Windows Azure

Real World Windows Azure: Interview with Joannès Vermorel, CEO of Lokad

WindowsAzure — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:57:00 GMT

As part of the Real World Windows Azure series, we talked to CEO Joannès Vermorel about using the Windows Azure technology platform to deliver powerful forecasting models to Lokad customers. Here's what he had to say:

MSDN: What services does Lokad provide?

Vermorel: Lokad delivers forecasts as a service. Companies send us data, and we return forecasts-in less than one hour, no matter the amount of data. Sales forecasts are especially useful in retail and manufacturing industries to optimize inventory.

MSDN: What was the biggest challenge your company faced prior to implementing Windows Azure?

Vermorel: We developed a set of powerful statistical models that deliver highly accurate forecasts. However, those complex models require 10 times more processing power, and we couldn't keep up with our one-hour delivery goal for the forecasts. We considered adding more physical servers to handle the additional CPU requirements, but the cost was exorbitant and the process was time consuming.

MSDN: Describe the solution you built with Windows Azure to help run your powerful forecast models cost effectively?

Vermorel: Because our developers are familiar with the Microsoft .NET Framework, we were able to move our forecasting service to the Windows Azure platform and take advantage of near limitless processing power. We can deliver 100 times the forecasts with Windows Azure than we could previously-up to 100 million forecasts an hour.

MSDN: What makes your solution unique?

Vermorel: Now, we can experiment with new solutions and expand our marketing opportunities. In the future, we would like to deliver fine-grained energy consumption forecasts within smart grids to help energy companies tune electricity production and reduce losses due to over-production. Smart grids will generate a gigantic amount of data, and without Windows Azure, we would not be able to implement a solution that could scale to match production requirements.

MSDN: What are the key benefits Lokad has seen as a result of implementing Windows Azure?

Vermorel: In addition to delivering improved services to our customers, development efficiency and reduced IT maintenance costs are a huge win for us because we run lean operations with only six employees. Developers were able to use existing skills to quickly migrate the solution to Windows Azure. Also, we can rely on a Microsoft-hosted solution with enterprise-class service. We don't have to invest in costly infrastructure or redirect valuable developer resources to manage the server infrastructure that supports our forecasting solution.

Read the full story at: http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?CaseStudyID=4000005803

Read more Windows Azure success stories here: www.windowsazure.com/evidence

Microsoft and NSF Announce Client + Cloud Computing Project to Accelerate Scientific Discovery and Foster Collaborative Research

WindowsAzure — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:31:00 GMT

Today, February 4, Microsoft and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) announced a collaborative project where Microsoft will offer individual researchers and research groups (selected through NSF's merit review process) free access to advanced client-plus-cloud computing including Windows Azure. By extending the capabilities of powerful, easy-to-use PC applications via Microsoft cloud services, this project aims to shift the focus from infrastructure to empowerment to broaden researcher capabilities, foster collaborative research communities, and accelerate scientific discovery. You can read the press release here: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2010/feb10/02-04NSFPR.mspx

Today, scientists are operating in a world dominated by data, thanks to increasingly inexpensive sensors and a growing trend toward collaborative data projects, yet analyzing and synthesizing this mass of data has remained a challenge. Massive, highly efficient cloud infrastructures, such as those possible with Windows Azure Platform, can transform how research is conducted and accelerate scientific exploration and discovery by making simple yet powerful tools available that any researcher can use to extract insights by mining and combining diverse data sets.

Under the terms of the project, Microsoft will provide NSF grant recipients with access to Windows Azure for a three-year period, along with a support team to help researchers quickly integrate cloud technology into their research. Microsoft researchers and developers will work with grant recipients to equip them with a set of common tools, applications and data collections that can be shared with the broad academic community, and also provide its expertise in research, science, and cloud computing. To learn more about this project, read the related feature story, "Democratizing Research: How "Client Plus Cloud" Computing Can Amplify What's Possible for Scientists."

Grants will be awarded through a program managed by the NSF. More details about funding opportunities are available at http://www.nsf.gov/dir/index.jsp?org=CISE.

