Nuno Filipe Godinho

ALM Days 2011 Portugal

Nuno Filipe Godinho — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 11:13:25 GMT

Na semana passada efectuei 2 sessões em Lisboa e no Porto, uma sobre o Visual Studio Lightswitch e outra sobre o Hosted TFS.

Aqui estão as apresentações:

Visual Studio LightSwitch 2011 - ALM Days

Hosted TFS

Sessão no 4° Evento da Comunidade Azure PT

Nuno Filipe Godinho — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 19:29:31 GMT

Irei efectuar uma sessão relativa a Boas Práticas de Arquitectura no Windows Azure, no 4° Evento da Comunidade AzurePT em Lisboa no próximo dia 3 de Dezembro, com vista a ajudar, quem está já a trabalhar em Windows Azure e quem está ainda a considerar a sua utilização, a compreender qual a melhor forma de tirar partido do Windows Azure e quais os padrões que poderão utilizar para que possam tornar o trabalho mais simples e eficar.

Fica aqui a agenda do Evento e para mais informações e registo cliquem aqui.

“09:30 - Recepção

10:00 - Desenvolvimento para o Windows Azure: Qual a diferença para o Developer - Vitor Tomaz

"Nesta sessão iremos analisar as diferenças que um developer encontra quando tenta desenvolver para Windows Azure. Iremos fazer uma breve introdução à arquitectura que está na base do Windows Azure e posteriormente analisar os serviços de modo a perceber as diferenças, pormenores de billing e algumas das melhores práticas que o developer deverá ter quando desenvolve para este ambiente."

11:30 - Cofee-Break

12:00m - Boas Práticas de Arquitectura em Windows Azure - Nuno Godinho

"Uma das questões que muito se tem falado ultimamente em termos do Windows Azure é sem dúvida em termos de Arquitectura, uma vez que nem sempre estamos habituados a criar soluções altamente disponíveis, escaláveis, e muito menos a pensar que cada decisão que é tomada ao longo do processo de Arquitectura e Desenvolvimento tem impactos ao nível dos custos da solução. Tendo em conta estes elementos é muito importante que existam um conjunto de boas práticas que nos ajudem no processo de forma a tornarem o processo de arquitectura e desenvolvimento mais simples, e eficaz. Para isso nesta sessão iremos olhar para um conjunto de boas práticas de arquitectura que se encontram associadas ao Windows Azure e os seus impactos."

13:30m - Painel de Discussão e Sorteio de Prémios”

Developer Tech Refresh: App Jam – Portugal

Nuno Filipe Godinho — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 14:30:53 GMT

No próximo dia 28 de Novembro irá decorrer no Auditório da Microsoft Portugal o Developer Tech Refresh: App Jam que irá juntar Windows Phone, HTML5 e claro Windows Azure num evento de Developer para Developer.

Mais informações aqui.

Informações sobre o evento (cópia integral do site do evento):

“Apps: é o tema de que todos falam, e um dos que mais interesse tem despertado a Developers de todas as áreas, e em todo o Mundo. Mas o desenvolvimento de Apps traz vários desafios, e até a necessidade de um novo mindset.

Depois do sucesso do Summer Tech Refresh, o Tech Refresh: App Jam é o evento que criámos para lhe mostrar, de uma forma diferente e orientada a demonstrações, o que precisa saber para criar Apps extraordinárias, desde mostrar-lhe os pormenores não-técnicos que deve considerar (como os segredos para conseguir stickiness por parte dos seus utilizadores) a mostrar-lhe a tecnologia em acção, numa visão integrada entre vários cenários e plataformas que poderá usar na sua App: Windows Phone 7, HTML5, Azure e…mais! Ao longo da sessão iremos construir uma solução com recurso a estas várias plataformas, de modo a mostrar-lhe como pode integrar estas várias tecnologias numa só ideia, num só conceito. De Developer, para Developer.

Ah e claro, mostrando-lhe as últimas novidades…em acção!

agenda
(NOVO HORÁRIO)

18:00		credenciação
18:30		*Developer Tech Refresh \| App Jam* (part 1)** Luís Alves Martins & Nuno Silva (Microsoft Portugal)
20:00		coffee-break
20:15		*Developer Tech Refresh \| App Jam* (part 2)** Luís Alves Martins & Nuno Silva (Microsoft Portugal)
21:30		Q&A
21:45		Encerramento

“

Windows Azure Best Practices (PT/EN)

Nuno Filipe Godinho — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 18:09:00 GMT

(PT)

Estava eu no twitter e de repente lembrei-me que seria interessante escrever algumas Boas Práticas sobre a utilização do Windows Azure. Aqui estão algumas que me lembrei:

