Practical Development
Creating a Key Encrypting Key (KEK)
Previously I have taken the steps to add secrets and keys to the Key Vault as well as create my self...
Author: Chris Clayton (AzureCAT) Date: 01/03/2017
Using Key Vault Secrets in PowerShell
Interacting with Key Vault through the standard cmdlets is very simple and straight forward, but...
Author: Chris Clayton (AzureCAT) Date: 01/02/2017
Self Signed Certificate Creation
The number of times in the past that I have had to create self signed certificates is far too many...
Author: Chris Clayton (AzureCAT) Date: 12/30/2016
Ronin – Key Vault
The first thing I am going to do is setup a standard way to work with and store the solutions...
Author: Chris Clayton (AzureCAT) Date: 12/10/2016
Ronin Building Blocks - Network Template
I am a strong believer in building security into the solution from the ground up in general but when...
Author: Chris Clayton (AzureCAT) Date: 11/28/2016
Ronin Building Blocks – Configuration
Database, XML, CSV, JSON, INI and event to my horror hard coding are all techniques that I have seen...
Author: Chris Clayton (AzureCAT) Date: 11/25/2016
Ronin Building Blocks – Logging
Working with large scale distributed systems can be a challenge for the operations team whether it...
Author: Chris Clayton (AzureCAT) Date: 11/21/2016
Ronin Building Blocks - Dependency Injection
As much as I enjoy coding I must constantly decide whether there is more value in writing a custom...
Author: Chris Clayton (AzureCAT) Date: 11/18/2016
Ronin Building Blocks - Resource Pools
In Azure, just as most other shared resource situations, there are policies put in place to govern...
Author: Chris Clayton (AzureCAT) Date: 11/07/2016
Ronin Building Blocks - Precision Time
Have you ever been working on debugging or diagnosing an issue and you need to get the time it takes...
Author: Chris Clayton (AzureCAT) Date: 11/03/2016
Ronin Building Blocks - Circuit Breaker
I finished my retries building block, that should be good for basic handling of transient error...
Author: Chris Clayton (AzureCAT) Date: 11/03/2016
Ronin Building Blocks – Retries
In most systems, it is important to use retries in the case of failure. Obviously not all errors...
Author: Chris Clayton (AzureCAT) Date: 11/01/2016
Ronin Building Blocks - Secure String Helpers
The next building block that I will put together is for secure strings. There are almost always...
Author: Chris Clayton (AzureCAT) Date: 11/01/2016
Ronin Building Blocks – Parameter Validation
It is time to get started on the first building block. There are so many options to choose from when...
Author: Chris Clayton (AzureCAT) Date: 10/27/2016
Starting with Building Blocks to Save on Duct Tape
It would be easy to follow my urge to jump right in and begin coding the fun and interesting pieces...
Author: Chris Clayton (AzureCAT) Date: 10/27/2016
Building an IoT Solution
Over the past two decades I have worked with a wide range of teams in a variety of industries...
Author: Chris Clayton (AzureCAT) Date: 10/26/2016
Server Garbage Collection Mode in Microsoft Azure
Microsoft Azure is a fantastic platform for building highly scalable software solutions. As with any...
Author: Chris Clayton1 Date: 06/05/2014
Understanding Application Domains
When talking to long time .NET developers about application domains (AppDomains) they often...
Author: Chris Clayton1 Date: 05/21/2013
Windows Azure Start-up Tasks Part 2
In the previous post “Windows Azure Startup Tasks Part 1” we learned about the basics of...
Author: Chris Clayton1 Date: 05/17/2012
Windows Azure Start-up Tasks Part 1
I find myself several times a week having conversations with people around the ability to install...
Author: Chris Clayton1 Date: 05/17/2012
Windows Azure™ and X509 Certificates
Quite often I meet with new Windows Azure™ developers around how to setup X509 certificates...
Author: Chris Clayton1 Date: 03/21/2012
Azure Storage and its Various Abstractions
As you can probably agree, very few applications, short of “Hello World”, do not have...
Author: Chris Clayton1 Date: 03/19/2012
Roles and Instances
Overview In order to ensure the benefits of this post are maximized I will level set by defining...
Author: Chris Clayton1 Date: 11/07/2011
Key Concepts Associated with Windows Azure Development
As a developer first looking at diving into Windows Azure Development it is important that you are...
Author: Chris Clayton1 Date: 09/26/2011
Common Workloads for Azure
When we start looking at Windows Azure there are several key workloads that come to mind, the ones...
Author: Chris Clayton1 Date: 07/15/2011
Standard Cloud Taxonomies and Windows Azure
Prior to evaluating a cloud solution it is important to understand the various taxonomies available...
Author: Chris Clayton1 Date: 06/07/2011
Ramping on the Windows Azure Platform
It has been several months since I started my ramp on the Windows Azure Platform and am now ready to...
Author: Chris Clayton1 Date: 05/16/2011
Success with WinDBG Extensions
A couple questions have come to me recently around the use of WinDBG extensions. 1) Why do I receive...
Author: Chris Clayton1 Date: 09/04/2010
Why Set debug=”false” When retail=”true” is Already Set in .NET Framework 2
Over time many developers have been caught by someone leaving the debug=”true” set in...
Author: Chris Clayton1 Date: 08/05/2010
Building a Dual Boot Machine with VHD's
For years I have struggled with the typical developer decisions when building their workstation. Do...
Author: Chris Clayton1 Date: 07/16/2010
Basic Analysis of a Managed Memory Dump (.NET)
When looking for the root cause of a crash collecting the memory dump is only the first step. This...
Author: Chris Clayton1 Date: 06/21/2010
How to Setup WinDBG
In order to successfully and effectively analyze a dump file it is very important to ensure your...
Author: Chris Clayton1 Date: 02/24/2010
How to Collect a Memory Dump Using ADPLUS and DebugDiag
A user mode memory dump is a file typically with a DMP extension that contains a portion of virtual...
Author: Chris Clayton1 Date: 02/10/2010
Post Mortem Debugging Overview
Throughout my career in software development I have come across issues that are tough to capture or...
Author: Chris Clayton1 Date: 02/09/2010
Blog and Comment Policy
My Blog PolicyThe opinions and comments in this blog reflect my own personal perspectives. This blog...
Author: Chris Clayton1 Date: 02/09/2010