Latest news that Microsoft is choosing to rename Windows Azure to Microsoft Azure

What is this saying about how Azure fits into Microsoft's entire ecosystem

OSS @ Microsoft

Drupal, DotNetNuke, NodeJS 

What is support of Linux OS on Azure vs Windows? 

Media file: http://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode21.mp3

https://www.microsoft.com/india/movetoazure/

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazure/archive/2014/03/26/windows-azure-services-now-generally-available-in-china.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/somasegar/archive/2014/03/20/open-source-and-microsoft-developer-tools.aspx

http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/documentation/articles/linux-endorsed-distributions/

 Why caching?

History of caching on Windows

Cache Service (Preview) gives you access to a secure, dedicated cache that is managed by Microsoft.

In-Role Cache - Use the memory in your VM or cloud service as a distributed cache

Programming the cache

Capacity Planning http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/dn386139.aspx

Monitor Windows Azure Cache Service

Learn how to monitor and configure key performance metrics through the Windows Azure Management Portal.

Troubleshooting and debugging for Windows Azure Cache Service

Change diagnostic level via log files or programmatically.

Media file: http://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode20.mp3

Links & Updates:

Windows-based Oracle software images are now generally available.

Dear Azuresupplies unique answers to all of your cloud questions. Want to host your Java application in the cloud? Need to scale resources dynamically? Answers to these and many more are featured on DearAzure.com.   

Windows Azure Traffic Manager now supports Windows Azure Web Sites 

HDInsight: Hadoop 2.2 support is now GA.

Special guest Bill Zack from the Windows Azure product team shares his passion for getting customers to try Azure and talks tech about moving VMs.

Media file: http://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode19.mp3

Bill's blog http://cloudyinnashville.com/

CloubBerry: http://www.cloudberrylab.com/

Cerebrata: http://www.cerebrata.com/

Async Blob Copy: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazurestorage/archive/2012/06/12/introducing-asynchronous-cross-account-copy-blob.aspx

http://www.meetup.com/The-Nashville-Windows-Azure-Users-Group/ 

Windows Azure Friday: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/documentation/videos/windows-azure-friday/

Scott Guthrie’s blog: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/

Windows Azure Training Kit: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/net/other-resources/training-kit

The Windows Azure Trust Center: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/support/trust-center/

Windows Azure Script Center:  http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/documentation/scripts/

Azure Storage Explorer: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazurestorage/archive/2014/03/11/windows-azure-storage-explorers-2014.aspx

Special Guest Ryan Berry talks to use of an project he worked on to connect .NET Embedded to Azure. This was an end to end solution using SQL Azure, Service Bus, Queue, SQL Azure DB, worker role and a web role.

Solution Block Diagram:

Built Using a FeZ Spider: https://www.ghielectronics.com/catalog/product/297

   - Runs .NET Micro Framework

Small Memory footprint .NET CLR

Optimized for low-memory devices

512KB ROM/256KB RAM for the full feature set

Windows CE and .NET CF require 10 MB ROM/10MB RAM

Subset of the desktop .NET Framework Object Model

Supports interoperability with  WCF

Device/IO Interaction abstracted w/ event-driven code

Media file: http://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode18.mp3

Updates to Azure 

• ExpressRoute: Dedicated, private, high-throughput network connectivity with on-premises
• Web Sites: Backup and Restore Support
• Mobile Services: .NET support, Notification Hub Integration, PhoneGap support
• HDInsight: Hadoop 2.2 support
• Management: Co-admin limit increased from 10->200 users
• Monitoring: Service Outage Notifications Integrated within Management Portal
• Virtual Machines: VM Agent and Background Information Support
• Active Directory: More SaaS apps, more reports, self-service group management, Japan DCs live 
• BizTalk Services: EDIFACT protocol support, Service Bus Integration, Backup and Restore

Informational blogs and links:

 http://blogs.msdn.com/b/kaevans/archive/2014/02/24/creating-a-sharepoint-2013-app-with-azure-web-sites.aspx

http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/documentation/articles/hdinsight-understand-nosql/

New whitepaper ‘Application Patterns and Development Strategies for SQL Server in Windows Azure Virtual Machines’ is published:

How to setup a Minecraft Server on Windows Azure! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-HCY_3aj6M

How to manage your Azure Website with IIS Management Console (here)

3rd-party solution for Azure usage / chargeback management & IT self-service

• What is ADFS?
• Scenarios for using ADFS
• How to deploy it and how NOT to deploy it!

Media File: http://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode17.mp3

Links:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/hh694271

Eclipse toolkit

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/dn574746.aspx

An article providing guidance on patterns to use for SQL Server based applications in Windows Azure environment.

Power BI for Office 365 is now commercially available

• My VM disappeared!
• I've been pwned!
• My VM won't work!
• I cannot access my VM!

Media file: http://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode16.mp3

Links: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazure/archive/2014/01/24/storage-price-match.aspx

Two new compute-intensive instances are now generally available for use with Windows Azure Cloud Services: 

• A8: 8 virtual cores with 56 GB of RAM
• A9: 16 virtual cores with 112 GB of RAM

Configuring of MIME types for dynamic and static content compression is now enabledfor Windows Azure Web Sites.

A great resource Script Centerat Windows Azure site.

Some of the scripts the library currently includes:

• Create/Deploy a Windows Azure Virtual Machine with Two Data Disks
• Quickly create dev-test VM on Azure running Visual Studio 2013 Pro|Premium|Ultimate, SQL Server 2012 Developer edition SP1 and SharePoint 2013 trial (MSDN subscription required).
• Deploy Windows Azure VMs to an Availability Set and Load Balanced on an Endpoint
• Create Two Windows Azure VMs (IIS Frontend and SQL Backend) & Deploy a Web App
• Create Windows Azure VMs & Deploy in the Same Windows Azure Virtual Network
• Stop Windows Azure Virtual Machines on a Schedule

WAAD White Papers: 

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36391&ocid=aff-n-we-loc--ITPRO40886&WT.mc_id=aff-n-we-loc--ITPRO40886

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/dn547038.aspx

Endpoints and ACLs - Scripting
Endpoint and ACLs:
 
http://blogs.technet.com/b/heyscriptingguy/archive/2013/08/31/weekend-scripter-creating-acls-for-windows-azure-endpoints-part-1-of-2.aspx
http://blogs.technet.com/b/heyscriptingguy/archive/2013/08/31/weekend-scripter-creating-acls-for-windows-azure-endpoints-part-2-of-2.aspx
http://blogs.technet.com/b/heyscriptingguy/archive/2013/09/18/creating-acls-for-windows-azure-endpoints.aspx

Powershell
Export-AzureVM - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/jj152899.aspx
Get-AzureVNetConfig - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/dn495309.aspx

• What is it?
• Why is autoscaling important?
• History of autoscaling
• Manual method
• Programmatically
• Automatically

Media: http://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode15.mp3

Autoscaling Application Block Documentation: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh680892(v=PandP.50).aspx
Cloud service scaling http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/documentation/articles/cloud-services-how-to-scale/

• What is it?
• When should you use it?
• What does it cost?
• The BizTalk Services Portal
• The BizTalk Service SDK

Media file: http://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode14.mp3

Links:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/biztalk_server_team_blog/archive/2013/11/25/biztalk-services-ga-is-live.aspx 

5-days course on Azure

http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/colleges/windows-azure-deep-dive#?fbid=CxS3R4mvOoz

Azure Infographics:

 http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/documentation/infographics/infrastructure-services/

• Using ServiceBus Relay to bridge Azure and the Datacenter
• ADFS for security
• Windows Azure Pack
• Systems Center management
• The Paas model is the future

Media file: http://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode13.mp3

Windows Azure Pack - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn296435.aspx

Cloud OS commentary - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/12/02/microsoft_cloud_os_analysis

• Use cases
• Portal
• Service Management API
• Client libraries (Service Management)
• Native library (C++ devs)
• Power Shell
• Operations Logs
• Alert and Monitoring

Media File: http://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode12.mp3

LINKS:

The Windows Azure Pack Web Sites Easy Deploy tool:

• Creates a Windows Azure Pack Web Sites instance with Portal, databases, service plan and Web Sites
• Supports deployment through Hyper-V
• Not meant to be a production deployment tool.    

Prime Challenge  http://www.primechallenge.org/all-about-prime-numbers/

The Prime Challenge is the currently running competition to find huge multi-thousand digit prime numbers using Windows Azure. The biggest number that has been submitted so far is 3,200 digits. Feel free to enter to find a new undiscovered prime :)  Leveraging Windows Azure Big Data

Storage Library (C++) for Windows Azure (preview) 

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazurestorage/archive/2013/12/20/windows-azure-storage-client-library-for-cplusplus-preview.aspx

Copying blobs between storage accounts (Michael Washam)

http://michaelwasham.com/windows-azure-powershell-reference-guide/copying-vhds-blobs-between-storage-accounts/

Sample script for deploying a full SharePoint environment

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn175489.aspx#bkmk_createvm_ps1

http://www.cerebrata.com/products/azure-management-studio/introduction