Não crie um proxy desnecessário, saia da frente sempre que pode. Envie o cliente directamente para o blob storage para conteúdos estáticos
Utilize Shared Access Signatures para fornecer acesso directo a conteúdo seguro. Pode ser associado a um período de tempo e revogado a pedido. Também importante será a utilização de Shared Access Policy de forma a remover informações como a data de termino do Url
Disponibilize blobs públicos através da Windows Azure CDN. Tem menos latência e está mais próximo do cliente.
Se está a utilizar #CDN não se esqueçam de gerir a expiração do conteúdo. Por defeito são 72 horas
Se está a utilizar CDN utilize urls versionados para permitir actualizações imediatas. Realmente muito importante para evitar problemas de cache
Faça cache de dados muito utilizados em memória para evitar diminuição da performance no acesso aos dados. Ex. Sessão, dados de referência. Utilizando a camada de caching irá ajudá-lo a reduzir o tempo de latência e em alguns casos também os custos
Considere utilizar um maior numero de instâncias mais pequenas ao invés de menos instâncias maiores. Na maioria das vezes a sua performance será bem melhor
Particione os dados com base nas necessidades de indexação. Utilize o #SQLAzure para dados altamente indexados e #Storage para o restante. Considere sériamente efectuar particionamento hibrido
Particione horizontamente (Shard) os seus dados de #SQLAzure entre diversas bases de dados para aumentar a disponibilidade.
Não se esqueça de fazer o tunning básico de performance das aplicações. Faça medições e monitorização da sua aplicação, optimize e crie uma base de performance
Não se esqueça de ligar a compressão para tipos de conteúdos dinâmicos nas aplicações Web
Não pode efectuar updates de aplicações com um número diferente de portos, por isso prepare-se, deixe algumas portas abertas
No #Azure #AppFabric Caching prefira colocar mais objectos pequenos do que objectos grandes em cache, a sua performance melhora
Considere o VMRole apenas quando necessita de alguma coisa instalada que demora muito tempo ou a sua instalação não é automatizável
Utilize Startup Tasks preferencialmente em background a não ser que necessite de uma ordem específica no seu lançamento
Utilize Padrão de Trabalho Assincrono e Filas ao invés de utilizar uma abordagem sincrona nos seus Roles
Para dispositivos, não os ligue directamente ao #SQLAzure, obrigue-os a passar por uma camada disponível no #Azure Compute (claro, estamos numa abordagem #SOA )
Se está a utilizar Startup Tasks não se esqueça de fazer log de tudo. Ex. commando >> %~dp0log.txt 2>> %~dp0err.txt
Se está a utilizar Startup Tasks não se esqueça de utilizar o “/y” em todo o lado para evitar mensagens de confirmação. Ex. “copy /y origem destino”
Para Startup Tasks utilize a disco local uma vez que é espaço garantido, e se não existir espaço suficiente a mesma não será iniciada.
Se necessita de uma startup task que necessita de uma IIS pool já existente, então deverá utilizar o OnStart() num Role com acesso elevado – Não é problemático uma vez que um Role em modo elevado não afecta a forma como a Aplicação Web é lançada e configurada no IIS
Processos que necessitem de ser monitorizados deverá utilizar o ProgramEntryPoint ou NetFxEntryPoint ao invés de Startup Tasks
Defina as regras de trafefo com o NetworkTrafficRules de forma a melhor proteger o acesso interno aos seus Roles
Se está a utilizar o Traffic Manager crie uma página para Monitorizar a Aplicação que valida se tudo está OK na sua aplicação.
Quando utilizarem Table Storage utilize o SaveChanges com SaveChangesOptions.Batch para melhorar a performance e poupar em transacções
A escolha do tamanho da instância é importante, deverá escolher de acordo com as necessidades de Velocidade, Memória, IO e Rede.
Utilize Lógica capaz de efectuar a re-conexão em caso de erro para ligações de #SQLAzure e para #AppFabric Service Bus, Cache e Storage. Utilize o Transient Fault Handling Framework for SQL Azure, Windows Azure Storage, Windows Azure AppFabric Service Bus and Cache.
Não utilize o owner para o #AppFabric Service Bus. Crie o seu próprio login e forneça-lhe apenas as permissões apropriadas. Veja este post pelo Neil Mackenzie.
Não utilize o login de #SQLAzure criado no Management Portal na ligação à base de dados, crie o seu próprio. Isto é devido a querermos trabalhar com o minimo de privilégios possíveis e não queremos utilizar algo semelhante ao SA para fazermos a ligação.
Quando utilizarem Queues/Filas, ao invés de utilizar o GetMessage utilizem o GetMessages(count), pois irá ajudar-vos a poupar transações e melhor a performance da solução
Se está a utilizar Workers que são baseados em Queues/Filas (Mecanismo de Pooling), utilize um mecanismo de "acalmar" quando não existem mensagens nessa queue. Com isto irá reduzir o número de transacões que são efectuadas e melhor a performance da
Se está a utilizar Workers que são baseados em Queues/Filas (Mecanismo de Pooling), deverá considerar utilizar notificações para re-iniciar o processo de "acalmar". O Windows Azure AppFabric Service Bus é perfeito para isto, mas não se esqueçam de efectuar os calculos para o vosso
Crie o processo de Escalabilidade da Solução considerando todas as opções, Scale Up, Out e Down, não se esqueçam do Scale Down.

Ultima Actualização: 2011-10-20

(EN)

I was on Twitter and suddenly some remember that it would be interesting write some Best Practices about using Windows Azure. Here are some of the ones I remembered:

Get out of the way when you can. Send client directly to blob storage for static content
Use Shared Access Signatures to provide direct access to ACLed content. Can be time-bound and revoked on demand. Also important will be using a Shared Access Policy in order to remove information like end date from url
Serve public blobs from the edge with the Windows Azure CDN. You have fewer hops, and be closer to the customer.
If you're using #CDN don't forget to Manage the Content Expiration. The Default is 72 hours
If you're using CDN use versioned urls to allow immediate refresh. Really important to avoid caching problems
Cache hot data in memory to avoid slower data-tier access. Ex. Session State, immutable reference data. Using the Caching ties will help you reduce latency and in some cases also costs
Consider using more smaller compute instances instead of few large one. Most times you'll get better perf
Partition Data based on the indexing needs. Use #SQLAzure for highly indexed data, and #Storage for the rest. Really consider doing Hybrid Partitioning
Shard your #SQLAzure data across databases to increase the workload.
Don't forget to do the basic performance tuning to applications. Measure, optimize & create a baseline for perf
Don't forget to enable compression for additional dynamic content types in Web Apps
You can't update Apps with a different number of endpoints, so prepare for that upfront, leave some backdoors opened
In #Azure #AppFabric Caching Prefer to cache more smaller objects then few larger ones, increases your perf
Consider VMRole only when you need something installed that takes long time or is a non-automated install
Use Startup Tasks preferably in background unless you need a specific order in their launch
Use Asynchronous Work Pattern and Queues instead of using a Synchronous approach on your Roles
For devices don't connect directly to #SQLAzure, proxy those in your #Azure Compute (of course #SOA approach)
If you use Startup Tasks don't forget to log everything. Ex. command >> %~dp0log.txt 2>> %~dp0err.txt
Don’t forget to use “/y” in everything to avoid confirmation messages. Ex. “copy /y source destination”
For Startup Tasks use local storage since it’s a guaranteed space, and if there’s not enough space it won’t run.
If you need to run a startup task that needs the IIS pool to exist, then you should use OnStart() in elevated Role – This isn’t a problem since running a Role in Elevated mode doesn’t affect how the Web Application will run on IIS
Process that needs to be monitored you should use a ProgramEntryPoint or NetFxEntryPoint instead of Startup Tasks
Define NetworkTrafficRules in order to better protected internal access to your roles
If you’re using Traffic Manager build a AppHealth page Monitor that checks if everything is OK in your Application
When using Table Storage use the SaveChangesOptions.Batch to improve performance and save transactions
Choosing your VMSize is important, choose accordingly to your Speed, Memory, IO and Network needs.
Use Retry Logic for #SQLAzure connection and for #AppFabric Service Bus, Cache and Storage. Use Transient Fault Handling Framework for SQL Azure, Windows Azure Storage, Windows Azure AppFabric Service Bus and Cache.
Don't use owner for #AppFabric Service Bus. Create your own login and provide them the appropriate permissions. Check this post by Neil Mackenzie.
Don't use the #SQLAzure login that you created on the Management Portal in the connection String. Create your own. This is because you need to work in the least privileges and you don’t want to use the SA for that
When using Queues instead of using GetMessage use GetMessages(count), this will help you save transactions and improve performance of your solution
If you're using Workers that are Queue based (Pooling Mechanism), use a back off mechanism when no messages are found in the queue. This will help reduce the number of transactions that are done and improve your solution performance
If you're using Workers that are Queue based (Pooling Mechanism), you should consider using notifications to resume the back off mechanism. #AppFabric Service Bus will be perfect for this, but don't forget to do the cost calculation to your scenario.
Perform your Application Scaling process considering all options, Scale Up, Out and Down, don't forget Down.

