Enjoy the Cloud with Microsoft Azure
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If you have been following the Microsoft Azure cloud platform for a long time, you may have noticed the incredible increase in features and new services during the last year. Below are some of the most recent announcements:
- Azure DocumentDB (preview): a fully managed NoSQL document-as-a-service database that provides the benefits of a NoSQL document database with the query processing power and transactional capabilities of a relational database system. It supports JSON documents, offers high-scale and reliable performance, and comes with programming libraries for several popular languages and platforms, including .NET, Node.js, JavaScript, and Python. More information available here.
- Azure Search (preview): a fully managed search-as-a-service that enables developers to incorporate great search experiences into their mobile and cloud applications without having to deal with the typical complexities that come with managing, tuning, and scaling a real-world search service. A free tier of the service that enables you to use it with small-scale solutions on Azure is also available at no cost. More information available here.
- Basic, Standard, and Premium tiers for Azure SQL Database available: In April we announced the preview of these new tiers, which have been designed to provide dedicated resources and deliver predictable performance. These new tiers also provide automatic backup with point-in-time recovery, an out-of-the-box auditing feature, and a new SLA of 99.99 %. Last but not least, we also announced that SQL Database will move to hourly billing. All this is now available and supported by an SLA! More information can be found here.
If you haven’t had the opportunity to try out the Microsoft Azure cloud platform yet, there are plenty of opportunities to do so:
- If you are a BizSpark member, you can activate up to 4 subscriptions with each a monthly credit of CHF 140. This credit can also be used for productive solutions (not just for development and testing purposes).
- If you have an MSDN subscription, you can get up to CHF 140/month for free (depending on your subscription). Get your free benefits here.
- Anybody can open a new subscription and get CHF 200 credit for the first month. Get yours here.
Although it has been a rainy summer, enjoy the cloud!
Author: Ken Casada, Technical Evangelist at Microsoft Switzerland