February 4, 2013 at 12:20

Monthly Windows Azure Platform Update Overview

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    The Windows Azure cloud platform is updated almost every week. New features are constantly appearing in various subsystems of the platform. This review contains information on the latest Windows Azure updates announced since January 2013.

    Review Summary:

    • Release of the Windows Azure Media Services - cloud platform for media scenarios
    • Windows Azure Service Bus update, new Notification Hubs functionality
    • Launching VM Depot - Community Repository of Linux Virtual Machine Images
    • Lower SQL Reporting Srevices Pricing
    • New Services and Windows Azure Store Availability Enhancement
    • New projects, code samples for working with Windows Azure Mobile Services
    • The next step in the development of Redis for Windows Azure
    • $ 1 billion data center expansion
    • System Center 2012 SP1 with Windows Azure Integration Featured Released
    • SQL Server 2012 SP1 Cumulative Update 2 released with backup feature in Windows Azure
    • Windows Azure Summit : Big Conference
    • Windows Azure Services Structure Poster in Russian
    • New materials, guides, projects based on Windows Azure

    You will learn about all this from the article below.

    Windows Azure Media Services - Cloud-Based Media Scripting Platform Launched


    In January, Scott Guthrie announced the wide availability of the final version of Windows Azure Media Services, a cloud-based platform for media scripting and building media applications for all modern platforms and devices.

    Scott Guthrie announced the following innovations and improvements to Media Services on his blog:

    • release of the final version and wide availability of the service (General Availability);
    • service support and SLA guarantees ;
    • readiness of Media Services for use in any project;
    • release tools with open source Java SDK code ( on maven.org );
    • new scaling functionality: the ability to reserve power for streaming video on demand;
    • new dynamic packaging functionality, which allows the user to store data in a single file format and stream content over multiple adaptive protocols automatically;

    You can read detailed information about innovations in Russian in this blog post .

    Visit the official Windows Azure Media Services page to learn more about the platform’s capabilities. Explore guides, articles, blogs, and other information in the Windows Azure Media Services Development Center . Channel9 also launched a series of manuals on the media platform, which will be gradually updated.

    Windows Azure Service Bus update, new Notification Hubs functionality


    Earlier in January, Scott Guthrie announced a new feature in the Windows Azure Service Bus messaging engine called Notification Hubs .

    Notification Hubs is a new feature offering an extremely scalable, cross-platform push notification infrastructure for millions of users and devices.

    Distinctive features of the new Notification Hubs service:

    • cross-platform support for push notifications . The notification node service offers an API for sending notifications to various devices and platforms. You can send messages specific to each platform and in an independent format. Today, Windows 8 and Apple iOS platforms are supported. Support for Android and Windows Phone is expected soon;
    • Effective routing of publications / subscriptions and tag-based multicast . The notification node service has been optimized specifically for sending low-latency notifications to thousands and millions of devices. Your server backend can send one message to the notification node and millions of push notifications will be automatically sent to users. Devices and applications can be defined tags for each user when registering in the site, which can be used to filter users when sending messages. These tags can be any lines, which greatly facilitates the task of sending messages to a specific group of users;
    • extreme scaling . Notification nodes and Windows Azure allow you to work with millions of devices and users without the need to build or remake your own infrastructure. The publication / subscription routing mechanism allows you to efficiently and easily route and deliver notifications to millions of users without investing in their own infrastructure;
    • use from the application with any backend . Notification nodes can be integrated and used from any application with a server backend. Nodes work effectively in conjunction with Windows Azure Mobile Services. They can also be used by server applications hosted on Windows or Linux virtual machines (IaaS). Cloud Services and Windows Azure Web Sites solutions can also use notification nodes.

    You can read more about the new functionality in this article .

    Launching VM Depot - Community Repository of Linux Virtual Machine Images


    VM Depot is a project for the Windows Azure community launched by the team of Microsoft Open Technologies, Inc. responsible for open technologies within the company. It is expected that portal content, virtual machines configured for different tasks, will be created and published by developers and IT specialists.