Last Updated: 2011-10-20

BUILD WINDOWS CONFERENCE 2011 – Keynote 2

Nuno Filipe Godinho — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 00:17:07 GMT

Satya Nadella - President of Server and Tools Business @ Microsoft

Connected Devices and Continuous Services

Design Point
- Elastic resources
- Composable services
- data as a namespace
  - Expose data as a first class namespace for other developers to use
- identity & access
- continuous delivery
This design point was the base for building Windows Azure and the Windows Server 8

Scenario: Building a Metro-Style Application with Jason Zander – Corporate VP, Visual Studio @ Microsoft

Visual Studio 2010 & Windows Azure Tools for Visual Studio – September
- Managed Service Configurations
  - Allow you to create several configurations for the same cloud service, like Staging, QA, Production, and so on.
- Advanced Diagnostics, including profiling is now available on Windows Azure
- Visual Studio 11 has now the Productivity tools included in the base and not has an extension
- Now available to search for Copy & Paste code, even small sections of the code
- Visual Studio 11
  - Designer for DirectX also available with supports for effects, alpha blending, and more.
  - Diagnostics of DirectX viewing that gives you the frames that were rendered
  - Diagnostics from DirectX views included with call stack

Announcements:

Visual Studio 2011 Developer Preview
Windows Azure SDK 1.5
Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows 8

App Platform and Application LifeCycle Management (ALM)

Application Platform – Scott Guthrie – Corporate VP, Server & Tools Business @ Microsoft
- ASP.NET MVC 4
  - new Style for the default site, and with security and more elements already wired up.
  - DOM Explorer also available for Web Apps
  - HTML Inspector is now available inside Visual Studio
  - Live Design to enable the Page Inspector as a different Pane that allows you to view the Page Inspector and the code side by side.
  - Bundeling and Minification
    - we reference a folder and it bundles on the server side all the contents of the folder and send it to the customer as a single and minified file
  - Async and away language capabilities available on C# and VB.NET
    - Enhances greatly the performance both in .NET 4.5 and Windows Server 8
  - There’s a new Mobile ASP.NET MVC template to create a new Mobile app, and also we can start using a already build ASP.NET MVC 4 project and mobile enhance it using:
    - jQuery.Mobile.MVC NuGet Package
      - jQuery.Mobile will shipped as now part of the ASP.NET and Visual Studio from now on.
      - This also adds a new file called _Layout.Mobile.cshtml
        
        Will override the layout when the site is called by a mobile device
      - Supports iPhone, Windows Phone or Android
- .NET 4.5 and Windows Server 8 support WebSockets deeply
  - WebSocket API in .NET 4.5 that allows us to connect to WebSocket from everywhere.
- Deployment
  - Add Windows Azure Deployment Project is now available in every project type and will add immediately the Cloud Service project, configure and them deploy it to Windows Azure.
ALM – Jason Zander – Corporate VP, Visual Studio @ Microsoft
- Hosted TFS Preview – Visual Studio Team Foundation Server in Windows Azure
  - SaaS – Software as a Service
  - Visual Studio 11 and ALM is using SCRUM Template
  - Easily add user stories, make the sprint planning, create tasks, Task Board in order to manage the stand up meetings
  - Works directly in Visual Studio 2010 with a specific patch

Announcements

ASP.NET MVC 4

Windows Server 8
- High availability & management
- Virtualization & cloud
  - Built on top of a high availability platform
  - Taken some parts of Windows Azure into this version
- App Platform
- Identity & secure access
  - claims-base identity
- Note: There is a huge symmetry between Windows Azure and Windows Server
- Capabilities – Bryon Surace – Senior Project Manager @ Microsoft
  - Storage
    - New File Services Manager
    - Storage Spaces
    - You don’t need a Phd in Storage, just connect the disks
  - Networking
    - Multiple High-Speed NICS, previously available only on HPC
  - Virtualization
    - Hyper-V supports now using a virtual disk from a file share
    - Now in Windows Server 8 we can move a disk from one machine to a remote file share without stopping anything.

Announcement

Windows Server 8 Developer Preview is already available for download

Windows Azure
- High cadence of releases
- Current features
  - Compute
  - Database
  - Storage
  - Virtual machines
  - CDN
  - Caching
  - Virtual Network
  - Service Bus
  - Marketplace
  - Business Intelligence
  - Access Control
- Key services
  - Database Platform
    - Reporting
    - SQL Azure
    - SQL Server
    - Windows Azure Storage
    - SQL Data Sync
  - Data Marketplace
    - eBay uses Bing Translator DataSet from Data Marketplace to translate the texts
  - Access Control Service

Scenario: Build a Metro-Style application with Identity & Access Control using Windows Azure ACS – John Shewchuk – Technical Fellow @ Microsoft

How to Build the Margie’s Travel app with ACS
- Using ACS and Windows 8 Security APIs
- All of this code is available on the Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows 8

Windows Azure Announcements

Windows Azure Service Bus September release
Windows Azure Geo-Replication now enabled by default in Windows Azure Storage
Windows Azure Marketplace Expansion
- Additional 25 Countries available
- New Bing Data

Hybrid Scenario – Jeff Sandquist (Senior Director, Channel Nine @ Microsoft) and Dan Fernandez (Senior Director @ Microsoft)
- Using Service Bus Messaging
  - Topics ( Reliable Messaging )

Connected Devices and Continuous Services

Opportunity
- Windows Azure
- Windows Server 8
- Visual Studio 11

Personal Notes

This was a very interesting Keynote that showed up some very cool things, like Visual Studio 11 that looks very interesting, and very slick, Windows Server 8 that is really a Server OS that leverages the elasticity that we love in the cloud, and that can help a lot make our businesses better, but the things that really impressed me was the scale up and Hyper-V capabilities of it and that it was built to leverage and use the Windows Azure and Cloud lessons that we’ve learned and bring them into our company.

