Today this morning suggesting that customers evaluating a licensing agreement with VMWare talk to Microsoft to learn more about how products and services such as the Windows Azure platform can enable a complete cloud-computing environment. We posted this letter because we feel that cloud computing represents the biggest opportunity in decades for organizations to be more agile and cost effective. Also, while virtualization clearly played a role in enabling the move to IT-as-a-service by simplifying the deployment and management of desktops and datacenters, we feel that virtualization is only a stepping stone towards cloud computing.
As we point out in the letter, for customers who like the efficiencies and cost savings of virtualization, the cloud offers additional benefits such as the ability to access core services quickly and roll out legacy software and new applications at Internet-scale without having to deal with today's deployment logistics. Most importantly, as customers build out the next generation of their IT environment, we can provide them with scalable world-wide cloud computing services that VMware does not offer.
In addition to Windows Azure, we also offer many of the products customers use, know and trust today as cloud computing services, including Microsoft Office, Exchange, SharePoint and SQL. If you're at VM World, please stop by the Microsoft booth to learn more or see a demo. You can also learn more about complete cloud solution here. Read more about Microsoft's presence at VM World here.
As part of the Real World Windows Azure series, we talked to Sinclair Schuller, CEO at Apprenda, about using the Windows Azure platform to deliver the company's middleware solution, which helps Apprenda's customers deliver cloud applications. Here's what he had to say:
MSDN: Tell us about Apprenda and the services you offer.
Schuller: Apprenda serves independent software vendors (ISVs) in the United States and Europe that build business-to-business software applications on the Microsoft .NET Framework. Our product, SaaSGrid, is a next-generation application server built to solve the architecture, business, and operational complexities of delivering software as a service in the cloud.
MSDN: What was the biggest challenge you faced prior to implementing the Windows Azure platform?
Schuller: We wanted to offer customers a way to offload some of their server capacity needs to a cloud solution and integrate their cloud capacity with their on-premises capacity. We looked at other cloud providers, like Google App Engine and Salesforce.com, but those are fundamentally the wrong solutions for our target customers because they do not allow developers enough flexibility in how they build applications for the cloud.
MSDN: Can you describe the solution you are building with the Windows Azure platform?
Schuller: Our solution provides a connection to allow a seamless bridge for web service calls so that customers can host their own Windows Communication Foundations web services, but also take advantage of Windows Azure if they have spikes in their capacity needs.
Schuller: SaaSGrid is the unifying middleware for optimizing application delivery for any deployment paradigm (single-tenant instance or full single instance, multi-tenant software-as-a-service) combined with any infrastructure option (on-premises, third-party cloud, or Windows Azure). Currently, any combination of these styles and options requires a specific application architecture that locks the application to an initial design-time design. Apprenda allows developers to focus on form and function and relegates the delivery style and infrastructure choices to simple deploy-time decisions - drastically reducing application complexity while adding unheard of operational flexibility and delivery capability.
The software industry is moving to a software-as-a-service model. Embracing this change requires developers to refactor existing applications and build out new infrastructure in order to move from shipping software to delivering software. By coupling the infrastructure capabilities of Windows Azure with SaaSGrid, we will be able to offer our customers an incredibly robust, highly efficient platform at a low cost. Plus, customers can go to market with their cloud offerings in record time.
MSDN: What benefits will you see with the Windows Azure platform?
Schuller: With SaaSGrid and Windows Azure, ISVs will be able to move their existing .NET-based applications to the cloud up to 60 percent faster and with 80 percent less new code than developing from the ground up. Customers do not have to invest significant capital and attain lower application delivery costs while ensuring application responsiveness. At the same time, with Windows Azure, customers will be able to plan an infrastructure around baseline average capacity-rather than building around peak compute-intensive loads-and offset peak loads with Windows Azure. This will help our customers reduce their overall IT infrastructure footprint by as much as 70 percent.
For more information about Apprenda, visit: http://apprenda.com
State and local governments evaluating a move to the cloud should have a central location where they can find partners and solutions with the right cloud-based solutions to meet their business needs. To meet this need, the Public Sector team just announced the Microsoft Government Cloud Applications Center to provide government customers with a centralized place to quickly find and learn about partner applications built on Microsoft cloud computing technologies such as the Windows Azure platform. Searchable by partner, solution or technology, customers assess compatibility, and obtain additional information such as contact information and links to partner websites.