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    At the start of the portal, more than 20 virtual machine images configured for a wide variety of tasks and scenarios were available. Today, the portal has more than 70 images and their number is constantly growing. You can now share your own pre-configured image with the community by uploading it to VM Depot .

    Details of the announcement you can read in Russian at this link .

    Lower SQL Reporting Services Pricing


    On February 1, an important and pleasant announcement was made in the official Windows Azure blog about the next reduction in prices for the SQL Reporting Services cloud service. This time a significant price reduction was presented - up to 82%!

    Starting February 1, the price for every 200 reports is reduced from $ 0.88 to $ 0.16 per hour. For more information, see the price details page . Information about SQL Reporting Services is located here .

    New Services and Windows Azure Store Availability Enhancement


    The Windows Azure Store, a cloud-based services and data store, continues to grow. In January, it became available for 11 countries in Europe and America. Unfortunately, Russia is not yet in the list of countries.

    The Windows Azure Store offers a single unified access to third-party services for Windows Azure projects with a single billing and control panel. In January, the following partners were added to the Windows Azure Store:

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    • Active Cloud Manager - monitoring resources and services and automatic scaling up and down;
    • Embarke - unique profiles for your customers, communication
    • EZDRM - On Demand DRM Platform
    • Scheduler - Service Task Scheduler , CRON
    • Pusher is a set of APIs and libraries for building real-time information exchange functions.

    We look forward to the appearance of the Windows Azure Store in Russia.

    New projects, code samples for working with Windows Azure Mobile Services


    There are several new demo projects available for Windows Azure developers that implement real-world scenarios for using Windows Azure Mobile Services in mobile applications. Projects are available in source code for personal study.


    Details .

    The next step in the development of Redis for Windows Azure


    The Microsoft open-source technology team has announced the next step towards the full integration of in-memory DB Redis with Windows Azure.

    • Redis 2.6 Preview Released
    • 64-bit installer for Windows Azure released

    Details can be read in this announcement .

    $ 1 billion data center expansion


    Earlier in January, Microsoft announced its intention to significantly expand the capacity of the data center in Virginia, USA. The company is investing an additional $ 348 million, expanding its total investment in the data center to $ 1 billion.

     

    System Center 2012 SP1 with Windows Azure Integration Featured Released


    In January, a service pack for System Center 2012 was released, in which, along with other functionality, the ability to integrate the enterprise with Windows Azure was added.

    Additional materials:

    • Integrating ConfigMgr 2012 SP1 with Azure ( link )
    • Windows Azure Online Backup in System Center 2012 SP1 DPM and in Windows Server 2012 ( link )

    SQL Server 2012 SP1 Cumulative Update 2 released with backup feature in Windows Azure


    In January, another cumulative set of updates was released in SQL Server 2012, which, among other things, introduced new features that allow you to specify a backup URL, including the Windows Azure cloud. Details . The new update also simplifies the creation of VHD for deploying SQL Server in Windows Azure virtual machines.







    Windows Azure Summit: Big Conference


    In January, the official announcement of the large Russian conference Windows Azure Summit took place . The conference will take place on February 20, 2013 in Moscow .

    Windows Azure Summit will be the largest free conference, reports will go in parallel in four rooms. You can familiarize yourself with the program at this link . The venue and other information can be found on the official website of the conference .

    Alas, the registration for the conference is already closed, because we are experiencing great interest in the topic from the community and all places for the conference were closed in just a couple of weeks.

    However, we will organize a live broadcast of the conference, and later publish a video of all the reports.

    Windows Azure Services Structure Poster in Russian


    We are pleased to present you a poster localized in Russian (pdf) with the structure of Windows Azure services in Russian.

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    New materials, guides, projects based on Windows Azure


    This section lists some of the new Windows Azure content and guides, as well as projects that use the platform.


    DevCon 2013


    On my own behalf, I want to add that the theme of the Windows Azure cloud platform and all new products will be deeply discussed at the DevCon 2013 conference on behalf of specially invited members of the Windows Azure team. Read more

    about the conference in this announcement . Registration is already open !
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