Of course if you know me I’m a more Windows Azure guy and so Windows Azure was really very impressive also, and mainly the geo-replication of Windows Azure Storage is huge, because we now have the capability of having our storage replicated in more than one Windows Data Center, and this is done automatically without any need of change. This is huge in terms of disaster recovery and security of your data, since in the end of the day we don’t want to lose anything. Also the usage of Windows Azure AppFabric Service Bus Messaging is very interesting and will enable us to make more reliable solutions that is very important. So I’d say, great job Microsoft and continue to invest on those and that leveraging between Windows Azure and Windows Server 8 is very interesting and I’ll dig more in order to see exactly how it will work.

Finally the new capability that Windows Azure brings to allow that any project can be changed into a Cloud project with a single selection in the context menu is very good since it allows us to really start taking more Windows Azure into account.

BUILD WINDOWS CONFERENCE 2011 – Keynote 1 – Wrap up

Nuno Filipe Godinho — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 22:45:40 GMT

Steven Sinofsky’s - Windows Division President @ Microsoft

The World of Computing is changing

Form factor and User interaction models
Touch is important, and not only for small devices
Connectivity is very important

Windows 8

Makes Windows 7 even better. Everything that runs in Windows 7 runs in Windows 8
Reimagines Windows from chipset to experience
- Ex. SoC – System on a Chip – Support ARM
- Ex. Full new User Experience – New Touch first experiences
- How
  1. Windows 8 Experience
  2. Metro Style Platform and Tools
  3. Hardware
  4. Cloud-based services
Everything available on ARM and x86
Delivering fundamental performance gains
- Windows 7 SP1– About 404 MB / 32 processes
- Windows 8 today - About 281 / 29 processes

1. Windows 8 Experience (Julia Larson Green – Corporate Vice President @ Microsoft)

Metro Style Experience
Touch First
Start Screen similar to Windows Phone 7
- Composed by tiles that represent the applications
- Represents the unification of the project launching and notifications
- Customizable Start Screen
Internet Explorer 10 with Metro Style
Fast ad fluid
Immersive and full screen
- enables you to write apps that can get the most attention from the users
Touch first with full keyboard and mouse
Web Apps working together

2. Windows 8 Platform and tools

Windows 8 Platform
- App Development
  - XAML with C, C++, C#, VB.NET
  - HTML5 and JavaScript
- Windows Runtime APIs (WinRT APIs)
- Bases / Fundamentals of the operating system - Windows Kernel Services
Windows 8 Tools
- Visual Studio 2011
  - Support JavaScript, VB.NET, C#, C++
  - Store Menu in Visual Studio
    - Creates a package and releases the app for the Windows Marketplace
      - Possibility to allow trial licenses and so on
- Windows Marketplace will certify and validate the apps, similar to the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace validation process, to validate your app.
  - The requirements and tools to check the compliance will be available for developers to validate them prior to the marketplace validation
- New App Package
- WinRT APIs available to all languages
- Blend
  - Now support XAML and CSS and JavaScript
  - Preview integrated in Blend
- WinRT Controls available for the several languages and runtimes
- Existing Win32 Apps will also be listed in the Windows Marketplace
- Existing Silverlight Apps still work in Windows Marketplace
- Migrating existing the Silverlight apps to Windows 8, are normally just:
  - change Namespaces
  - change the Networking API
  - add App Launchers instead of Browser launch
  - Everything else just works
- Developer and Platform Tools
  - New APIs and tools to build Metro style apps
  - Rapid and scalable development of Metro Style apps
  - Choice of world class development tools and languages
    - XAML, C#, VB.NET, HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, C, C++ both on ARM/x86/x64
  - Business Opportunity is the world of Windows 8 Customers

3. Hardware (Michael Angiulo – Corporate VP in Windows Planning and Ecosystems)

Windows 8 supports a hard range of systems for and hardware, from big servers to small pcs)
Booting in 8 seconds without any Boot Screen
Taken Defender and enhance it with Spyware, and so on, even in securing in booting from USB drives
New state called “Connected Standby session” that allows a better system power management, with using only the power when it’s needed and when shutting down it will give the system to save state and after that just drop to almost.
Big partnership with Intel for SoC and some low power hardware
Windows 8 is all built using hardware acceleration for graphics, and so every app that has “metro style” will be hardware accelerated.
Display resolutions
- 1024x600 to 1920x1080
- if you have lower resolution you won’t be able to have the apps side by side.
- Completely full windows experience with 1366x768 without no compromise
Sensors
- Accelerometer
- Gyro
- Magnetometer
- NOTE: Sensor Fusion API. Single API combines all the information from the 3 sensors in 3 lines of code. It’s part of the WinRT APIs so is shared by all languages.
- NFC – Near field communications – for interacting with objects or other machines.
USSD it’s a protocol very important to avoid roaming but still have connectivity
Samsung Windows Developer Preview PC given
New Windows Task Manager
- Apps can be suspended it they aren’t being seen, and so they don’t use CPU and enhance
- New Performance tab with all information about the resource usage
- App History
- Startup
- Users
- DetailsView with all processes
Control Panel
- New feature – Reset and Refresh
  - Refresh = Only the PC Settings will be reset not the files and apps
  - Reset = Take the system to the new state, and lose all the apps
Windows Assessment Console
- Allows you to test the several tests to analyze your app to prepare it to be packaged
New Metro-Style Remote Desktop
- Capability to use Touch even on a remote machine
- Live Preview of the machines we are being remoted into
Hyper-V running on Windows 8
- Enhanced Hyper-V manager
- ability to grab and open a vhd or iso and mounted in Windows without any other software
New Windows Explorer Ribbon based
Ability to have 1 background that fully spans to several monitors
New options for Multiple Monitors
- Possibility to have the same elements on both start bars
- Possibility to have only the elements that are in a specific monitor appear in the monitor start bar
Full use of the Keyboard and mouse even on the Start Menu, with the full power of running commands
IE 10
- Fullscreen and immersive, so no chrome on it.
- All the keyboard shortcuts used in IE are available also in the IE in Windows 8 version
Magnifier was enhanced to support the Metro-style and even more accessible.
Includes Ink input
- Not using only a pen and a stylus
Sync PC Settings
- If you sign up with your liveid every settings that you have will be roamed. All powered by Windows Live

4. Cloud based services for Windows 8 (Chris Jones – Senior VP for Windows Live @ Microsoft)

every live app was redesigned for the new metro-style
Metro-Style mail that is built using HTML5 and JavaScript using the WinRT APIs
- All my mail accounts managed in one single place and roamed using Windows Live
Metro-Style Calendar also using HTML5 and JavaScript using the WinRT APIs
- All my calendars and all other calendars that were shared with me
Metro-Style People/Contacts Manager also using HTML5 and JavaScript using the WinRT APIs
- Combining all my contacts like from Exchange, Facebook, LinkedIn and so on. (Just like in Windows Phone 7)
Metro-Style Photos also using HTML5 and JavaScript using the WinRT APIs
- Combining all my photos from SkyDrive, Facebook, Flickr, …
Connect to devices through Windows Live
Access to other machines through Windows Live for sharing Files and access to other machine resources

All the apps presented were build by 17 teams of volunteers during the summer as interns.