The Government Cloud Applications Center is also a win for partners because it gives them a great place to showcase directly to potential customers their Windows Azure solutions and services, as well as those based on Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). Have a look and check back often as new partner solutions are added all the time.
As part of the Real World Windows Azure series, we talked to Juan Carlos Robles Navarro, Senior Software Engineer at AXA Seguros, about using the Windows Azure platform to deliver the insurance company's claims-management system. Here's what he had to say:
MSDN: Tell us about AXA Seguros and the services you offer.
Navarro: AXA Seguros in Mexico is part of the AXA Group, which offers insurance solutions to consumers and businesses worldwide. We strive to be a leader in our industry, providing financial protection through a wide range of products and services that meet customers' insurance protection, savings, retirement, and financial planning needs.
MSDN: What were the biggest challenges that AXA Seguros faced prior to implementing the Windows Azure platform?
Navarro: We recognize that a key ingredient to attaining success in the competitive insurance industry is speedy claims resolution. We used a basic web form for agents to submit claims and then employees manually entered information from the form into a claims-management system for resolution, which was an inefficient method. In addition, the system was technologically obsolete and, therefore, was inflexible and expensive to maintain. We definitely needed a new claims-management system that could scale and grow with our business and one that wasn't costly to develop and maintain.
MSDN: Can you describe the solution you built with the Windows Azure platform to address your need for cost-effective scalability?
Navarro: We worked with Microsoft Gold Certified Partner EMLink to develop a new claims-management system for the Windows Azure platform. We use Windows Azure for compute processing and Microsoft SQL Azure for storing customer information and claim-resolution details, which we easily migrated from our existing on-premises solution. The system has custom workflows that route claims to the appropriate department for resolution and then back to the agent, and it creates alerts that notify employees when action needs to be taken on a customer's behalf.
Navarro: One thing that really stands out is that our development expertise lies mainly in Java and we were hesitant to adopt unfamiliar technology. However, despite having no prior experience with the Microsoft .NET Framework or the C# programming language, two developers built the solution in less than two months. As a result, developers can focus on business logic, deliver a product that lets us resolve claims expeditiously, and meet our business goals. Now we can focus less on the IT infrastructure and more on insurance processes.
MSDN: What kinds of benefits is AXA Seguros realizing with Windows Azure?
Navarro: In addition to quick development time, we were also able to deploy the solution much more rapidly than if we had to procure servers for an on-premises solution. By relying on the infrastructure that Microsoft always has ready, we were able to reduce our deployment time by more than half. We also avoided one-time capital costs of U.S.$10,000 and will save 65 percent over three years on monthly operational costs.
Read the full story at: http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000007933
A wide variety of resources are available to help you understand and leverage the security features available in Windows Azure. If you're looking for a way to stay on top of the content that's available, you'll want to check out "Security Resources for Windows Azure", which lists the latest white papers, articles and webcasts that address how you can develop secure applications on Windows Azure, as well as SQL Azure and Windows Azure AppFabric. The list is continually being updated so be sure to bookmark this page so you can check back for new resources, as they become available.
A new guide, "Getting Started with the Windows Azure CDN", is now available to help you understand how to enable the Windows Azure CDN and begin caching your content. Included is a short list of prerequisites for using the Windows Azure CDN, as well as step-by-step instructions for getting started, along with links to additional resources if you want to dive deeper. For details about pricing for the Windows Azure CDN, please read our previous blog post here, and for a list of nodes available globally for the Windows Azure CDN, please read our previous blog post here.