Real World Windows Azure: Interview with Conor O'Riordan, CEO at TradeFacilitate

WindowsAzure — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 23:52:00 GMT

As part of the Real World Windows Azure series, we talked to Conor O'Riordan, CEO at TradeFacilitate, about using the Windows Azure technology platform to build the company's premier Web site and the benefits that Windows Azure provides. Here's what he had to say:

MSDN: What services does TradeFacilitate provide?

O'Riordan: TradeFacilitate delivers an online service that enables importers and exporters of excisable alcohol products in the European Union (EU) to exchange customs data in a paper-free format.

MSDN: What was the biggest challenge your company faced prior to implementing Windows Azure?

O'Riordan: The EU required us to prove that we could scale up quickly and securely in order to meet upcoming regulatory requirements for paper-free trade data. Because our base of users has to work with government agencies spread across 27 EU member states, we needed a solution that was trustworthy and reliable.

MSDN: Describe the solution you built with Windows Azure to address the need for cost-effective scalability?

O'Riordan: We built a cloud-based version of our primary application that enables EU exporters and their U.S. importers to submit the required data in advance of loading to meet customs requirements. We collate the required trade data from the EU seller and the U.S. buyer and present it to the U.S. importer-facilitating a smooth, cross-border, paper-free trade transaction. We're also using Microsoft SQL Azure for relational storage, in addition to Windows Azure Tables for membership and session state data and Blob Storage for unstructured binary data.

MSDN: To how many users are you initially deploying TradeFacilitate?

O'Riordan: We are aiming to have our first 50-100 users deployed on the TradeFacilitate solution by the end of February 2010.

MSDN: How will Windows Azure help with an increased number of transactions as you continue to deploy to more and more users?

O'Riordan: We don't have to change our core application architecture. We can scale vertically or horizontally by increasing either the size or number machine instances. This ensures we can maintain acceptable user response levels as the system grows.

MSDN: What makes your solution unique?

O'Riordan: TradeFacilitate is uniquely validated by the EU as a paper-free solution provider and, by delivering our service using Windows Azure, we see tremendous potential for taking our business to new levels and concentrating on our core capability as a paper-free provider. We plan to take advantage of Access Control Service and single sign-on features in the Window Azure platform that will encourage quick adoption. We're also developing a rich community for our users by offering instant messaging through Windows Live.

MSDN: Are you offering the application to any new niche markets or customer segments outside of alcohol products?

O'Riordan: International trade in alcohol is the first vertical for our current commercial deployment, but we are also actively engaged in other sectors on a project basis which we will roll into the live GA system. Other industry sectors on our deployment roadmap are food and perishables, electronics, pharmaceuticals, automotive and machinery parts, and other excise goods, such as oil and gas and tobacco.

MSDN: Have you found other ways to take advantage of Windows Azure? For instance, have you started building any new applications for the platform?

O'Riordan: Yes, we are in the process of developing a number of new applications which will be rolled into the overall TradeFacilitate system running on Windows Azure in the second half of 2010. These include extensions to third-party systems, such as enterprise resource planning systems, and devices, such as smartphones; offline functionality; and enhanced services such as electronic invoices and bills of lading.

MSDN: What are the key benefits TradeFacilitate has seen as a result of implementing Windows Azure?

O'Riordan: Now, we have the ability to scale up and down quickly. We can take advantage of the storage and processing power of the Windows Azure platform, accommodate tens of thousands of importers and exporters in cross-border trade, and eliminate the current paper inefficiencies. Also, with hosting provided by Microsoft, we have the enterprise-class service of a global technology company that has deep expertise in online services.

Read the full story at: http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?CaseStudyID=400000588

Read more Windows Azure customer success stories, visit: www.windowsazure.com/evidence

Beta Release of Windows Azure Drive

WindowsAzure — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:16:40 GMT

Today we are providing access to a beta release of Windows Azure Drive (announced as XDrive at PDC 2009).