Path to RTM

Windows 8 Developer Preview
- Including Visual Studio 11 Express, Expression Blend 5, SDK, Apps Developer Pre-Release
Next milestone is Beta, Then RC. Then RTM. Then FA
Updates along the way
Learning more
- blogs.msdn.com/B8
- connect.microsoft.com and feedback tool
- Customer Experience Improvement data

Still today it here http://dev.windows.com we’ll be able to Download Windows 8 Developer Preview for x86 and x64 bits version. 2 options that are with VS Express 11 or only with the samples apps. No Activation needed, and also no support.

From what I’ve seen Windows 8 appears very cool, and the development ecosystems sounds great both with XAML and C#/VB/C/C++ and HTML5 and JavaScript. Currently needing to watch some more sessions about the subject to really understand more the WinRT APIs, and their connection and integration with .NET.

From the Windows 8 business ecosystem view, also very interesting to view the Windows Marketplace/Store being created and making us able to better market our apps.

From the User Experience perspective, Windows 8 looks like being very interesting and fully touch focused, but still allowing us to use Keyboard and Mouse even on the more Touch focused areas, and after that having also the Desktop mode to when we’re developing have a better User Experience with our Keyboard, Mouse, and other devices.

Bottom line: Windows 8 appears really, really cool and opens up a huge opportunity for both developing apps and sharing them across several devices, and market those. So, good job Microsoft. Having said that, I still need to see more about those development aspects to be even more impressed.

Eventos Windows Azure para Setembro em Portugal

Nuno Filipe Godinho — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 14:47:44 GMT

No dia 30 de setembro vamos ter um dia dedicado ao Windows Azure, mas este não vai ser um dia qualquer, vai na realidade ser um dia em que todos poderão saber em que o Windows Azure os poderá ajudar, desde os Developers e Arquitectos, aos IT Pros não esquecendo das Startups que muito poderão beneficiar com o programa BizSpark.

Microsoft Cloud Hub Developers registe-se aqui.

Developers	09:00	Recepção e Credenciação
	09:30	O que há de novo no Windows Azure – a Cloud para Devs Miguel Caldas, Microsoft
	10:30	Como rentabilizar ao máximo as subscrições Azure Nuno Godinho, iTech4All
	11:00	Coffee-break
	12:00	Office 365 para Developers Luís Calado & Luís João, Microsoft

Microsoft Cloud Hub IT Pros registe-se aqui.

14:30		O que a Cloud possibilita aos IT Pros Miguel Caldas, Microsoft
15:15		A Cloud Privada Paulo Dias & Fernando Gimeno, Microsoft
15:45		Azure e migração de aplicações Paulo Dias & Fernando Gimeno, Microsoft
16:45		Coffee-break
17:30		Hybrid Clouds Paulo Dias & Fernando Gimeno, Microsoft
18:15		Cenários reais sobre Windows Azure Paulo Dias & Fernando Gimeno, Microsoft

Azure & Cloud para BizSparks registe-se aqui.

Não percam esta oportunidade para conhecer mais e melhor o Windows Azure e como pode ajudar-vos.

Microsoft Windows Azure Development Cookbook by Neil Mackenzie

Nuno Filipe Godinho — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 15:09:02 GMT

(PT)

Para quem estiver interessado num bom livro sobre desenvolvimento em Microsoft Windows Azure Development deveriam ler o “Microsoft Windows Azure Development Cookbook” disponível em http://www.packtpub.com/microsoft-windows-azure-development-cookbook/book.

Neste moment ainda estou a lê-lo e irei colocar uma review assim que terminar a leitura.

(EN)

For those of you interested in a good book about Microsoft Windows Azure Development you should really read the “Microsoft Windows Azure Development Cookbook” in http://www.packtpub.com/microsoft-windows-azure-development-cookbook/book.

Currently I’m still reading but I’ll post a review about it as soon as I finish my reading.

Apresentação do “Windows Azure Traffic Manager CTP” @NetPonto Coimbra

Nuno Filipe Godinho — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 11:34:37 GMT

Hoje estive a fazer uma apresentação no 2° Encontro da Comunidade NetPonto em Coimbra sobre Windows Azure Traffic Manager.

Descrição da Sessão:

“Dado que o negócio se encontra cada vez mais global, é importante que as nossas aplicações também sejam capazes de o ser. Através da utilização do Cloud Computing, e nomeadamente do Windows Azure, conseguimos disponibilizar as nossas soluções num ambiente muito mais global e disponível. No entanto, é importante manter em atenção questões como, por exemplo, o tempo que demoramos a servir cada pedido. Colocando uma solução num Data Center na Europa torna-a efectivamente global, pois está acessível de qualquer lugar via internet, mas os tempos de resposta para cada utilizar vão diferir, e essa nem sempre é uma situação que seja interessante para os objectivos do negócio.

Nesta sessão iremos olhar para um novo serviço disponibilizado pelo Windows Azure chamado Traffic Manager que permite tornar as soluções globais sem perder qualidade de tempo de resposta, uma vez que poderemos disponibilizar a mesma solução em diversos Data Centers ao nível mundial e posteriormente definir a forma como o balanceamento irá funcionar, permitindo assim ter, sem dúvida, uma solução global e acessível rapidamente.”

Podem encontrar os slides aqui e o código aqui.

Irei noutro post descrever em detalhe o Windows Azure Traffic Manager.