As part of the Real World Windows Azure series, we talked to Rhett Thompson, Cofounder of CoreMotives, about using the Windows Azure platform to deliver the company's automated marketing solution. Here's what he had to say:MSDN: Tell us about CoreMotives and the services you offer.Thompson: CoreMotives develops business-to-business marketing automation and lead generation software that enables marketing and sales teams to detect, track, and target potential customers. Our marketing automation suite integrates with Microsoft Dynamics CRM and provides business intelligence for customers' website traffic and email marketing initiatives.MSDN: What was the biggest challenge CoreMotives faced prior to implementing the Windows Azure platform?Thompson: We're starting to acquire new customers and our small, five-person company was outgrowing our hosted server infrastructure. In some cases, our hosting provider would automatically shut down our servers when the load reached 70 percent for more than five minutes, leaving us unable to process customers' web traffic. Our customers expect near real-time results and, in a worst-case scenario, it could take us up to 14 hours to process data-that's just unacceptable. MSDN: Can you describe the solution you built with the Windows Azure platform?Thompson: We compared the Windows Azure platform to other cloud services providers, including Rackspace hosting and Amazon Elastic Cloud Compute (EC2), and Windows Azure had the scalability and reliability we needed. We migrated our existing solution by using Web roles to capture website traffic details and Worker roles to host the logic and process the traffic. We are also using Microsoft SQL Azure in a multitenant environment so that we can isolate the customers' relational data that we store.MSDN: What makes your solution unique? Thompson: One thing that is really unique about our solution is that we have developed an account provisioning system that is powered by Windows Azure. Unlike our competitors, we can provision accounts without having to visit customer locations and set up servers and databases on-premises. The provisioning system connects to and installs the CoreMotives solution directly into a customer's instance of Microsoft Dynamics CRM.MSDN: What benefits have you seen since implementing the Windows Azure platform?Thompson: We have significantly improved our ability to scale up and meet demands of high-volume traffic. Instead of 14 hours, we can process traffic in 24 seconds-even during peak periods. That's what our customers expect and with Windows Azure, we can deliver. We also now have a reliable infrastructure that complies with standards, such as Sarbanes-Oxley and SAS 70 Type II. This means that, even as a small company, we can go head-to-head with industry-leading, enterprise marketing automation companies. The rest of the world is starting to move in the direction of cloud-based computing, and if you're going to compete in this marketplace, you need to get there fast without compromising the user experience. By using Windows Azure, we can do that and improve our competitive advantage.
Read the full story at: www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000007608To read more Windows Azure customer success stories, visit: www.windowsazure.com/evidence
If you're looking for tips on monitoring and working with production level Windows Azure applications in the cloud, you should check out the recent video interview with Windows Azure Evangelist Ryan Dunn on Bytes by MSDN. During his conversation with Joe Healy, principal developer evangelist at Microsoft, Ryan also talks about what's new in the latest Windows Azure SDK, and how the new features make it easier to monitor and manage Windows Azure applications.
Windows Azure must provide confidentiality, integrity, and availability of customer data, while also enabling transparent accountability. To help customers better understand the array of security controls implemented within Windows Azure from both the customer's and Microsoft operations' perspectives, a new white paper, "Windows Azure Security Overview", has just been released that provides a comprehensive look at the security available with Windows Azure. Written by Charlie Kaufman and Ramanathan Venkatapathy, the paper provides a technical examination of the security functionality available from both the customer's and Microsoft operations' perspectives, the people and processes that help make Windows Azure more secure, as well as a brief discussion about compliance.
The most common question we get asked about the Windows Azure Content Delivery Network (CDN) is, "Where are the nodes physically located?" We're happy to say that customers choosing to serve data through the network today are offered 20 physical nodes* to improve delivery of performance-sensitive content around the globe. Below is the list of current locations; we'll update this list as our network evolves (9/1/10: SEE UPDATE BELOW).
US/EMEA
US
EMEA
Asia-Pacific/Rest of World
Offering pay-as-you-go, one-click-integration with Windows Azure Storage, the Windows Azure CDN is a system of servers containing copies of data, placed at various points in our global cloud services network to maximize bandwidth for access to data for clients throughout the network. The Windows Azure CDN can only deliver content from public blob containers in Windows Azure Storage - content types can include web objects, downloadable objects (media files, software, documents), applications, real time media streams, and other components of Internet delivery (DNS, routes, and database queries).
UPDATE - 9/1/10: Nodes in Seoul, KR and Taipei, TW are now live, in addition to the 20 listed above.