Customers have told us that they want to take their already running Windows applications and run them in the cloud using the standard Windows NTFS APIs, and make sure that the data is durable. With Windows Azure Drive, your Windows Azure applications running in the cloud can use existing NTFS APIs to access a durable drive. This can significantly ease the migration of existing Windows applications to the cloud, enabling customers a more seamless migration experience while simultaneously reducing the amount of time it takes to move their applications from your own Windows environment to a Windows Azure environment. The Windows Azure application can read from or write to a drive letter (e.g., X:\) that represents a durable NTFS volume for storing and accessing data. The durable drive is implemented as a Windows Azure Page Blob containing an NTFS-formatted Virtual Hard Drive (VHD).

For the beta release of Windows Azure drive, customers will be billed only for the storage space used by the Page Blob and the read/write transactions to the Page Blob. This will be incorporated into the standard Windows Azure usage rates and there will not be a separate line item on the bill.

Let’s discuss some more of the technical details of the Windows Azure Drive feature. The Page Blob can be mounted as a drive only within the Windows Azure cloud, where all non-buffered/flushed NTFS writes are made durable to the drive (Page Blob). If the application using the drive crashes, the data remains persistent via the Page Blob, and can be remounted when the application instance is restarted or remounted elsewhere for a different application instance to use. Since the drive is an NTFS formatted Page Blob, you can also use the standard blob interfaces to upload and download your NTFS VHDs to the cloud.

Windows Azure Drive can optionally cache the drive data on a local disk on the virtual machine (VM). Caching the data on the local drive can reduce the read traffic to the page blob, which will lower the transaction cost. There is no additional charge for reads that are to the local disk cache. The transactions against the Page Blob will be counted towards billing. Note, even when the cache is enabled, all non-buffered and flushed writes are committed transactions to the Page Blob in durable storage.

Windows Azure Drive is accessible starting with the release of Windows Azure Guest OS 1.1. In addition, in order to mount a Windows Azure Drive you will need to use Feb 2010 version of the Windows Azure SDK. The SDK provides the following Windows Azure Drive APIs for your Windows Azure application to use:

Create Drive - Creates a Page Blob formatted as a single partition NTFS volume VHD.
Initialize Cache – Allows an application to specify the location and size of the local data cache for all Windows Azure Drives mounted for that VM instance.
Mount Drive – Takes a formatted Page Blob and mounts it to a drive letter for the Windows Azure application to start using.
Get Mounted Drives – Returns the list of mounted drives. It consists of a list of the drive letter and Page Blob URLs for each mounted drive.
Unmount Drive – Unmounts the drive and frees up the drive letter.
Snapshot Drive – Allows the client application to create a backup of the drive (Page Blob).
Copy Drive – Provides the ability to copy a drive or snapshot to another drive (Page Blob) name to be used as a read/writable drive.

The Windows Azure operating system has an OS driver that serves two primary functions. The first is to provide the client library operations described above for mounting and unmounting a drive. The second is performing I/O for all of the NTFS operations to the mounted drive. Here is a summary of how the drive works:

Mount – When mounting the drive, the OS Driver attempts to acquire an exclusive access lease on the Page Blob. If it can, then it will mount the drive to a free drive letter. If cache space is specified to be used, then local disk space will be reserved for the mounted drive to use as an on-disk cache.
Write – All non-buffered/flushed NTFS writes are sent to the OS driver, where the write is made durable in the Page Blob in the Windows Azure Blob service before sending success back to the application. This ensures that if application gets a success back for the write, and the drive is unmounted or the application crashes, the application knows that the write was persisted to the Page Blob.
Read – All reads to the drive that go through the OS Driver will read the data either from the local cache or the Page Blob in the Windows Azure Blob service. If the cache is being used, the driver will first look in the local disk cache, and if found there the results are returned to the application without talking to the blob service. If the data is not found in the local on-disk cache, then it will be retrieved from the blob service and returned to the application as well as being placed in the local on-disk cache.
Lease Renewal – While a drive is mounted and in use for an application instance, under the covers the OS driver continuously renews the lease on the Page Blob that is mounted as the drive, using the credentials passed in when mounting the drive.
Unmount – When a drive is unmounted, the lease on the Page Blob is released (freed) and the drive letter is unallocated. Releasing the lease allows another VM/application to quickly mount the Page Blob as a drive if it chooses.