Session Review - Migrating Apps into Windows Azure

Nuno Filipe Godinho — Mon, 09 May 2011 16:35:06 GMT

Simon Davies @ Microsoft

Not all applications, services and data will mode to or be created in Windows Azure
- Technology Fit – Windows Azure Service / Programming Model
- Data – some data will remain on premise
- Economics – not worth moving some applications
- Timing – cannot move everything at once
- SaaS – some applications will be provided by SaaS vendors
What capabilities does Windows Azure provide to help migrate and connect?

Rules/Considerations about Windows Azure Applications

Windows Azure apps is built from one or more roles
A Windows Azure apps runs multiple IDENTICAL STATELESS instances of each role
- Stateless
  - This is true but you can always use the Role File System is needed, what happens is that it won’t be permanent since if the machine fails the state in that machine won’t be maintained.
A Windows Azure apps behaves correctly when any role fails

Roles

Web Role : the role is a web app hosted in IIS on Microsoft’s Windows Image
Worker Role: the role is an app hosted on Microsoft’s Windows Machine
VM Role: The role is a pre-loaded app hosted on YOUR Windows Image
- don’t forget that it’s not a persistent VM, is transient
Types of usage:
- Web Role
- Worker Role
- Admin Web or Worker Role (same roles as previously but with some more Startup Tasks that allows you to customize the Microsoft’s Windows Image)
- VM Role

Why VM Role?

Long running application installations
Error-prone application installations
Application installations require manual interaction

How to Build a VM Role?

Take a Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Image
Make it your BASE.VHD
Boot from the machine
Customize your machine
- Install your packages
- Install your apps
- …
Install the Windows Azure Integration components
Run the “sysprep /generalize” command in order to generalize it and you’ll get an Diff.VHD
- generalize the name of the machine
- …
Upload both Base and Diff to the Blob Storage
- “csupload add-vmimage –literalpath <base vhd path> –location <Chosen Data Center>” command compresses the VM and uploads
Add a VM Role in Visual Studio and choose the VHD in the Blob Storage

Example Application Scenarios

Stateless ASP.NET Web Application or Service
- Ideal candidate
Stateful ASP.NET application (either use or instance state)
- Moves with some work
Highly parallel HPC application
- Ideal Candidate
Windows Client Apps
- Not suitable
A single instance sever application with local state (eg. Database server)
- May work with additional design
- Virtual Machine Role will not help (over and above web\worker role)

Windows Azure Connectivity

Data Sync : SQL Azure Data Sync
Application Layer Connectivity & Messaging: Service Bus
Security: Federated Identity & Access Control
Secure Network Connectivity: Windows Azure Connect

Windows Azure Connect

Secure network connectivity between on-premise and Cloud
- Support standard IP protocols
Enable Azure Roles for external connectivity via service model
Enable computers for connectivity by installing connect agent
- Only available in Windows Vista SP1, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2
Network policy managed thought portal
Automatic setup of secure IPv6 network between connected role instances and external computers
- Tunnel firewalls/NAT’s thought hosted SSL-based relay service
- Secure via end-to-end IPSec
Domain-joints

Identity Federation

WIF – Windows Identity Foundation
Windows Access Control

Service BUS

Extend reach of applications securely though the cloud
Enabled multi-tenant apps to integrate with tenants on-premise services
Securely integrate partners outside of organization boundaries
Extend reach of on-premises web services layer
Usage Patterns
- Connectivity
  - Service Remoting
  - Cloud Eventing
  - Protocol Tunneling
- Messaging
  - Load Leveling
  - Multicast Messaging
  - …

Session Review - Windows Azure In Depth

Nuno Filipe Godinho — Mon, 09 May 2011 15:04:01 GMT

Simon Davies ( World Wide Technical Support Professional @ Microsoft )

Windows Azure Overview

Is “An Operating System for the Data Center”
- Treat the data center as a machine
Compute
- Virtualized compute environment based o Windows Server
Storage
- Durable (Automatically Managed by Microsoft. Always have 3 copies for Disaster Recovery purposes)
- Scalable
- High Availability
Network
- Automated network provision and management
- On Premise Connectivity
- Global Content Delivery Network (CDN)
Management
- Automated
- Model Driven Management as a Service
- Resources
- Management
- Provisioning
- Monitoring
Allows Developers to think their app and data only

Windows Azure In Depth

Modeling Cloud Applications
- A could app is typically made up of different components
  - Front End
  - Middle Tier
  - Backend storage
  - Multiple instances of each for scalability and availability
Windows Azure Service
- Windows Azure Hosts “Services”
- A service is
  - An isolated boundary
  - A set of component roles, each within endpoints
  - At runtime numbered, identical instances of each role are created, each instance is a Virtual Machine
- All of this specified declaratively in the service model and configured at runtime using a service configuration
What is a role?
- Definition
  - Role Name
  - Role Type
  - VM Size
  - Network Endpoints
- Code
  - Web/Worker: Hosted DLL and other executable
  - VM Role: VHD
- Configuration
  - Number of instances
  - Number of update and fault domains
- Example:
  - Front-End Role
    - Definition
      - Type: Web
      - VM Size: Small
      - Endpoints: External 1
    - Configuration
      - Instances:2
      - Update Domains: 2
      - Fault Domains: 2
Service Model Files
- Service Definition in in ServiceDefinition.csdef (Definition Part of the Role)
- Service Configuration is in ServiceConfiguration.cscfg (Configuration Part of the Role)
- CSPack, program that exists in the SDK, will zips a service binary into a package (Code Part of the Role)
Compute Runtime Environment
- Fabric Controller talks to the Fabric Agent in order to configure and run the App
- Fabric Agent runs inside the Host OS and talks with the Windows Azure Agend in order to manage their configurations
- Each instance runs inside a Guest OS managed by the Host OS and is composed by
  - Windows Azure Agent
  - Windows Azure Compute
  - YOUR APP
Service Isolation
- Your Services are isolated from other services
The Fabric Controller
- The “kernel” of the cloud operating system
  - Manages datacenter hardware
  - Manages Windows Azure Services
- Some of the main responsibilities
  - Datacenter resource allocation
  - Datacenter resource provisioning
Managing Availability
- Upgrade Domains
  - Default and Max Fault Domain is 5
  - Vertical concept
- Fault Domains
  - Default 2 Fault Domains
Provisioning a role instance
- 3 VHDs are created
  - Guest OS Image (D:\)
  - Resource VHD (C:\)
  - Role VHD (E:\ or the next available letter) = contains the package we deployed
Fabric Controller Security
- The VM is the security boundary upon which Windows Azure security is based
  - the host OS and FC agent are trusted
  - The guest agent is untrusted
Updating the OS
- Initiated by Windows Azure Team
- Goal: update all machines as quickly as possible
- Constraint: must not violate the SLA and so we need at least 2 instances in order not to have a outage of the service

Session Review - Windows Azure - From Startup to the Cash Cow

Nuno Filipe Godinho — Mon, 09 May 2011 13:59:43 GMT

Luis Alves Martins (Architect Evangelist @ Microsoft Portugal)

How do we Start?

