Windows Azure Migration Scanner (WAMS) FAQ

As I discussed in a previous blog post we have published the Windows Azure Migration Scanner (WAMS) on CodePlex at https://wams.codeplex.com. This is a joint effort between Microsoft’s internal Windows Azure enthusiasts and the Windows Azure MVP community.

WAMS allows you to scan a collection of directory trees for potential problems in the source code that will impact migration. It also generates a CSV file for easy analysis and slicing and dicing through potential migration issues.

The WAMS tool currently supports C# source code scanning; in the future the WAMS engine can be used for Java and PHP scanning once we have Java and PHP signatures ready.  (If you want to contribute to that effort just let us know.)

Here are few FAQs on the tool:

· What problem does this solve?

o There is no tool that can do source code scanning for potential Windows Azure migration issues

o Windows Azure compatibility issues are scattered all over – blogs, articles, documentation, etc.

o There is no tool to help with the migration assessment (can it be migrated? How much effort? Which modules are impacted?) of the existing systems.

· Who is the target audience?

o Project Managers

o Architects

o Developers

· Why should you use it?

o It helps you to assess migration feasibility

o It allows  you to better estimate the  of time and effort necessary to migrate

· Future plans?

o Scanning of binaries and IL

o VB.NET support

o Multi-threaded scanning

o Java migration scanner

o PHP migration scanner

o Man-hour metrics

If you want to contribute to this project please let us know.