Windows Azure 1

Windows Azure
Windows Azure
Windows Azure

Developer(s) Microsoft

Initial release February1, 2010

Operating system Microsoft Windows

Linux

License Closed source for platform, Open source for client SDKs

Website [1]
windowsazure.com

Windows Azure is a cloud computing platform and infrastructure, created by Microsoft, for building, deploying and
managing applications and services through a global network of Microsoft-managed datacenters. It provides both
platform as a service (PaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) services and supports many different programming
languages, tools and frameworks, including both Microsoft-specific and third-party software and systems. Windows
Azure was released on February 1, 2010.

Features
Windows Azure is Microsoft's cloud application platform. Windows Azure can be used to build a web application
that runs and stores its data in Microsoft datacenters. It can connect on-premises applications with each other or map
between different sets of identity information.
In June 2012, Windows Azure released the following new features:
Websites allows developers to build sites using ASP.NET, PHP, or Node.js and can be deployed using FTP, Git,
Mercurial or Team Foundation Server.
Virtual machines let developers migrate applications and infrastructure without changing existing code, and can
run both Windows Server and Linux virtual machines.
Cloud services - Microsoft's Platform as a Service (PaaS) environment that is used to create scalable applications
and services. Supports multi-tier scenarios and automated deployments.
Data management - SQL Database, formerly known as SQL Azure Database, works to create, scale and extend
applications into the cloud using Microsoft SQL Server technology. Integrates with Active Directory and
Microsoft System Center and Hadoop.
Media services - A PaaS offering that can be used for encoding, content protection, streaming, and/or analytics.
The Windows Azure Platform provides an API built on REST, HTTP, and XML that allows a developer to interact
with the services provided by Windows Azure. Microsoft also provides a client-side managed class library which
encapsulates the functions of interacting with the services. It also integrates with Microsoft Visual Studio, Git, and
Eclipse.
Microsoft released a set of infographics. One poster summarizes [2] Windows Azure and the features in it. A
downloadable PDF version also exists.
Windows Azure 2

Services
Web sites - High density hosting of web sites. This feature was announced in preview form in June 2012 at the
Meet Windows Azure event. Customers can create web sites in PHP, .NET, and Node.js, or select from several
open source applications from a gallery to deploy. This comprises one aspect of the Platform as a Service (PaaS)
offerings for the Windows Azure Platform.
Virtual machines - Announced in preview form at the Meet Windows Azure event in June 2012 the Windows
Azure Virtual Machines comprise the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offering from Microsoft for their public
cloud. Customers can create Virtual Machines, of which they have complete control, to run the Microsoft Data
Centers. As of the preview the Virtual Machines supported Windows Server 2008 and 2012 operating systems
and a few distributions of Linux. Since May 2013, the Virtual Machine offering left the preview state and went
into General Availability state (GA).
Cloud services - Previously named "Hosted Services", the Cloud Services for Windows Azure comprise one
aspect of the PaaS offerings from the Windows Azure Platform. The Cloud Services are containers of hosted
applications. These applications can be internet-facing public web applications (such as web sites and
e-commerce solutions), or they can be private processing engines for other work, such as processing orders or
analyzing data.
Developers can write code for Cloud Services in a variety of different programming languages; however, there
are specific software development kits (SDKs) started by Microsoft for Python, Java, node.JS and .NET. Other
languages may have support through Open Source projects. Microsoft published the source code for their
client libraries on GitHub.
Data management
SQL Database
Tables
BLOB Storage
Business Analytics
SQL Reporting
Data Marketplace
Hadoop
Identity
Active Directory
Access Control Service
Messaging
Windows Azure Service Bus
Queues
Media Services
Mobile Services

Implementation
Windows Azure uses a specialized operating system, called Windows Azure, to run its "fabric layer" a cluster
hosted at Microsoft's datacenters that manages computing and storage resources of the computers and provisions the
resources (or a subset of them) to applications running on top of Windows Azure. Windows Azure has been
described as a "cloud layer" on top of a number of Windows Server systems, which use Windows Server 2008 and a
customized version of Hyper-V, known as the Windows Azure Hypervisor to provide virtualization of services.
Scaling and reliability are controlled by the Windows Azure Fabric Controller so the services and environment do
not crash if one of the servers crashes within the Microsoft datacenter and provides the management of the user's
Windows Azure 3

web application like memory resources and load balancing.