Think BIG / Globally
- Multi-Language
- Multi-Currency
- …
Start SMALL
- Start building things step by step, instead of trying to conquer all at once
- Think only on the Application and Data instead of all of those and also Hardware, Hardware Management, and so on.

How to Get Windows Azure?

Microsoft BizSpark Program (Startup with less than 3 years)
MSDN Subscriptions (Microsoft Partner Benefit)
Windows Azure Subscriptions
Windows Azure Pay-as-you-Go

Why Azure?

Cost
Agility
Risk Mitigation
Expertise
- Join the expertise that you already have about developing solutions and Managing Data and connect that with the Expertise by Microsoft on Managing Data Centers

Symmetry

Cloud	SQL Azure	Windows Azure
On-Premise	SQL Server	Microsoft Windows Server 2008 or greater

Platform Continuum
- The same code in Traditional DataCenters, Public or Private Windows Server, Windows Azure, Azure Appliance
  - This can happen if we have some considerations prior to beginning the development
It’s a natural Evolution, not Revolution
- Step forward in terms of:
  - Costs
  - Economy of Scale
  - Don’t think about the Machines and the Hardware
  - …

Business Model

Without any change:
- Customer pays for the software
- Customer buys its own Windows Azure Account
Provide SaaS
- Customer pays for the solution that already includes the Windows Azure costs

Windows Azure Internals Interesting facts

Storage Compute allow us replication of the content in order to provide disaster recovery - http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazurestorage/archive/2010/12/30/windows-azure-storage-architecture-overview.aspx

Pricing is easy (Example)

Compute = 42,52 €/month (1 role – no Licensing fees)
Data = 7,085 €/GB/month (SQL)
Transfer = 0,1064 €/GB/month

How to Start with Azure?

Get the Windows Azure SDK at http://www.WindowsAzure.com
Use your MSDN or get a free account or one month Azure pass at www.azurepass.net
Don’t forget the AzurePT community on Facebook

Some Q&A about Windows Azure AppFabric Caching

Nuno Filipe Godinho — Wed, 04 May 2011 13:29:25 GMT

Today someone asked me about Windows Azure AppFabric Caching, and how it works and so I thought it would be interesting to do a blog post about it, with the Questions and Answers for everyone to see and comment and even ask more, to complete it.

Question: What are the Cache Sizes available in the Windows Azure AppFabric Caching Service?

Answer: 128 MB, 256MB, 512MB, 1GB, 2GB, 4GB

Question: What happens when provisioning Windows Azure AppFabric Caching in the Portal?

Answer: When you do the provisioning of the Caching Service, you define the Cache Size you want to use, and so that Cache Size is Reserved for you in the Internal Cluster of Cache Machines that are associated with the Service.

Question: Is Windows Azure AppFabric Caching Cache Size Always Available?

Answer: Yes, the complete size is always Reserved for you only.

Question: Is Windows Azure AppFabric Caching Cache Size all stored in the same Machine?

Answer: No. Caching Service has a Distributed Architecture and so it spreads your cache size across several machines.

Question: Security is very important and it’s important to understand how does Windows Azure AppFabric Caching Service works in terms of Security? How can we define the security of the Data?

Answer: Windows Azure AppFabric Caching Service is highly integrated with the Windows Azure AppFabric Access Control Service (ACS), and so that is the way to define the security that will be used to access the cache.

Question: What about the Princing? What is the pricing associated with Windows Azure AppFabric Caching Service?

Answer: The Price depends on the Caching Size you choose.

128 MB cache for $45.00/month

256 MB cache for $55.00/month

512 MB cache for $75.00/month

1 GB cache for $110.00month

2 GB cache for $180.00/month

4 GB cache for $325.00/month

But you have it free until August 1st, 2011. More about this check here.

If you have any more questions just ask away and I’ll try to answer them.

MIX11 - Session Review - Building Windows Phone 7 Applications with the Windows Azure Platform

Nuno Filipe Godinho — Mon, 02 May 2011 21:55:05 GMT

Wade Wegner ( Technical Evangelist @ Windows Azure Team )

Why Phone + Cloud?

The cloud levels the playing field
The cloud provides larger pool of resources from which to pull
The cloud provides a way to reach across device platforms

Why Windows Phone 7 and Windows Azure?

Because Windows Azure is PaaS. you build, Windows Azure runs it
Automatic OS patching
Scalable
Utility billing model
Additional services
- Access Control Services (Provides Identity Federations)
- Traffic Manager (Provides an easy way to manage the location from which Data Center the app is served)
- Caching ( Provides a Caching Service that allows us to easily create cache in our apps)
- CDN (Content Delivery Network)
- …
Common Development tools
- Visual Studio
- Languages
- Emulators for development
Demo Source Code: http://www.wadewegner.com/

What was shown in the Demo

Identity
- Identity Options
  - Create your own (eg. username + password, token, …)
    - Custom Model
    - ASP.NET Membership Providers
  - Use a single existing identity system (eg. Live Id, Facebook, Twitter, …)
  - Outsource identity management (eg. Access Control Service)
  - More information about this:
    - Authenticating Users in a Windows Phone 7 App via ACS, OData and Windows Azure - http://bit.ly/wp7acs
Storage
- Storage Options
  - SQL Azure
    - Relational Database
    - Highly available
    - Managed for you as a Service
    - Pattern
      - WebRole that exposes an OData Service
        
        Create a Web role with an OData Service that will expose your SQL Azure data to your clients
  - Windows Azure Tables
    - Non-relational structured Storage
    - Massive scale-out
    - OData
    - Pattern
      - Using Public Blobs
        
        Client sends data to the Web Role
        
        Web Role stores data in blobs
        
        Client fetches public blobs directly
      - Shared Access Signatures (SAS)
        
        Client gets Shared Access Signature from the Web Role
        
        Client inserts the SAS in the URI and stores data in blobs
        
        Client fetches public blobs and even private containers as long as the SAS allows it
  - Windows Azure Blobs
    - Big files
    - REST
    - Pattern:
      - Proxy Calls
        
