New Features Supporting Blobs Now Available in Windows Azure
Windows Azure team has announced new features for blobs. Windows Azure now enables applications to store and manipulate large objects and files in the cloud. The blobs (files) can be up to 50GB in size for the CTP. The release was made on the Windows Azure blog, New Windows Azure Blob Features – August 2009.
The new features:
- Let you add blocks, remove blocks, replace blocks, shuffle the order or existing blocks, or any combination.
- All storage accounts can now have a single root blob container. This allows you to store and access blobs using a sample URL as follows: https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/picture.jpg
- It is now possible to create signatures, with an expiration date, that can be given out to provide access to Azure Blobs without having to give out your private key or make the blob container public.
You currently access the new blob features using a REST API.
For more information about the details about these new feature, see the MSDN documentation at Blob Service API.
In addition, Steve Marx will have some examples on using the above new functionality on his blog soon at https://blog.smarx.com/
To get started using Windows Azure, register for the community preview at Windows Azure Platform Try it. There are links to get a registration key, developer training kit, resources, and videos.
Windows Azure is a cloud services operating system that serves as the development, service hosting, and service management environment for the Windows Azure Platform. Windows Azure provides developers with on-demand compute and storage to host, scale, and manage Web applications on the Internet through Microsoft data centers.
Bruce D. KyleISV Architect Evangelist | Microsoft Corporation