The Internet provides powerful capabilities for individuals to gain visibility and control over their environment. A good example of this is HeyGov! for San Francisco, - a cloud services solution that the City of San Francisco just adopted to give their citizens a faster and easier way to submit service requests regarding potholes, graffiti, and street cleaning to the City's 311 Department. The HeyGov! Service also provides an interactive mapping application for citizens to monitor and analyze their non-emergency 311 service requests.
Built on the Windows Azure platform, HeyGov! is a SaaS offering from partner, ISC, that takes advantage of the scalable storage and processing power of the cloud and provides the ability to quickly address service requests and implement updates even during peak times. The City of Miami, the first adopter of HeyGov!, has already starting using the solution in other departments including Public Safety for reporting code enforcement violations. Read more about the City of Miami's solution in the blog post, "Real World Windows Azure: Interview with James Osteen, Assistant Director of Information Technology for the City of Miami".
You can read more about the solution and how it works for San Francisco in the blog post, "A New Bright Star in Government - HeyGov! for San Francisco", which was posted to the Bright Side of Government blog yesterday. The official press release can be found here.
How would you like to try Windows Azure and SQL Azure for a month - for FREE? Now you can, with the Windows Azure One Month Pass USA. Through this unique offer, US developers can get a one month pass to try out Windows Azure and SQL Azure - without having to submit a credit card!
Limited to US developers, the first 500 to sign up each month will get a full month's pass good for the one calendar month. In addition, you'll get free phone, chat and email support through the Front Runner for Windows Azure program.
There are a ton of great resources provided on the Windows Azure One Month Pass USA offer page, as well as the full details for this offer, so be sure to check it out and request your subscription today!
As part of the Real World Windows Azure series, we talked to Sanjay Kumar, ERS SEG Online Practice Head at HCL, about using the Windows Azure platform to deliver the company's carbon-emissions management solution. Here's what he had to say:
MSDN: Tell us about HCL and the services you offer.
Kumar: HCL is a global technology firm. We focus on outsourcing that emphasizes innovation and value creation, and we have an integrated portfolio of services that includes software-led IT solutions, remote infrastructure management, engineering services, and research and development.
Kumar: Our manageCarbon solution, which businesses use to aggregate, analyze, and manage carbon-emissions data, was traditionally a Java-based on-premises solution. As more and more businesses adopt carbon-accounting practices, we expect our business to grow rapidly in the next few years. So, we wanted to make manageCarbon as attractive as possible to customers by reducing the capital investment required to run manageCarbon on premises and by reducing the level of customer IT maintenance required to manage the application
MSDN: Can you describe the solution you built with the Windows Azure platform?
Kumar: By using Migration++, a core internal framework that we'd already established to help our customers migrate to the Windows Azure platform, we migrated our on-premises application to Windows Azure. We migrated our MySQL 5.1 databases to Microsoft SQL Azure by using the same database schema and data patterns that we use in our on-premises solution. We use the Windows Azure Software Development Kit for Java Developers with Windows Azure platform AppFabric Service Bus to more securely collect emissions activity data across network boundaries. We also use the Windows Azure platform AppFabric Access Control to federate customers' existing identity management systems.
The manageCarbon application connects to customers' enterprise systems to help them collect, analyze, and manage carbon-emissions data.
Kumar: We are a leader and early player in this unique market, and we will continue to pave the way with carbon accounting by taking manageCarbon to the cloud with Windows Azure. By using our solution, customers can extract emissions data from their enterprise systems and receive reports that detail their carbon emissions and provide data for carbon accounting, as required by government regulations or recommended by watch groups.
MSDN: What benefits have you seen since implementing the Windows Azure platform?
Kumar: One of the key benefits is that we've lowered the cost barrier for customers to adopt manageCarbon. We've relieved customers' obligations to invest in costly hardware upfront, and they can take advantage of a pay-as-you-go model. We've also reduced the deployment time required for customers to set up manageCarbon-from eight weeks with an on-premises solution to just two weeks. In addition, we have a lower total cost of ownership-we expect to save U.S.$53,792, or 30.6 percent of our costs, by using the Windows Azure platform.
