This document provides an overview of Microsoft's Azure cloud computing platform, including its core services like Web and Worker Roles, Storage, and SQL Data Services. It discusses how Azure provides a scalable platform as a service (PaaS) for building and hosting applications in the cloud using Microsoft's programming languages and tools. It also provides examples of how to structure applications and store data using Azure's queue-based messaging and non-relational storage services.

1. Eric Nelson
Developer & Platform Group
Microsoft Ltd
eric.nelson@microsoft.com
http://geekswithblogs.net/IUpdateable
http://twitter.com/ericnel

2. Cloud
101
Microsoft and Cloud
Introduce Azure Services Platform
Windows Azure
Web Role
Worker Role
Storage in the Cloud
SQL Data Services
Windows Azure Storage
Table, Blob

4. Cloud Computing
Run/Store stuff in the cloud -
Somebody else has the data center/headaches 
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Example: Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud
(EC2)
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Example: Force.com,Google App Engine
Windows Azure is a PaaS

5. SQL Server Data Services (SSDS) – announced
at MIX 08 (March 2008)
“SQL Server in the cloud”
Azure Services Platform – announced at PDC
08 (October 2008)
Windows Azure “O.S. for the Cloud”
+ additional services
RESTful – enabling “any client” access

7. In 50
minutes

9. It is an operating system for the cloud
It is designed for utility computing
Many is better than one
Loose coupling
Simple stores scale
It provides facilities to:
Write your apps (developer experience)
Host your apps (compute)
Manage your apps (service management)
Store your data (storage)

10. { Simple Walkthough }
It is not that hard

11. A
B
D
C

13. Default.aspx
(Take Order + Process
LB
Order)

14. public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page
{
protected void Button1_Click(object sender,EventArgs e)
{
var order = txtOrder.Text;
ProcessOrder(order);
}
protected void ProcessOrder(string order)
{
//Make some coffee!
...
}
}

15. Default.aspx Worker.cs
LB
(Take Order) (Process Order)
Windows Azure Queues

16. public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page
{
protected void Button1_Click(object sender,EventArgs e)
{
var order = txtOrder.Text;
QueueStorage qStore = QueueStorage.Create(_account);
MessageQueue orderQ = qStore.GetQueue(quot;OrderQueuequot;);
orderQ.PutMessage(new Message(order));
}
}

17. public class WorkerRole : RoleEntryPoint
{
public override void Start()
{
QueueStorage qStore = QueueStorage.Create(_account);
MessageQueue orderQ = qStore.GetQueue(quot;OrderQueuequot;);
while (true)
{
Message msg = orderQ.GetMessage();
if( msg != null)
ProcessOrder(msg.ContentAsString());
}
}
protected void ProcessOrder(string order)
{
//Make some coffee!
...
}

18. {Revisit, Instances and
Workers}

22. Web Site
Web Site
Web Role
(ASPX, ASMX,
(ASPX, ASMX,
WCF)
(ASPX, WCF)
WCF)
2
SQL Data Services
L
B
Worker
Worker
Service
Role
Internet
Your Service
Queue
L
B
Blobs
1
Tables
Storage
Windows Azure Datacenter

23. Web Site
Web Site
Web Role
(ASPX, ASMX, WCF)
(ASPX, ASMX, WCF)
Queue SQL Data
Worker
Worker Service Services
Role Blobs Database ONE
Tables
Application ONE ONE Storage
Web Site
Web Site
Web Role
(ASPX, ASMX, WCF)
(ASPX, ASMX, WCF)
Queue
Worker
Worker Service
Role Blobs
Internet Application TWO Tables
TWO Storage
Web Site
Web Site
Web Role
(ASPX, ASMX, WCF)
(ASPX, ASMX, WCF) SQL Data
Worker
Worker Service
Services
Role Database THREE
Application THREE
Queue
Tables Blobs
FOUR Storage Windows Azure Datacenter

24. Azure Storage SQL Data Services
Vision
Access
Relational? (today)
Relational?
(tomorrow)
Analogy

25. Azure Storage SQL Data Services
Vision Massively scalable,
highly available
store in the Cloud
Access REST
(Uses ADO.NET
Data Services)
Relational? (today) No
Relational? No
(tomorrow)
Analogy

26. Azure Storage SQL Data Services
Vision Massively scalable, Highly scalable,
highly available highly available
store in the Cloud relational store in
the Cloud
Access REST SqlClient + TSQL
(Use Azure Web Role + ADO.NET
(Uses ADO.NET Data Services if REST is required)
Data Services)
Relational? (today) No Yes – but with some
limitations
Relational? No Yes – with less and
(tomorrow) less limitations
Analogy

27. Azure Storage SQL Data Services
Vision Massively scalable, Highly scalable,
highly available highly available
store in the Cloud relational store in
the Cloud
Access REST SqlClient + TSQL
(Use Azure Web Role + ADO.NET
(Uses ADO.NET Data Services if REST is required)
Data Services)
Relational? (today) No Yes – but with some
limitations
Relational? No Yes – with less and
(tomorrow) less limitations
Analogy File System RDBMS – as it is!