Here is a summary of a few key high level points about using a Windows Azure Drive:

A Drive is a Page Blob formatted as a Fixed NTFS VHD between 16 MB and 1TB.
A VM can dynamically mount up to 16 drives.
A Page Blob can only be mounted by one VM at a time for read/write access. A snapshot page blob can be mounted as read only by multiple different VMs at the same time.
The storage account used to store the Page Blob and the compute account used to run the application should be allocated in the same geo-location in the Windows Azure Developer Portal in order to get the best performance out of the drive.
Drives can be uploaded or downloaded via the Windows Azure Blob interface. The formatted Fixed NTFS VHDs can be uploaded as a Page Blob using the blob interface and then mounted as a drive. Similarly, a formatted Page Blob can be downloaded through the Page Blob interface and then the downloaded drive can be used as a VHD.
The OS driver provided by Windows Azure is only available within the Windows Azure VM instances in the Windows Azure cloud. No driver is distributed by Microsoft at this time to allow you to mount drives remotely. Even so, you can download a drive using GetBlob and mount the downloaded VHD drive where it is downloaded for use, but any updates to that downloaded version will not be sent to the Windows Azure Blob service.

Customers who are already using the February 2010 Windows Azure SDK should make sure they are running Guest OS 1.1 to start using the Windows Azure Drive. New customers should visit WindowsAzure.com to sign up for the February 2010 Windows Azure SDK in Guest OS 1.1 to also start using the Windows Azure Drive. And please send us your feedback!

More detailed information can be found in the technical white paper here: http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9710117

As well as in MSDN documentation here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee924681.aspx

As always, we appreciate any feedback you might have.

Brad Calder
Windows Azure Storage

Windows Azure Tools and SDK 1.1 Released

WindowsAzure — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:13:34 GMT

[UPDATE 10:14PM PST]: This release supports VS 2008 and the upcoming VS 2010 RC. For VS 2010 Beta 2 please use the November 2009 release.

Today, coinciding with the commercial launch of Windows Azure, we have released version 1.1 of the Windows Azure Tools and SDK.

This release supports Visual Studio 2008 SP1 and the upcoming Visual Studio 2010 RC.

What’s New

Windows Azure Drive: Enables a Windows Azure application to use existing NTFS APIs to access a durable drive. This allows the Windows Azure application to mount a page blob as a drive letter, such as X:, and enables easily migration of existing NTFS applications to the cloud.
OS Version Support: Allows a Windows Azure application to choose the appropriate Guest OS to run on in the cloud.
Bug Fixes:
- StorageClient: Expose account key from storage credentials, expose continuation tokens for pagination, reduce maximum buffer size for parallel uploads.
- Windows Azure Diagnostics: Fix path corruption for crash dumps, OnDemandTransfer now respects LogLevelFilter.
- VS 2010: Improved packaging performance.
- VS 2010: Support for linked files in Web projects.
- VS 2010: Support for ASP.NET web project web.config transformations.
- Certificate selection lists certificates from LocalMachine\My instead of CurrentUser\My.
- Right click on Role under Roles folder to select whether to launch the browser against HTTP, HTTPS or not at all.

Updated and additional samples are available at: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/windowsazuresamples

Windows Azure Platform Now Generally Available in 21 Countries

WindowsAzure — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:58:00 GMT

In today's era of computing, businesses face the challenge of reducing their IT infrastructure costs while extending the value of their current investments. For us, this has meant that the experiences of our customers and the developer community are key in building a cloud services platform that provides the flexibility and agility our customers need to tackle their business problems in new ways. As we continue this journey, today marks a significant milestone, not only for us at Microsoft, but also for our customers and partners. We are excited to announce the general availability of Windows Azure and SQL Azure in 21 countries.