History
October 2008 (PDC LA)
Announced the Windows Azure Platform
First CTP of Windows Azure
March 2009
Announced SQL Azure Relational Database
November 2009
Updated Windows Azure CTP
Enabled full trust, PHP, Java, CDN CTP and more
Announced VM Role, Project Sidney, Pricing and SLAs
Project Dallas CTP
February 2010
Windows Azure Platform commercially available
June 2010
Windows Azure Update
.NET Framework 4
OS Versioning
CDN
SQL Azure Update (Service Update 3)
50GB databases
Spatial data support
DAC support
October 2010 (PDC)
Platform Enhancements
Windows Azure Virtual Machine Role
Role enhancements
Admin mode, Startup tasks
Full-IIS support
Extra Small Instances
Windows Azure Connect
Access to on-premise resource for cross-premise apps
Support for Domain-joining VMs
Direct role-instance connectivity for easier development
Use your existing remote administration tools
Improved Dev / IT Pro Experience
New Windows Azure Platform Management Portal
Multiple users & roles for management
Remote Desktop
Enhanced Dev Tools
PHP Development
Marketplace
Windows Azure 4

December 2011
Traffic manager
SQL Azure reporting
HPC scheduler
June 2012
Web sites
Virtual Machines for Windows and Linux (backed by persistent storage)
Python SDK
New portal
Locally redundant storage

Datacenters
Some datacenters have servers grouped inside containers - each containing 1800-2500 servers.
The locations of the data centers are:
North America
North-central US - Chicago, IL
South-central US - San Antonio, TX
West US - California
East US - Virginia
Asia
East Asia - Hong Kong, China
South East Asia - Singapore
Europe
North Europe - Dublin, Ireland
West Europe - Amsterdam, Netherlands
Oceania (announced, coming soon)
Sydney, New South Wales (announced, coming soon)
Melbourne, Victoria (announced, coming soon)
The CDN nodes are located in 24 countries.

Deployment in Ireland
As of July 2010, Microsoft had completed 6,000 installations of Azure in Ireland.[3] Executives at Microsoft hoped
that this figure would rise to 100,000 installations by 2011.
Construction of the $500 million facility required 1 million man-hours of work with a peak workforce of around
2,100 workers. The facility, which began operating on July 1, 2009, currently covers 303,000 square feet (2.815
hectares), with 5.4 megawatts of critical power available. Over time, the data center can expand to a total of 22.2
mega watts of critical power to support future growth.

Privacy
Microsoft has stated that, per the USA Patriot Act, the US government can have access to the data even if the hosted
company is not American and the data resides outside the USA. However, Windows Azure is compliant with the
E.U. Data Protection Directive (95/46/EC). To manage Privacy and Security related concerns, Microsoft has created
a Windows Azure Trust Center, and Windows Azure has several of its services compliant with several compliance
programs including ISO 27001:2005 and HIPAA. A full and current listing can be found on the Windows Azure
Windows Azure 5

Trust Center Compliance page.

See Also
Amazon Web Services
Engine YardEngine Yard
Enlight cloudEnlight cloud* Force.com
GoGrid
Google App Engine
Google Compute Engine
Heroku
HP Converged Cloud
IBM SmartCloud Services
Jelastic
Nodejitsu
OpenShift
OpenStack
Rackspace
Softlayer
Skytap
VMware

Significant outages
Windows Azure outages and service disruptions have occurred from time to time. Some have been system-wide with
potentially significant harm.

Date Cause Notes

2012-02-29 Incorrect code for calculating leap day dates

2012-07-26 Misconfigured network device

2013-02-22 Expiry of an SSL certificate[4] Xbox Live, Xbox Music and Video also affected

2013-10-30 worldwide partial compute outage

References
[1] http:/ / www. windowsazure. com
[2] http:/ / www. windowsazure. com/ en-us/ documentation/ infographics/ windows-azure/
[3] Sunday Business Post (http:/ / archives. tcm. ie/ businesspost/ 2010/ 07/ 04/ story50200. asp)
[4] Microsofts Azure storage service goes down, locking out corporate customers from their data (http:/ / www. washingtonpost. com/ business/
technology/ microsofts-azure-storage-service-goes-down-locking-out-corporate-customers-from-their-data/ 2013/ 02/ 22/
4cda2a6e-7d48-11e2-9073-e9dda4ac6a66_story. html)