Read the full story at: www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000007867
Did you know you could use a Windows Azure worker role and custom code to create SQL Server Agent type functionality for SQL Azure? Want to know how? Then you should read the blog post series on the SQL Azure blog, "I Miss You SQL Server Agent", by Wayne Walter Berry. In this three-part series, Wayne walks readers step by step through the process of creating a lightweight substitute for a SQL Server Agent using a Windows Azure role, covering everything from how to get started to handling errors. It's a great read so check it out and post a comment to the SQL Azure blog if you have any comments or suggestions for Wayne or the SQL Azure team.
Steve Marx just posted a great overview about how to use Windows Azure Blobs and the Windows Azure CDN to deliver adaptive streaming video content in a format compatible with Silverlight's Smooth Streaming player. For those of you unfamiliar with Smooth Streaming, he also explains what it is and how it works and points to a great article, "Smooth Streaming Technical Overview" by Alex Zambelli for an even deeper dive.
You can get all the details in Steve's blog post. If you want to dive right in and start hosting Smooth Streaming content in Windows Azure Blobs, check out the Adaptive Streaming for Windows Azure Blobs Uploader project on Code Gallery, a command-line tool and reusable library for hosting adaptive streaming videos in Windows Azure Blobs.
As part of the Real World Windows Azure series, we talked to Alexandre Zanghellini, Cofounder at Arzeda, and Yih-En Andrew Ban, Project Leader and Scientist at Arzeda, about using the Windows Azure platform to power the company's compute-heavy enzyme-design process. Here's what they had to say:
MSDN: Tell us more about Arzeda and the services you offer. Zanghellini: Arzeda is a biotechnology firm that engineers custom-made enzymes for almost any chemical reaction. By designing these bioprocesses, our vision is to replace petroleum-based products and processes to contribute to a more sustainable environment.
MSDN: What was the biggest challenge Arzeda faced prior to implementing Windows Azure? Zanghellini: The methodology that we use to engineer enzymes requires extensive computing power. We have a small in-house Linux cluster, but it wasn't powerful enough for some of our computational calculations. The amount of processing power that we need for some calculations is on par with what you would find with a 250-core cluster. However, we only need that massive scalability a few days a month, so building an on-premises infrastructure to accommodate our processing needs was unrealistic at a cost in excess of U.S.$250,000.
MSDN: Can you describe the solution you built with Windows Azure and how it helped address your need for cost-effective scalability? Ban: We use Windows Azure compute and storage services. Scientists prepare jobs for computation, packaging them in XML messages and sending them to Queue storage in Windows Azure. Scientists then submit a job request and start compute instances-anywhere from tens to hundreds of instances-on Windows Azure, which picks up the jobs from the queues and processes them. We use Blob storage for data input and output files and Table storage to store job-state information. When the jobs are complete, scientists download the computations to on-premises computers that we for data analysis. Using a sweeper process, we can automatically shut down the instances of Windows Azure as soon as all the jobs are finished processing.
MSDN: What makes your solution unique? Zanghellini: Our engineering methodology integrates the power of chemical catalysis, the high selectivity of biological macromolecules, and the flexibility of computational design. With Windows Azure, we have the power we need to complete these compute-heavy processes and can scale up with just a few clicks.
MSDN: What benefits have you seen since working with Windows Azure? Zanghellini: In addition to the dramatically improved scalability, we've avoided the costly capital expenditures to build an on-premises infrastructure, which we estimated could cost around $250,000, and are only spending about 13 percent of that as an operational expense. With Windows Azure, we only pay for what we use. In addition, with only four employees, we don't have extra resources available to maintain a large IT infrastructure. By using Windows Azure, we can maintain our focus on what we do best-designing new enzymes-and let Microsoft handle the infrastructure.
Read the full story at: www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?casestudyid=4000007524
As part of the Real World Windows Azure series, we talked to Johannes Schick, CEO of höltl Retail Solutions, about using the Windows Azure platform to run the company's point-of-sale (POS) system. Here's what he had to say:
MSDN: What service does höltl Retail Solutions provide?