Starting today, customers and partners in countries across the globe will be able to launch their Windows Azure and SQL Azure production applications and services with the support of the full Service Level Agreements (SLAs). The Windows Azure platform AppFabric Service Bus and Access Control will continue to be free until April 2010 for those that sign up for a commercial subscription. Additionally Microsoft codename "Dallas" will continue to be in a free CTP.

We continue to get great feedback from those who are developing and deploying applications and services on the Windows Azure platform. Since January 2010, thousands of customers have moved from CTP to production, and partners like Origin Digital, GXS, tradefaciliate, and 3M are actively building and deploying solutions to the Windows Azure platform. Starting today, they, along with all of our partners, will be able to begin selling their solutions to their customers, ultimately enabling them to reach new markets and increase their revenue.

Not only are our established partners and ISVs looking to the Windows Azure platform as a way to extend their revenue capabilities, but start-ups like Lokad are betting their business on the platform as a well. Lokad has deployed a scalable forecasting cloud-based service to its retail and manufacturing customers. This service provides real-time forecast data to allow for inventory optimization and ultimately bring Lokad's customer base retail profitability. Today, with the power of the Windows Azure platform, Lokad is able to compute and deliver forecast data in less than 60 minutes to its 300 plus and growing customer base, including multinational retailers. Over the course of the next few months we will continue to share stories of companies who are building and deploying new applications and services on the Windows Azure platform.

Customers who have yet to upgrade their CTP accounts to paid commercial subscriptions are encouraged to do so at the earliest in order to maintain access to their accounts. Customers who have not yet upgraded their Windows Azure CTP accounts will have their service disabled and any Windows Azure Storage will be made read-only. SQL Azure CTP customers who have not upgraded their accounts will be able to keep using their existing databases but will no longer be able to create new databases. On March 1, 2010, the SQL Azure CTP accounts that have not been upgraded will be deleted. On April 1, 2010, the Windows Azure Storage CTP accounts that have not been upgraded will be deleted. It is important to export your data if you do not plan to upgrade to a commercial subscription prior to these dates.

As a number of time zones apply to our customers and partners worldwide, Microsoft will begin charging for Windows Azure and SQL Azure starting at 12:00 AM February 2, 2010 GMT to ensure that customers and partners are not charged for their free usage in the month of January.

New customers can visit www.WindowsAzure.com to sign up to start building and deploying cloud applications today on the Windows Azure platform.

Latest Zend Framework Adds Support for Windows Azure

WindowsAzure — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 23:21:00 GMT

Zend and Microsoft have just made it easier for PHP developers to write web applications targeting Windows Azure with Zend's announcement today of the availability of Zend Framework 1.10. With this framework, developers can use the new Zend_Service_WindowsAzure component to easily call Windows Azure APIs from their PHP applications and leverage the storage services, including Blob Storage, Table Storage and Queue Service, offering them a way to accelerate web application development and scale up on demand.

Jean Paoli, general manager Interoperability at Microsoft, underscored the importance of the news this way, "PHP developers find the Windows Azure platform compelling, Microsoft's decision to contribute PHP-based Windows Azure components to Zend Framework helps demonstrate Microsoft's commitment to openness and interoperability by providing greater choice and opportunity for Microsoft customers and partners."

This news is also very well aligned with Windows Azure Interoperability approach www.windowsazure.com/interoperability as well as the overall interoperability effort Microsoft is conducting around PHP (see http://www.interoperabilitybridges.com/projects/tag/PHP.aspx and http://www.microsoft.com/web/php) This particular project started last year when we announced the Windows Azure SDK for PHP CTP release and upcoming support in Zend Framework.

Additional resources available for developers include the Windows Azure SDK for PHP, which is already prepackaged in Windows Azure tools for Eclipse, and the Simple Cloud API.

Try Windows Azure at No Charge

WindowsAzure — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 17:13:00 GMT

Now available are three easy, no charge* offers to enable you to start using Windows Azure to develop and test cloud applications before deploying them into production.

To get started, simply choose one of the following three offers:

Open to Everyone: Windows Azure Platform Introductory Special Offer.
For Microsoft Partners: Windows Azure Platform Introductory Special Offer for Microsoft Partner Network members.
For MSDN Subscribers: Windows Azure Platform MSDN Premium Offer for MSDN Premium Subscribers.

A valid credit or debit card number and billing address will be required to sign up for these offers for billing information purposes and to avoid service disruption if you subsequently choose to use Windows Azure on an ongoing basis. You will be notified via your Windows Live ID email address when you reach 75% of your charge capacity.

*Offer includes a base level of compute hours, storage, data transfers, a SQL Azure database, Access Control transactions and Service Bus connections. You will be charged at our standard rates if you elect to use more than the amount included per month with the offer. This introductory special will end on July 31, 2010 and all usage will then be charged at the standard rates.

Jordan Brand Social Mosaic Goes Live with Windows Azure Cloud Services

WindowsAzure — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 18:14:00 GMT

We love sharing stories about the interesting and creative ways that customers are using Windows Azure Platform. One great new story about a cool new implementation is the Mosaic 23/25 built by Wirestone for Jordan Brand, a division of Nike, Inc., to celebrate their 25-year anniversary during the NBA 2010 All-Star Weekend. Jordan Brand is leveraging Microsoft solutions to engage consumers to creatively market their new "Air Jordan 2010" collection and enable enthusiasts to personally connect with the Jordan Brand.

Also known as the ‘Social Mosaic', this Web application allows enthusiasts to upload photos of themselves with their Air Jordan shoes to become a part of a mosaic (containing thousands of images) that portrays a holistic master image. This enables each enthusiast to become part of something greater and more social by allowing them to pan and zoom deep into the mosaic to better see their picture (and others) and to experience their own contribution to the brand and community. The Web application leverages Silverlight Deep Zoom and Silverlight Multitouch screen functionality* to further enhance the interactive Jordan Brand experience.

The Web application was built on the Windows Azure platform to implement the mosaic because Windows Azure is able to easily calibrate the number of Web Role instances needed to support unpredictable traffic bursts, and it can also separately scale out back-end Worker Role instances to support a rapid regeneration of the mosaic based on new photo uploads from consumers. By employing up to 40 backend (and parallel) Worker Role instances, a new mosaic can be regenerated in approximately 10 minutes to include new photos that were uploaded since the last mosaic was constructed. Considering that a typical mosaic is more than 5 gigapixels and, if just a single instance were used it would take approximately 5 hours to generate, this speed underscores the benefit to scaling out processing in a linear fashion.

Some of the underlying capabilities of the Windows Azure platform used to support the Social Mosaic include:

Windows Azure Blob Storage - The natural place to store the uploaded photos and resultant deep zoom imagery.
Windows Azure Queue Storage - Used to provide an asynchronous mediation point between Azure Blob Storage and backend Worker Roles; also used to queue email notifications.
Windows Azure Table Storage - Used to quickly and efficiently store data around Worker Role scale out coordination, leveraging atomic change guarantee patterns.
SQL Azure - Used to relationally store other important schema governed data, thus providing a more rich functionality to manage select data.

Head to the Social Mosaic and see for yourself how these great technologies are working to help create a global groundswell of brand advocacy for Jordan Brand, and how it brings the Jordan Brand experience to life.

This is just one story; we'd love to hear about your experience with Windows Azure so please tell us by posting a comment. As always, we'd love to hear from you.

*If supported by the consumer's hardware.

Do You Have A Great Windows Azure Idea?

WindowsAzure — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:48:00 GMT

Do you have a suggestion or idea for a new feature for Windows Azure? We'd love to hear about it so we've created a forum for you to weigh on which new features we should consider adding to Windows Azure and to hear about what you need or want in the product moving forward. Go here: http://www.mygreatwindowsazureidea.com/ to post requests and vote on other people's ideas. We'll be monitoring the posts and incorporating this input into our plans for the product moving forward. It's that simple so start sharing your ideas today!

