Windows Azure Action – Community Newsletter – 17th April 2013

Article
04/17/2013

WINDOWS AZURE IN ACTION – LOCAL

NEWS

TECHNOLOGY

COMMUNITY

Breeze

Cloud Lab Manager for Windows Azure - launched! - build & access your Virtual Machines as used by Saxons

Find.ly

The New Zealand Windows Azure Application Showcase: Find.ly

Mick Badran

Azure: Getting started with Azure Backup Services

<< Excellent walkthrough from on premises to off and back again

LifeHacker

Windows Azure Global Bootcamp Reaches Sydney, Melbourne, Perth

WINDOWS AZURE IN ACTION – IN GENERAL

	NEWS
Windows Azure Platform	The Power of ‘And’ - Infrastructure Services GA and New Price Commitment (pricing details and sizing) - reducing our GA prices on Virtual Machines and Cloud Services by 21-33%. - new high memory VM instances (28GB/4 core and 56 GB/8 core) - a number of new Microsoft validated instances to our list including SQL Server, SharePoint, BizTalk Server, and Dynamics NAV to name a few.
In the news	Press Iaas Launch Microsoft Azure enters price war with Amazon Web Services Azure takes its IaaS service into general availability, makes new promise to match Amazon’s AWS pricing Azure Goes Dollar-to-Dollar with AWS Microsoft overhauls Azure 'cloud' services Microsoft goes head-to-head with Amazon Web Services on price, cloud VMs Windows Azure Announces General Availability And Promises To Match Any AWS Price Drop Microsoft Makes Infrastructure Cloud Generally Available, Matches AWS Prices << Martin claims that it is “one of the most thoroughly tested products we’ve ever had.” Other Microsoft launches Windows Azure Active Directory Microsoft Adds Cloud Chargeback To Windows Server with Cloud Cruiser << Gives Windows Server 2012 and the System Center management system its own billing and chargeback mechanism for use with Microsoft's [Windows] Azure cloud services. Microsoft's MMS Demo Spree Includes System Center, Windows Azure Services New services bolster Microsoft Azure as key enterprise cloud management system Cloud The Cloud Hits the Mainstream: More than Half of U.S. Businesses Now Use Cloud Computing “Household name” cloud computing companies are preparing to dunk their servers in vats of oil Your Insatiable Thirst For Wireless Data Is What's Killing The Planet << A new study from Australia's Centre for Energy-Efficient Telecommunications Using Cloud Computing To Increase Employee Productivity And Contentment << increase happiness and reduce anxiety? How cloud computing is impacting everyday life Your cloud computing SLA can't be a marketing gimmick << Cloud SLAs are not just pieces of paper Cloud computing can cut business cost by half<< : $9.5b of Microsoft’s R&D budget is devoted to development of cloud technologies Microsoft Windows Azure: General Availability of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Windows Azure Infrastructure Services Available Today, Including Support for Linux Virtual Machines I’m pleased to announce that Windows Azure fully supports Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). How Windows Azure helps us weather mad Brits know even more about the weather! Partner Aditi - Lift, Shift and Run your IT on Windows Azure dotnet Solutions: Azure IaaS GA Today << excellent InfoGraphic Partners On Microsoft Azure: Success Hinges On Channel Engagement, Technology Keeping Pace
Case Study	Video: Windows Azure Teams Up With NBC Sports Group Video: MG-ALFA Compute for Windows Azure

	TECHNOLOGY
	Azure as part of a development process
	Self-service cloud: Windows Azure Services for Windows Server (WASWS)
	Windows Azure Primer–Basics << Key principles Video: Using Windows Azure as a backend for your app Pluralsight New Course: Fundamentals of Azure Cloud Services and Storage
	Windows Azure Startup task to run npm install to avoid deploying node modules Using the Windows Azure SDK for Node.js to create a Table Service Explorer Virtual Machine Images -VM Depot–find, deploy and share images for Windows Azure MS Open Tech releases open source Jenkins plugin for using Windows Azure Blob service as a repository
	Gartner: Long hard climb to high level of cloud computing security Top 10 Lesser-Known Facts About Windows Azure Security
Features
	Why Windows Azure AD is important and how Auth0 works with it << hint: Support for ANY kind of app Adding a Custom Domain to your Windows Azure AD Six Steps to Get Started with Windows Azure Active Directory TWC9: Azure Active Directory, Unity, Philips Hue and a little GunPowder
	Download the latest Data Explorer update: Unpivot feature and search experience improvements Microsoft brings 3-D maps to Excel users Developing Big Data Solutions on Windows Azure
	Window Azure Fault Domain and Upgrade Domain Explained for IT Pros
	Fetching Windows Azure Mobile Services Data in XAML based Windows Store Application Building Back-end Data and Services for Windows 8 Apps: Adding Authentication Microsoft DevRadio: (Part 5) Using Windows Azure to Build Back-End Services for Windows 8 Apps – Adding Push Notifications
	Windows Azure Backup To Expand To Additional Data Centre Locations Azure: Getting started with Azure Backup Services
	Tips to Migrate Your Windows Azure Web Host ASP.NET MVC Apps on Azure WebSite Without Spending a Cent on Databases << low traffic hobbyists rejoice Deploying an ASP.NET Website to Azure in Visual Studio 2012 from a Git Repository directly
	Video: From End to Edge and Beyond - Episode 27 How to Solve Windows Azure Multiple Time Zone Issues
	Azure Site to Site VPN Fails to Transmit Data–Tales of NAT Traversal
Core Services
	Task Based APIs for Service Bus (Part 4) Testing the limits of Windows Azure Service Bus << observations on price and speed The Service Bus Security Model Using async/await with Windows Azure Service Bus Client SDK
	Moving Blob Storage Between Azure Subscriptions
Other
	Systems Center: Microsoft System Center Management Pack for Windows Azure Fabric – Preview Walkthrough to Configure System Center Management Pack for Windows Azure Fabric Preview for SCOM 2012 SP1 << cool – Self discovery of Azure Subscriptions etc. PowerShell: Building a VM in Windows Azure using PowerShell in a few quick steps << nice straightforward walkthrough Windows Azure PowerShell Updates for IaaS GA
	Deploy Windows Azure VMs with RightScale for Rapid Testing and Validation Update: Service Bus Explorer Windows Azure Cross Platform Command Line – Xplat Cerebrata - Azure Explorer - a free Windows Azure storage tool Fun: Game Starterkit for Windows 8 with leaderboard in Windows Azure Windows 8 App for Channel 9 now available

	COMMUNITY
Events	A Windows Azure Community Event on the net at 9:00 AM through 5:00 PM PST 23rd April 2013 Global Windows Azure Bootcamp – April 27th

LOCAL GENERAL
User Groups	Sydney (Conor Brady/ Ershad Nozari) Melbourne (Mahesh Krishnan and Chris Padgett) Brisbane (Dean Robertson/Paul Bouwer) Auckland (Ryan Crawcour) Perth Cloud User Group (Rivaaj Jumna, Hadwin Fung) Regional NZ: Follow @technetnz@msdnnz Singapore: Singapore Azure User Group (official website)
MVPs	Check in on what MVPs around Australia & New Zealand are up to - David, Steve, Mahesh and Mick are MVPs for Australia
Social	Twitter: Adding yourself to the Azure Australia Twitter list Facebook: Becoming a Facebook fan Links: Windows Azure developer jump site for Australia

Windows Azure Action – Community Newsletter – 17th April 2013

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