Schick: höltl Retail Solutions is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner that offers innovative products for optimizing retail processes for the clothing and nonfood industries. The most popular of these is the POSFlow chain software solution for midsize retailers-more than 50,000 people throughout Europe use the POSFlow solution.
MSDN: What was the biggest challenge höltl Retail Solutions faced prior to adopting the Windows Azure platform?
Schick: POSFlow is popular among midsize retailers, and we wanted to make the solution viable for smaller retailers, too. However, because POSFlow is an on-premises solution, we had to send technicians out to customers' locations to set up, install, and configure the software, which could take up to three or four hours plus travel time. That wasn't a cost-effective or time-efficient model for smaller businesses.
MSDN: Can you describe the solution you built with the Windows Azure platform to help address your need for efficient deployment?
Schick: We migrated our existing solution to the Windows Azure platform using the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 and the Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Team Suite development system. We are using the Windows Azure platform AppFabric Service Bus to bridge cloud, on-premises, and hosted deployments. For our relational database needs, we're using Microsoft SQL Azure. For the visual interface, we used the Microsoft Silverlight 3 browser plug-in.
The POSFlow solution takes advantage of the Windows Azure platform to deliver cloud-based POS services.
MSDN: What makes höltl Retail Solutions unique?
Schick: Unlike other POS solutions that typically run on-premises, POSFlow runs in the cloud on the Windows Azure platform. As a result, customers can now handle routine setup and upgrades themselves, minimizing costs and saving time.
MSDN: Have you been able to reach new markets as a result of using Windows Azure?
Schick: We are now able to offer POSFlow to small retailer stores since moving to Windows Azure. By eliminating the cost of having to send technicians to customer locations, we're able to pass those savings on to customers, which makes POSFlow an affordable solution for small businesses.
MSDN: What are some of the key benefits höltl Retail Solutions has seen since implementing Windows Azure?
Schick: By using Windows Azure, we're able to improve the services we offer our customers. Instead of waiting for up to four hours to get their POSFlow solution set up, customers can get up and running in just four minutes. In addition, the scalability of Windows Azure helps us ensure a reliable solution that our customers can rely on. The scalability makes our high-tech solutions especially appealing to large chains and purchasing associations, because we can combine communications streams from several thousand registers without issue.
Read the full story at: www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000007121
To read more Windows Azure customer success stories, visit:www.windowsazure.com/evidence
Ever wonder what happens to tweets after they disappear? Would you love a way to keep track of, analyze and even export tweets related to topics you care about? Enter The Archivist, a new lab/website from Mix Online built on Windows Azure that allows you to monitor Twitter, archive tweets, data mine and export archives.
As Microsoft Developer and Archivist creator, Karsten Januszewski explains it, "When you start a search using The Archivist, it will create and monitor an archive based on that search that you can later analyze for insights, trends and other useful information, as well as export for further analysis or reporting."
Get an introduction to The Archivist in Karsten's blog post, read about its evolution in a post by Microsoft Designer, Tim Aidlin, or sit back and let Karsten and Tim explain The Archivist to you in the video, "The Archivist: Your friendly neighborhood tweet archiver" on Channel 9.
Why Windows Azure? Januzewski elaborates, "Windows Azure was a perfect fit for the Archivist for three reasons: first, blob storage is ideally suited to store the tweets, we've already archived more than 60 million tweets; second, the ability to use Windows Azure background worker processes to poll Twitter provides crucial functionality; and, lastly, because Twitter is a global phenomenon, Windows Azure enables The Archivist to effectively scale both the download of archives through the CDN as well as the number of web servers required, based on changing traffic patterns."
And a great part of The Archivist is that all the source code is available for download. Not only is the source code licensed so anyone can run (and enhance) their own instance of the Archivist in Windows Azure, it provides a reference architecture for how to take advantage of features in Windows Azure, such as blob storage and background worker processes.
As David Aiken recently mentioned on his blog, the Microsoft Patterns & Practices team has just released the Windows Azure Architecture Guide - Volume 1. The first in a planned series about the Windows Azure platform, this book walks readers through how to adapt an existing, on-premises ASP.NET application to one that operates in the cloud. Each chapter explores different considerations including authentication and authorization, data access, session management, deployment, development life cycle and cost analysis.