Real World Windows Azure: Interview with Anthony Du Preez, Founder of Tradeslot and Adslot

WindowsAzure — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 18:26:00 GMT

As part of the Real World Windows Azure series, we talked to Anthony Du Preez, Founder of Tradeslot and Adslot, about how the companies use the Windows Azure technology platform for their combinatorial auction platform and the benefits that Windows Azure provides. Here's what he had to say:

MSDN: What services do Tradeslot and Adslot provide?

Du Preez: At Tradeslot, we design large-scale business-to-business and government-to-business auction platforms. Unlike other auction platforms, we have built a combinatorial auction platform that allows bidders to place expressive bids. Adslot uses the same intellectual property as the auction platform and enables media publishers to sell ad inventory.

MSDN: What was the biggest challenge Tradeslot and Adslot faced prior to implementing Windows Azure?

Du Preez: Our auctions require computation-heavy algorithms, but we didn't have the computing power needed to run conditional-bid auctions-we had to manually add constraints to auctions for customers. Add to that the fact that the hardware costs associated with setting up an auction can be a significant barrier for customers. We needed a scalable solution that could handle our computer processing needs and that would not be exorbitantly expensive for customers.

MSDN: Describe the solution you built with Windows Azure to address your need for more computing power and scalability.

Du Preez: We developed three distinct sales solutions for classified ads, display ads, and video and television ads. We use worker roles to host and scale the compute-heavy combinatorial algorithms and Web roles to host the customer-facing Web site for Adslot. To manage our application data, we're using Windows Azure Tables, Blob Storage, and Queue service.

MSDN: What makes your solution unique?

Du Preez: We are one of the first business-to-business auction providers with the technology to run large-scale combinatorial auctions with near real-time feedback and target pricing for millions of bid permutations. Other providers offer single, sealed-bid combinatorial functionality, but they don't provide any feedback-resulting in inefficient allocation and potential loss of millions of dollars to the seller. We've always had big ideas for extending our platform to other industries; with our unique solution and Windows Azure, we can reach new industries, commodities, and geographies using existing infrastructure.

MSDN: What are the key benefits you have seen as a result of implementing Windows Azure?

Du Preez: With the powerful processing capability of Windows Azure, we can set up auctions without constraints, creating highly expressive combinatorial auctions. Not only can we better meet customers' needs, but we can do it cost effectively. Instead of procuring, licensing, and configuring new servers, our customers rely on data centers hosted by Microsoft, which helps reduce capital expenditures from U.S.$60,000 to $1,000-significantly lowering the barrier for new customers and making our services more enticing.

Read the full story at: http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?CaseStudyID=4000005884

Read more Windows Azure success stories here: www.windowsazure.com/evidence

Intuit and Microsoft Join Forces to Spur Innovation and Expand Cloud Opportunities for Developers and Channel Partners

WindowsAzure — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 16:46:00 GMT

Did you see the announcement made today by Intuit and Microsoft to integrate the capabilities of their cloud services platforms, the Intuit Partner Platform and Microsoft Windows^® Azure platform^TM, to enable developers and channel partners to deliver web-based solutions to the millions of employees within businesses that use QuickBooks^® financial software? This is significant in that it instantly gives Microsoft developers the ability to develop applications for Intuit's loyal customers and will open up to them a new landscape of sales prospects who are looking for small business solutions.

More specifically, the Intuit Partner Platform will give Windows Azure developers the ability to build applications that their customers can use to take advantage of their QuickBooksdata, and give them instant access to a pre-built channel for acquiring customers via the Intuit App Center. Small businesses will be able to click from the QuickBooks Pro and Premier 2010 toolbar to visit the Intuit App Center where they can find, buy and use Web-based business applications built on or integrated with the Intuit Partner Platform.

The companies, who have been strategic partners for more than 20 years, expect this to jump-start development and distribution of new, innovative web-based applications to help small businesses meet current business needs and provide new opportunities. The free Windows Azure software development kit (SDK) (Beta) for Intuit Partner Platform is available today at http://developer.intuit.com/azure.