28. Web Site
Web Site
Web Role
(ASPX, ASMX,
(ASPX, ASMX,
WCF)
(ASPX, WCF)
WCF)
SQL Data Services
L
B Easy
Worker
Worker
Service
Role
Internet
Your Service
Queue
L
Trickier
B
Blobs
Tables
Storage
Windows Azure Datacenter

29. Cloud
On Premise
Application
C#, VB, Ruby, PHP etc
Relational
Data
TSQL

30. Storage that is
Durable, Scalable, Highly Available, Secure,
Performant
Rich Data Abstractions
Service communication: queues, locks, …
Large user data items: blobs, blocks, …
Service state: tables, caches, …
Simple and Familiar Programming
Interfaces
REST Accessible and ADO.NET

31. Container Blob
http://<account>.blob.core.windows.net/<container>
Account Table Entities
http://<account>.table.core.windows.net/<table>
Queue Messages
http://<account>.queue.core.windows.net/<queue>

32. Account Container Blob Block
IMG001.
JPG
pictures
IMG002.
JPG
Account
Block 1
movies MOV1.AVI Block 2
Block 3

33. Massively Scalable Tables
Billions of entities (rows) and TBs of data
Automatically scales to thousands of servers
as traffic grows
Highly Available
Can always access your data
Durable
Data is replicated at least 3 times

34. What tables don’t do What tables can do
 Not relational  Cheap
 No Referential Integrity  Very Scalable
 If theseNo Joins
are  Flexible
 importantData
Limitedto you,
use SQL
Queries  Durable
 ServicesGroup by
No  Store LOTS of stuff 
 No Aggregations
 No Transactions
 No Transactions

35. Data stored in Tables
A Table is a set of Entities (rows)
An Entity is a set of Properties (columns)
Entity has:
PartitionKey – enables scalability
RowKey – unique id within the partition
the only indexed property
Timestamp – for optimistic concurrency
255 properties total
Max size of 1MB

36. Partition Key Row Key Property 3 ….. Property N
Document Version Modification Description
Name Time
Examples Doc V1.0 8/2/2007 ….. Committed version
Partition
Examples Doc V2.0.1 9/28/2007 Alice’s working version 1
FAQ Doc V1.0 5/2/2007 Committed version
FAQ Doc V1.0.1 7/6/2007 Alice’s working version Partition
2
FAQ Doc V1.0.2 8/1/2007 Sally’s working version



37. Vessel Position Reporting System – SQL Server
VesselId Time Latitude Longitude Speed
xxx-xx1 10:15 14 Nov 01.23 53.24 0
xxx-xx1 10:05 14 Nov 04.45 54.32 5
xxx-xx1 09:55 14 Nov 02.32 52.34 4
xxx-xx2 10:15 14 Nov 01.23 51.23 10
To find last pos report for vessel in SQL:
select TOP(1) * from PosRpts
order by [Time] DESC
where VesselId = ???

38. Solving this the Azure way
PartitionKey
VesselId Time Latitude Longitude Speed
xxx-xx1 10:15 14 Nov 01.23 53.24 0
xxx-xx1 10:05 14 Nov 04.45 54.32 5
xxx-xx1 09:55 14 Nov 02.32 52.34 4
xxx-xx2 10:15 14 Nov 01.23 51.23 10
PartitionKey

39. Stored in-order:
RowKey needs to
Just need to do a
be a string
top on the
partition PartitionKey xxx-xx1
RowKey Latitude Longitude Speed
10:15 14 Nov
2521756430999999999 01.23 53.24 0
10:05 14 Nov
2521756436999999999 04.45 54.32 5
Makes it 14 Nov
09:55
2521756442999999999 02.32 52.34 4
descending
(DateTime.MaxValue – time).Ticks.ToString ()
time.Ticks.ToString ()

40. Developer CTP for Enable Full trust & Fast CGI
Services SDKs, and Geo-location support SDS Public CTP Windows Azure
Tools .NET Services Open CTP .NET Services
Live Framework Open CTP SQL Services
SDS Invitation-only CTP

41. Many is better than one
Let Microsoft worry about this
Loose coupling
Web Role and Worker Role
Storage choice
Azure Storage: Simple stores scale
Table, Blob, Queue
SQL Data Services: Full RDBMS
Stored Procedures, Schema, Transactions,
Views etc

42. • Play with Windows Azure – http://www.azure.com
Learn • Understand REST – good and bad practices
• Watch the MIX 09 recordings http://live.visitmix.com
• Slides at http://geekswithblogs.net/IUpdateable
Need • Students can get Visual Studio through Microsoft DreamSpark
• Startups get tools and more via BizSpark
• Developers can also use the free Visual Studio Express
tools? • Or just use none Microsoft tools and languages e.g. PHP
http://phpazure.codeplex.com/
• http://www.newcloudapp.com/
Win

43. © 2008 Microsoft Ltd. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, Windows Vista and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries.
The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market
conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after the date of this presentation.
MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.