        Client sends data to the Web role
        
        Web role stores data in Blobs
Services
- Web Role vs Worker Role
- Web Role has IIS
- Worker role does not
  - think about it as being a DLL with a Main()
- Both implement the RoleEntryPoint
- Scaling Work in Windows Azure
  - Traditionally
    1. Web role receives message
    2. Web role enqueues work
    3. Worker role pools queue
    4. Worker role sends notifications
    - Interesting because it splits the IIS and Services parts allowing you to scale them independently
- Multitenancy
  - You can have more than one application running in your role instance
  - based on the Sites tag in the ServiceDefinition.csdef
- Content Delivery Network (CDN)
  - Currently at least 24 nodes that will cache data locally in order to provide the data faster
- Traffic Manager
  - Intelligently routes the request to the most appropriate Data Center according to the policies defined in it
Communications
- Two primary communication models
  - Phone-initiated
    - Options
      - Http-based, request/response
      - Can be based on pooling of User Initiated requests
      - Frameworks choises (WCF, OData, WebRequest, …)
      - Wire Formats (SOAP, JSON, POX, …)
  - Cloud-initiated
    - Push Notifications
      - Single connection between phone and Microsoft Push Notification Service
        
        The cloud cannot connect directly to the phone, just passing by the Microsoft Push Notification
      - There’s no warranty of delivery
      - Bandwidth and battery friendly
    - There kinds of push notifications
      - Raw – send a message to an app
      - Toast – send a message to the user
        
        Blue bar at the top
      - Tile – Update an image, title or count
    - How does this works?
      1. Phone opens a channel in the Microsoft Push Notifications Service
      2. Phone sends the URL to the cloud
      3. Cloud pushes notifications via URL
      4. Microsoft Push Notification Service notifies the phone

Important Best Practice: DO NOT STORE SECRETS ON YOUR PHONE

What is there to make this easier?

Announcing: Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows Phone 7 (v1.1.0)
Make it easier for phone developers to use Windows Azure
Toolkit includes:
- Client libraries
- Sample apps
- Source code
- Documentations
Available on http://watoolkitwp7.codeplex.com
The phone will only communicate with a Service over HTTPs if
- The cert is installed on the device
- The cert is signed by a Trusted Authority
In order to use the self signed certs you need to install it on the phone

MIX11 - Session Review - Powering Data on the Web and Beyond with SQL Azure

Nuno Filipe Godinho — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 22:51:18 GMT

David Robinson (Senior Lead Program Manager)

SQL Azure Relational Database

Based on SQL Server 2008 R2 engine
Use same tools and data access frameworks
Six global datacenters
High Availability & Redundancy
- Reads are completed at the primary
- Writes are replicated to a quorum of secondaries

SQL Azure Roadmap

MIX08
- Introduced SQL Server Data Services (ACE type)
MIX09
- Introduce SQL Data Services (Real Relational Database)
MIX10
- New Features announced
  - 50 GB Database
  - PHP Support
  - MARS support
  - OData Endpoint Preview
  - Geo Spatial Data Types

ASP.NET MVC 3

Razor view Engine which provides a very streamlined syntax for writing clean and concise views.
Improved support for Dependency Injection
Global Action Filters
jQuery based Unobtrusive Ajax and Client Validation
ViewBag property for dynamic access to ViewData
Support for view engine selection in the New Project and Add View dialog

Extending the Reach of Data

This is achieved using ODATA protocol
Cloud Data Services
- Windows Azure Tables
- SQL Azure
- Windows Azure MarketPlace DataMarket
Powering Web/AJAX Experiences
- Consuming ODATA via jQuery & JSON
Powering Windows Phone 7
- ODATA libraries available for Windows Phone 7
Powering Interoperability on Other platforms

Why does Performance matters?

More responsive applications
Faster page load times
- 8 seconds vs 3 seconds
Higher interactivity – new type of applications
Better User Experience – more $$$$

SQL Azure Data Sync

Sync within the Cloud
Read scale-out via multiple copies
- reporting
- web site reference data
Read-write scale-out via multiple copies:
- ex. geo located web apps
Same or different data centers
Key features
- No-Code sync configuration
  - Easily define data to be synchronized and locations
  - Choose how often data is synchronized
- Full Data Synchronization Capabilities
  - Two-way sync of same data, as well as one-way sync
- Conflict Handling
  - Detect and resolve conflicts caused by the same data being changed in multiple locations
- Logging and Monitoring
  - Administration capabilities for tracking usage
- Scale
  - Service scales as resources requirements grow
Currently there are 2 CTPs available
- CTP 1 publicly available
- CTP 2 invitation only
- CTP 3 will be available by the end of the summer and will be feature complete

Geo Available Applications

Windows Azure Traffic Manager
- This will help handle geo-locating SQL Azure Databases
- This will manage the traffic
SQL Azure Data Sync
- Syncs the SQL Azure Databases between regions

CY11 Investment Themes

Managed Services
- Data Protection / Recovery
  - Local Backup/Point in Time Restore: to recover from user/apps errors
  - Geo Backup/Disaster Recovery from data center/geographical disasters
- New Data Movement Capabilities
  - DB Import/Export of data and schema between SQL Azure and SQL Server
  - Migration Support to SQL Azure from Sybase, in addition to existing support for Access, MySQL and Oracle
- Enhanced Management Experiences
  - Enhanced portal based experiences
  - Multiple DB administrators per subscriptions to support enterprise scenarios
Scale on Demand
- Scale-out with Federations
  - Scale to virtually unlimited size to host very large databases across multiple servers
  - Better support for multi-tenant applications with numerous tenants
- Scale-up and Scale-down Databases
  - Scale beyond 50GB and less than 1GB
- Performance Predictability
  - Reserve compute capacity with Resource SLA
- Enhanced multi-tenancy support
  - API level support for multiple DB server per subscription, provisioning & de-provisioning
Faster Innovation
- Rich Insights with Reporting as a Service
  - Ability to author rich reports, host in Azure and view in on-premise or cloud apps
- Spanning Apps with Sync Service
  - Synchronize data between SQL Azure DBs between SQL Azure & SQL Server
- Rich Developer Experiences
  - Professional Devs: VS “Juneau”
  - Department Devs: LightSwitch
  - Java Devs: supported JDBC driver
  - International Devs: Localized Azure Portal
- Data Market Enhancements
  - International rollout
  - Enhanced Content Management
  - Integration with Denali, Office and CRM

Resources

http://www.sqlazure.com
http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlazure
http://www.sqlazure.com/community – Tutorials
http://www.sqlazure.com/getstarted – Free Trial