Preface

The Windows Azure Platform is Microsoft's Platform-as-a-Service environment for hosting services and data in the cloud. It provides developers with on-demand compute, storage, and service connectivity capabilities that facilitate the hosting of highly-scalable services in Windows Azure datacenters across the globe.

This practical cookbook will show you advanced development techniques for building highly-scalable, cloud-based services using the Windows Azure Platform. It contains several practical, task-based, and immediately usable recipes covering a wide range of advanced development techniques for building highly scalable services to solve particular problems/scenarios when developing these services on the Windows Azure Platform. The solutions are presented in a clear systematic manner and explained in great detail, which makes them good learning material for everyone who has experience of the Windows Azure Platform and wants to improve.

Packed with reusable, real-world recipes, the book starts by explaining the various access control mechanisms used in the Windows Azure platform. Next, you will see the advanced features of Windows Azure Blob storage, Windows Azure Table storage, and Windows Azure Queues. The book then dives deep into topics such as developing Windows Azure hosted services, using Windows Azure Diagnostics, managing hosted services with the Service Management API, using SQL Azure and the Windows Azure AppFabric Service Bus. You will see how to use several of the latest features such as VM roles, Windows Azure Connect, startup tasks, and the Windows Azure AppFabric Caching Service.

The Windows Azure Platform is changing rapidly with new features being released or previewed every few months. However, the core of the platform remains stable. This cookbook focuses on that core but, where appropriate, points out the direction the platform is moving in. Using this book, you can build advanced scalable cloud-based services with the Windows Azure Platform.