External links
Microsoft
Windows Azure Service Dashboard with Current (Un)availability Status (http://www.windowsazure.com/
en-us/support/service-dashboard/)
Windows Azure (http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/)
MSDN UK Windows Azure Platform (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/ee514245.aspx)
Windows Azure 6

Windows Azure Websites (http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/solutions/web/)

The Official Home Page of the Windows Azure platform (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/)
Introducing Windows Azure, David Chappell, Chappell & Associates (http://download.microsoft.com/
download/e/4/3/e43bb484-3b52-4fa8-a9f9-ec60a32954bc/Azure_Services_Platform.pdf)
"Tribune Transforms Business with Windows Azure" (http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/
Case_Study_Detail.aspx?casestudyid=4000007519)
Microsoft Cloud Computing for Government (http://www.microsoft.com/industry/government/guides/
cloud_computing/default.aspx)
MSDN Blogs
Cloud Computing Tools Blog (http://blogs.msdn.com/cloud/)
Conceptual View of Windows Azure in Spanish. Made by Microsoft Developer Evangelist (http://blogs.msdn.
com/warnov/archive/2009/11/19/stairway-to-azure-3.aspx)
Others
Windows Azure Status (Beta) (http://azurestatus.cloudapp.net/)
AzureSupport.com - Azure Tutorials and News (http://azuresupport.com/)
JAzure, a Java API for Azure Storage (http://jazure.org)
Microsoft Virtual Academy | Cloud-based learning experience focusing on Microsoft Cloud technologies (http://
www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com)
Article Sources and Contributors 7

Article Sources and Contributors

Windows Azure Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=585421727 Contributors: Abatishchev, Abhishikt, Aelkris, Alansohn, Alexander Belotserkovskiy, Arichnad,
Arunvarughese, Asolanki77, Aude, AurumPotabile, Azylber, Back ache, BankingBum, Bdiscoe, Beiramar, BenAriAtMicrosoft, Ber4444, Blowdart, Bobrayner, Brianski, Bunnyhop11, Bwilkins,
Cennin, Cgillhoolley, ChambersDon, Chetanbhatsp, Chininazu12, ChrisGualtieri, Clementi, Codename Lisa, Codingoutloud, Coolhawks88, Cybercobra, Daira Hopwood, Damaster98, Darth
Sitges, David Biddulph, Dhamdhere, Djslavik, Dministrator, Dohtem, Dongk, DustinSell, Dwvisser, Edgar181, Edknol, Emeysam, Eternally777, FatalError, Fmph, Freak12345, Gasparovicm,
Gezzed, Ghettoblaster, GoingBatty, Gyrobo, HRLocker, Heptazane, HolaATtara, Huskytreiber, IXavier, InBalance, Int19h, IvanLanin, JamesBWatson, Jandalhandler, Jasper Deng, Jaxidian,
Jdkag, Jim1138, Jinlye, Joejimbo, JonnyG04, Juliashapiro, Julius Agrippa, Kaihsu, Khsavage, Kku, Kpends, Kulwant2singh, Kypr8, LibraryRattle, Little Professor, Lotje, Lowndesc, Lprd2007,
M PerorWiki, Mamalj283, Manpal78, Marksoft, Martin.H1988, Mdoraisamy, Melnakeeb, Mikewo, Mmayad, Mmayer, Mr. Credible, Muhandes, Mustafa Bakacak, Nasa-verve, Navcode,
Naveenkumar14, Nclay76, Nclaybaugh, Noodle Cloud, Noopman, Ntotten, Ohconfucius, Paullundberg, PeaceLoveHarmony, Pgan002, Phantomsteve, Plau, Plinehan, Pointillist, PrashantYeo,
Quietbritishjim, Ramu50, Rchandra, ReshenKusaga, Rich Farmbrough, Richvdh, Rjwilmsi, Rm69696969, Robert.Harker, RonnyA, SamJohnston, Sanjayk.hclt, Sanspeur, Savlonn, Sbose7890,
Scarpy, SchnitzelMannGreek, Sdornan, Shsujai, Shswanson, Snurt, Soumyasch, Stephanwehner, SteveLoughran, Steveprutz, Struthious Bandersnatch, Tedickey, Teeber, Terrencemorgan,
Thumperward, ToinoBiclas, Triesault, VibroAxe, Warren, Waseemkhanbugti, Waynebe, Widr, Winterst, XP1, YUL89YYZ, Yerpo, Yunshui, Ziggit, , 252 anonymous edits

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