Editor’s Note: Today’s post was written by Guy Bowerman and Karthika Raman from the Microsoft Data Platform team. SQL Server 2012 SP1 Cumulative Update 2 includes enhancements to SQL Server native backup that simplifies backup and restore...

During the BUILD 2012 conference we announced a new capability of Windows Azure: the Windows Azure Store . The Windows Azure Store makes it incredibly easy for you to discover, purchase, and provision premium add-on services, provided by our partners...

Today we released a number of great enhancements to Windows Azure. Yesterday I blogged about the general availability (GA) release of Windows Azure Media Services. Windows Azure Media Services provides everything you need to quickly build great, extremely...

I’m excited to announce the general availability (GA) release of Windows Azure Media Services. This release is now live in production, supported by a new media services dev center, backed by an enterprise SLA, and is ready to be used for all media...

Editor’s Note: This is a cross post from the Windows 8 App Developer Blog. Approximately one year ago, members of the Bing team began to build applications for News, Weather, Finance, Sports, Travel and Maps for Windows 8. The team uses services...

Editor's note: This post comes from Mark Brown , Windows Azure Community Manager. Welcome to the newest edition of our weekly roundup of the latest community-driven news, content and conversations about cloud computing and Windows Azure. Here is...

Editor's Note: This is a cross post from the STB News Bytes Blog. Last week, Microsoft announced an exciting (and tasty) example of its work in intelligent systems, business analytics and cloud computing. Costa Coffee’s iconic red Costa Express...

Introduction On December 28 th , 2012 there was a service interruption that affected 1.8% of the Windows Azure Storage accounts. The affected storage accounts were in one storage stamp (cluster) in the U.S. South region. We apologize for the disruption...

A storm hits. Trees down power lines, water levels rise. Emergency teams scramble to figure out the damage, who’s vulnerable? First responders think visually so answering these questions often starts with a map. And those maps are frequently powered...

Editor's Note: This post was originally published by Tom Dykstra on December 20, 2012 on the .NET Web Development and Tools Blog Last month, the . NET Web Development and Tools blog published a new tutorial series and accompanying sample application...

Editor's note: This post comes from Rick Anderson who is a programmer / writer for the Windows Azure and ASP.NET MVC teams. Restarts for Web Roles An often neglected consideration in Windows Azure is how to handle restarts. It’s important...

Editor's note: This post comes from Mark Brown , Windows Azure Community Manager . Welcome to the newest edition of our weekly roundup of the latest community-driven news, content and conversations about cloud computing and Windows Azure. Here is...

Editor’s Note: Today’s post is brought to us by Eric Weidner, OpenLogic Co-founder and Director of Engineering, describing how the company provides support and s ervices for CentOS customers, including details on how to get OpenLogic CentOS...

If you are one of the many users of our Windows Azure Powershell cmdlets or our Windows Azure command line tool , then you know that the CLI makes it really easy to manage and deploy Websites, Mobile Services, VMs, Service Bus and much more in Windows...

Editor's Note: This post was written by Nick Harris , Windows Azure Technical Evangelist. It’s been less than five months since we introduced the first public preview for Windows Azure Mobile Services and in this short time we have seen continual...

If you are one of the many users of our Windows Azure Powershell cmdlets or our Windows Azure command line tool , then you know that the CLI makes it really easy to manage and deploy Websites, Mobile Services, VMs, Service Bus and much more in Windows...

Happy New Year Windows Azure community! One of the first pieces of 2013 Windows Azure news is something that I am particularly excited about. Some of you might know that I was recruited to Microsoft in 2004 to help with the company’s approach to...

Editor's Note: This post is written by Mohit Srivastava and Dennis Angeline . The latest release of the Windows Azure SDK for .NET contains a number of great improvements. New features include: .NET 4.5 / Windows Server 2012 (OS Family 3) support...

This morning we released a number of enhancements to Windows Azure. These new capabilities include: Mobile Services (job scheduler support, Europe Region Support, Command Line Support) Web Sites (scale improvements, integrated source control...

Editor's Note: This post comes from Mingfei Yan , Program Manager for Windows Azure Media Team. I am pleased to announce that Windows Azure Media Services team is releasing a Windows Azure Media Player Framework Preview for iOS. This new framework...

Editor's note: This blog post comes from David Magar, Program Manager, Windows Azure SQL Reporting. Although it’s tempting to take an existing Reporting Services project and push it out to the cloud as-is, you really shouldn’t. A report...

A few weeks ago I posted about a number of improvements to Windows Azure Mobile Services. One of these was the addition of an Objective-C client SDK that allows iOS developers to easily use Mobile Services for data and authentication. Today I'm excited...

As customers transition to the cloud, a number of tasks traditionally handled in-house become the responsibility of a trusted cloud provider. While the idea of using a vendor for technical support isn’t new, the role of Customer Support in the cloud...

Yesterday we made some big updates to Windows Azure Mobile Services! The feature suite for Windows Store apps is growing and you can begin using Mobile Services to develop native iOS apps. This October update includes: Current iOS libraries added...

As announced on the Basho blog today, Riak is now available on Windows Azure as a fully supported and tested NoSQL database option. Riak brings a master-less, distributed database option to Windows Azure, allowing unlimited scale, built-in replication...

[This article was contributed by the SQL Azure team.] Temenos , the global provider of banking software, today announced the availability of TEMENOS T24 (T24) on the Windows Azure Platform . This announcement makes T24 the first core banking...

[This article was contributed by the SQL Azure team.] In 2008, Glen Knowles founded Kelly Street Digital and created Campaign Taxi, an application available by subscription that helps customers track consumer interactions across multiple marketing...

We've just released a new white paper that provides decision makers with some guidance around the decision criteria, benefits and risks of moving to cloud platforms such as the Windows Azure platform. This white paper, "The Benefits and Risks of Cloud...

Want to hear first-hand about Microsoft's own move to the cloud and Windows Azure ? Would you like to know more about the benefits, implications and strategies involved? Then be sure to listen in to a new series of TechNet Edge interviews with top...

[This article was contributed by the SQL Azure team.] As part of the Real World SQL Azure series, we recently talked to Eugene Shustef, Chief Engineer in the Global Document Outsourcing group at Xerox , about using Microsoft SQL Azure to build...

Our objective is to make the WindowsAzure.com usability experience intuitive and efficient. We'd like to know how we're doing on this objective, and if the information that we've presented on WindowsAzure.com is valuable and easy to find. If you...

[This article was contributed by the SQL Azure team.] Real World SQL Azure: Interview with Tom Naylor, Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Advanced Telemetry As part of the Real World SQL Azure series, we talked to Tom Naylor, Founder and Chief...

Calling all partners: if you'd like to know more about the opportunities that the Windows Azure platform presents for IT Pros, then you won't want to miss our upcoming FREE Academy Live webcast: Cloud Computing And Application Opportunities for IT...

[This article was contributed by the SQL Azure team.] As part of the Real-World SQL Azure series, we talked to James Chen, the Chief Technology Officer at LinkShare Labs, a division of Rakuten, about how his company is taking advantage of the Windows...

Don't miss this FREE three-part series of webinars that cover the benefits, implications of - and best practices for - adopting Windows Azure . Click on the session title to register. The Business Case for Azure (Part 1) - January 12, 2011...

Chris C. Kemp is CTO of NASA, a position he has held since March of 2010. Before that appointment, he was NASA's CIO and was in charge of the Ames Research Center, the Security Operations Center, and various other facilities. Chris started with NASA as...

I'm Robert Duffner, director of Product Management for Windows Azure and I'm kicking off a new series of blog posts where I will be interviewing thought leaders in cloud computing. I'll be reaching out broadly across the globe to industry, public sector...

Twilio just announced the winners of its Developer Contest, where developers built awesome Twilio apps running on Windows Azure . The contest, which was launched in concert with the “Meet Windows Azure” event June 7, awarded the winner up...

Last month we announced the Developer Preview of Windows Azure Active Directory (Windows Azure AD) which kicked off the process of opening up Windows Azure Active Directory to developers outside of Microsoft. You can read more about that initial release...

Last month, we announced the availability of SSAE 16 / ISAE 3402 attestation for Windows Azure core services; an important milestone for our customers and partners, as many have requested and received a copy of the audit report. But what our health customers...

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...

Today we are excited to announce the Developer Preview of Windows Azure Active Directory. As John Shewchuk discussed in his blog post Reimagining Active Directory for the Social Enterprise , Windows Azure Active Directory (AD) is a cloud identity management...

The world’s premier student technology competition, Microsoft’s Imagine Cup , kicked off its finals on, July 6 th in Sydney Australia with more than 350 young technologists from 75 countries and regions. This year marked the event’s...

Today at 9:40 AM PDT, Satya Nadella, president of Microsoft’s Server and Tools Business (STB), will participate in an onstage fireside chat moderated by Derrick Harris, GigaOm senior writer, at the GigaOm Structure event. Tune in to hear Nadella...

In April 2012, we launched Windows Azure Trust Center (WATC) with the goal of providing customers and partners with easier access to regulatory compliance information. We indicated that WATC would be updated on a regular basis with additional compliance...

Today, we are ushering in the new era of Hybrid Cloud, bringing together the best of on-premises and cloud computing. Virtual Machines, Virtual Network, and Web Sites are now available as new preview services for Windows Azure. SQL Reporting is now Generally...

If you’re looking for more information about the news we shared in yesterday’s blog post, “Announcing New Windows Azure Services to Deliver “Hybrid Cloud” by Bill Laing, be sure to read Scott Guthrie’s new blog post...