Click here to read the full press release: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2010/jan10/1-20IntuitDevelopersPR.mspx

What do you think about this announcement? Please let us know by posting a comment. We look forward to hearing from you.

Windows Azure Platform TCO and ROI Calculator Now Available Online AND Offline

WindowsAzure — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 20:44:00 GMT

Want to know how much your organization could save with the Windows Azure Platform? Check out the Windows Azure Platform TCO and ROI Calculator: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/tco/, now available in both online and offline versions! Designed to help measure the potential savings of product development or migration to Windows Azure platform services for organizations of all sizes, the calculator will ask you for detailed information about the needs of your organization, its size and other information. Once you've entered in all your data, the Calculator will provide you with a customized report that will detail the estimated line item costs for a TCO and a 1 to 3 year ROI analysis for your organization.

Once you've registered, you'll have the option of downloading the off-line version right to your desktop. In addition to the "Reporting" and the "Collaborate" features in the on-line version, the offline version has "synchronize" option to keep the latest version of the tool, analysis models, templates etc. in sync with the online version.

While this Calculator is informational only, we hope that it provides you with a better sense of the savings you could experience by building on the Windows Azure Platform. Let us know what you think by posting a comment. We look forward to hearing from you.

Real World Windows Azure: Interview with Ezequiel Steiner, CEO at Acumatica

WindowsAzure — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:41:00 GMT

As part of the Real World Windows Azure series, we talked to CEO Ezequiel Steiner about the cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) application that Acumatica developed on the Windows Azure technology platform and the benefits it provides. Here's what he had to say:

MSDN: What services does Acumatica provide?

Steiner: Acumatica develops cloud-based accounting and ERP applications that have the power, usability, and speed of traditional client-server applications.

MSDN: What was the biggest challenge your company faced prior to implementing Windows Azure?

Steiner: Acumatica was developed for the cloud on the Microsoft .NET Framework. Our customers really wanted an option to manage their entire solution in the cloud in order to help them reduce capital expenditures associated with hardware and software, minimize expenses for computing usage and data storage, and also ease the complexity of their IT infrastructure.

MSDN: Describe the solution you built with Windows Azure to address customer needs for cloud-based accounting and ERP systems?

Steiner: We offer the same proven financial applications as before but now in a software-as-a-service (SaaS) deployment model. Regardless if customers are running their ERP system as a service on an external cloud or on-premises, each of our customers has unique requirements that can't be satisfied by an off-the-shelf solution. Thus, Acumatica, together with our partners, provides the ability to customize and configure the solutions to meet our customers' needs and to offer a best-of-breed cloud-based ERP solution as a service.

MSDN: What makes your solution unique?

Steiner: Implementing our solution on the Windows Azure platform was the best strategic decision for the company. Acumatica is now the first cloud-based ERP solution to offer customers the option to deploy on-premises or in the cloud and to switch between these deployment strategies as their business needs change.

MSDN: What are the key benefits Acumatica has seen as a result of implementing Windows Azure?

Steiner: Windows Azure helped us to focus our resources on what we do best-developing a top-notch ERP solution. We were able to quickly move our existing solution to the cloud and avoid a sizable investment. Also, our customers can rapidly deploy the solution because they don't have to worry about procuring and configuring hardware or installing client software-what used to take months is now instantaneous. Windows Azure is a big win for Acumatica and our customers.

Read the full story at: www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?CaseStudyID=4000005777

Operating System Versioning in Windows Azure

WindowsAzure — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 08:14:05 GMT

Customers can now choose when their applications receive new operating system updates and patches by selecting which version of the operating system their applications will run on in Windows Azure. Right now there is only one available operating system version (released on December 17th, 2009), but new builds with the latest updates and patches will be released regularly. This new feature allows developers to test their applications when new patches come out before upgrading their production deployments.

To select an operating system version for your application, add the new osVersion attribute to your service configuration file. The full list of available operating system versions is maintained in the Configuring Operating System Versions topic in the Windows Azure MSDN documentation.