Lap Around Windows Azure and the Azure Services Platform

Thanks to everybody who came out to my "Lap Around Windows Azure" talks!

Demos:

Before you can run the demos - download and install the Azure SDK & Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio:

And, as for the uber-kewl-kloud demos - here's where you can find them:

Thumbnail Demo (Web Role and Worker Role):
- After you install the SDk, the SDK samples can be found in C:\Program Files\Windows Azure SDK\v1.0\Samples.zip file.
- Look for the Thumbnail sample in the .zip file - note that it has a dependency on the Storage Client project.
- Note how the properties of the image reveal that the source is now from the local BLOB storage - this demonstrates that the Worker role completed processing the queued request from the Web Role process.

SQL Data Services - Management Console:
- This is an outstanding utility for viewing data that you have pushed into SQL Server Data Services. Download it form here: https://code.msdn.microsoft.com/AzureManagementTools
- The beauty of this little application is that it allows you to go "spelunking" thru your data in the cloud - by following the ACE structure - Authority / Container / Entity:

SQL Data Services - "Northwind" Test Upload Harness

- Download the demo sample code from here: https://oakleafblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/sql-data-services-sds-test-harness.html
- Remember that your SDS project name is the User ID!
- After you upload your Northwind data to the cloud - you can test the performance difference between the SOAP and REST invocation methods.
- Note that using the REST interface yields significant performance gains
  - Definitely something to look at if your application does not require advanced security or strict adherence to the SOAP API.

Additional resources