The book is intended for any architect, developer, or information technology (IT) professional who designs, builds, or operates applications and services that are appropriate for the cloud, works with Windows-based systems and is familiar with the Microsoft .NET Framework, Microsoft Visual Studio, ASP.NET, SQL Server, and Microsoft Visual C#.
InformationWeek Mexico just named OCCMundial as the second most innovative company in Mexico in its annual "50 Most Innovative Companies" issue. OCCMundial developed the largest job-listing website in the Mexican employment market and has more than 15 million unique visitors annually and posts more than 600,000 jobs each year.
The company earned its innovator distinction from InformationWeek Mexico for its recommendation system, OCCMatch, that uses a powerful algorithm to match job openings to candidate resumes. Each day the algorithm that OCCMatch uses compares approximately 90,000 active job offers to a candidate pool represented by up to four million resumes. The system matches qualified applicants to job openings and sends email notifications to potential candidates. OCCMatch generates hundreds of thousands of email messages every single day.
To achieve the computing power necessary to process the powerful algorithm, and the storage capacity required for the popular service, OCCMundial relies on the Windows Azure platform. With on-premises infrastructure, the company was limited in the number of operations it could run each day, but by innovating with a cloud-based solution on the Windows Azure platform, it can now execute millions of OCCMatch operations in parallel-with as much processing power as the company needs. It currently uses more than 200 instances of Windows Azure for several hours each day, but can quickly scale up, or down, when the need arises; plus, it achieved impressive levels of scalability while still avoiding approximately U.S.$600,000 in capital and operational costs.
Read the full story on how OCCMundial uses the Windows Azure platform at: www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?CaseStudyID=4000005802
Read more Windows Azure customer success stories, visit: www.windowsazure.com/evidence
As part of the Real World Windows Azure series, we talked to Steve Orenstein, Chief Executive Officer at Connect2Field, about using the Windows Azure platform to deliver the company's software-as-a-service application. Here's what he had to say:
MSDN: Tell us about Connect2Field and the services you offer.
Orenstein: Our company's namesake, Connect2Field, is a web-based field service and job management software application. By using Connect2Field, businesses can manage customers, track jobs, dispatch and schedule work to employees in the field, manage inventory, provide quotes, and communicate easily with customers via email and short message service (SMS).
MSDN: What were the biggest challenges that Connect2Field faced prior to implementing the Windows Azure platform?
Orenstein: Maintaining server uptime was a challenge for us-and a critical one-because any downtime for our customers can have a negative impact on their daily operations. We also need to ensure replication of our Microsoft SQL Server databases to give customers peace of mind that their data is protected; however, managing that replication became a headache for us. In addition, maintaining server hardware was very expensive and time consuming.
MSDN: Can you describe the solution you built with Windows Azure to address your need for high performance?
Orenstein: We migrated our existing application, which was originally built with Microsoft ASP.NET, to the Windows Azure platform. We are taking advantage of Microsoft SQL Azure and its built-in replication for our relational database needs. We're also using the Windows Azure Content Delivery Network to cache content at global data center nodes-this helps us deliver uptime and high levels of performance that we need for our global audience.
Orenstein: Connect2Field is the first field service software application that runs in the cloud and is available to small and large customers. Any service business can get instant access to the software for as little at U.S.$65 a month. Connect2Field also has an application programming interface (API) that allows our application to connect with other cloud-based applications.
MSDN: Do you offer Connect2Field to any new markets since implementing the Windows Azure platform?
Orenstein: Yes! Prior to Windows Azure, we only offered our service to customers in Australia and New Zealand. But with Windows Azure, we have cost-effective scalability and global data center presence through Microsoft that enables us to offer our solution globally.
Orenstein: We have reduced the amount of time we spend maintaining server hardware by 95 percent and, at the same time, have eliminated the need for ongoing capital expenses for new hardware purchases in the future. With the Content Delivery Network, we have been able to not only ensure a global data center presence, but we've done so at a savings of $2,500 a month-what it would have cost to use an alternative solution, such as Akamai.
For more information on Connect2Field, visit: www.connect2field.com
