INTRODUCTION

Windows azure is a platform with a group of cloud technologies, each providing a specific set of services
to the users realize the benefits of cloud computing, where the cloud is a set of interconnected
computing resources located in one or more data centers.

THE WINDOWS AZURE PLATFORM

Windows Azure platform includes three main components Windows Azure, the Windows Azure platform
AppFabric, and SQL Azure. Each of those components provides following capabilities:

Windows Azure
A Microsoft Windows Server-based computing environment for applications
Persistent storage for both structured and unstructured data, as well as asynchronous messaging

The Windows Azure platform AppFabric

Service Bus, which helps to connect applications that are on-premises or in the public cloud, regardless
of the network topology
Access Control Service, which manages authorization and authentication for Representational State
Transfer (REST)–based Web services with security tokens

SQL Azure
SQL Server provided as a service in the cloud.

AZURE HARDWARE

The Azure data center is a host for several technical infrastructure components maintained in large
numbers. These components include fiber optic cables, high speed switches, routers, hardware
balances, UPS’s, servers, commodity hardware systems etc.

THE BEST TOOLS FOR WORKING WITH THE WINDOWS AZURE PLATFORM

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010

Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio 2008 R2

INSTALLATION
 Install a supported release of Visual Studio. Recommended:  Microsoft Visual Web
Developer 2010 Express or Microsoft Visual Studio  2010.

 Configure IIS 7.0 for ASP.NET, WCF HTTP Activation, and (optionally) CGI. For more
information on configuring II 7.0, see Preparing the Local Development Environment.

 Download and install Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio