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Microsoft Azure is the new cloud-based computing platform from Microsoft. Azure is a platform that includes web hosting, computing, messaging, and storage components. In addition to the raw components in Azure, Microsoft has additional complementary services that can be composed within an Azure solution to add even more power. These include (but are not limited to) Live Services, .Net Services, and SQL Services. As the figure below shows, Windows Azure runs on machines in Microsoft data centers. Rather than providing software that Microsoft customers can install and run themselves on their own computers, Windows Azure is a service: Customers use it to run applications and store data on Internet-accessible machines owned by Microsoft. Those applications might provide services to businesses, to consumers, or both. |
Components of the Windows Azure platform (below):
The components of the Windows Azure platform include:
1. Windows Azure: Provides a Windows-based environment for running applications and storing data on servers in Microsoft data centers. Some important characteristics provided are :
- Ability to run Microsoft ASP.NET Web applications or .NET code in the cloud.
- Service hosting environment that includes Internet Information Services 7.0 and Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1.
- Security supported by flexible Code Access Security policies.
- Small runtime API that supports logging and local scratch storage.
- Simple Data Storage in the form of Blobs, tables, and queues hosted in the cloud, close to your computation.
- Authenticated access and triple replication to help keep your data safe.
- Easy access to data with simple REST interfaces, available remotely and from the data center.
At a high level, Windows Azure is a platform for running Windows applications and storing their data in the cloud. Following figure shows its components.
The Windows Azure Compute service can run many different kinds of applications. A primary goal of this platform, however, is to support applications that have a very large number of simultaneous users. To allow this, a Windows Azure application can have multiple instances, each executing in its own virtual machine (VM).
Applications work with data in many different ways. Accordingly, the Windows Azure Storage service provides several options.
All Windows Azure applications and all of the data in Windows Azure Storage live in some Microsoft data center. Within that data center, the set of machines dedicated to Windows Azure is organized into a fabric. Figure shows how this looks.
2. SQL Azure: Provides a cloud DBMS with SQL Azure Database and data synchronization via “Huron” Data Sync, with more cloud-based data services planned.
One of the most attractive ways of using Internet-accessible servers is to handle data. The goal of SQL Azure is to address this area, offering a set of cloud-based services for storing and working with many kinds of information. While Microsoft says that SQL Azure will eventually include a range of data-oriented capabilities, including reporting, data analytics, and others, the first SQL Azure components to appear are SQL Azure Database and “Huron” Data Sync.
SQL Azure Database provides a database management system (DBMS) in the cloud. Unlike the Windows Azure storage service, SQL Azure Database is built on Microsoft SQL Server.
3. .NET Services: Offers distributed infrastructure services to cloud-based and local applications.
This service package shouldn’t be confused with Microsoft’s .NET framework. The purpose of the .NET services is to address common infrastructure challenges in creating distributed applications. The .NET services component can further be divided into following subcomponents:
• Access Control Service
• Service Bus
• Workflow Service
The Access Control Service is a security token service (STS) running in the cloud. The purpose of an STS is to act as a layer between an application and its users. The Access Control Service deals with tokens defined using the Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML). All communication with the STS relies on standard procols.
In addition to Access Contol Service, .NET services include the Service Bus. The Service Bus addresses challenges in discovering and exposing service endpoints in the Internet.
The last subcomponent of the .NET services is the Workflow Service. The Workflow Service allows creating workflow-based applications running in the cloud. At the core of Workflow Service is an idea that every workflow can be implemented using some number of base activities. These activities are then tied together with some logic. Communication between hosted applications can be carried out with Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) or using the Service Bus.
For architects, developer community, taking advantage of the cloud means using cloud platforms in some way. With the Windows Azure platform, Microsoft presents a range of platform styles addressing a variety of needs. Running applications and storing data in the cloud is the right choice for many situations..
Happy reading…
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