Melbourne Azure April 2012

1. Melbourne AzureApril 2012 news by David McGhee, Windows Azure Technical Specialist

2. Platform Platform Announcements Reduced Pricing on Windows Azure Storage and Compute Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows 8 Consumer Preview TFS Beta Build Service on Windows Azure StreamInsightin Windows Azure: Austin February CTP Updated Windows Azure SDK & Windows Azure HPC Scheduler SDK SQL Azure MP CTP is now available Microsoft Codename "Data Hub" - An Online Service for Data Discovery, Distribution and Curation Microsoft is building a new datacenter in Dublin A new Data Center in West USA – BAY (Compute and Storage)

3. Windows Server 8: Microsoft Online Backup Service The Online Backup Service is a Windows-Azure-based service that will enable Windows Server 8 users to back up and recover files and folders (but not system state). Recent Announcing a Build Service for Team Foundation Service Microsoft Endpoint Protection for Windows Azure Customer Technology Preview Windows Azure Trust Center Relentless on Security, Your Privacy Matters, Independently Verified, FAQs Refresh of Service Bus EAI & EDI Labs

4. News In the news Summary of Windows Azure Service Disruption on Feb 29th, 2012 by Kyle Hilgendorf from Gartner regarding Azure customer reactions “I want to share that I was very pleased with the level of detail in Microsoft’s RCA.” “Microsoft decidedly suspended service management in order to stop or slow the spread of the issue. Microsoft made this decision with very good reason.” “The actual leap day baugissue and resolution was identified, tested, and rolled out within 12 hours. That is pretty fast.” “Microsoft took steps to prevent the outage from worsening. Had these steps not been taken, we might have seen a much bigger issue.” “Microsoft understands that real-time communication must improve during an outage and are taking steps to improve.” • Communication could have been better • Lack of real-time transparency • Perception Microsoft was hiding the severity of the outage • Windows Azure Service Dashboard needs to be improved Gartner Partner Platform as a Service: Definition, Taxonomy and Vendor Landscape, 2012 Microsoft! scoops! Yahoo!'s big! data! brain! Microsoft Plans Q4 Debut for Dynamics ERP on the Azure Cloud

5. Partners Partner Azure Circle Program (19 and growing) Joint solutions CommVaultSimpana9 for Windows Azure - Joint solutions available now Stealth Secure Sharepoint storage packs now available in 41 and 63TB Programs Free Techila to Azure Universities (get in before June) Discounted Windows Azure Storage Offers effective April 1st New Offers Reduced SQL Azure Pricing and New 100MB Database Option

6. People Service Bus/WF PM Regional Visits in April • Bob Dimpsey (WF development director) • Todd Holmquist-Sutherland (Service Bus group manager). Microsoft Silverlight 5 and Windows Azure Enterprise Integration Windows Azure Platform Product Marketing Manager (PMM) Sydney Job Vinoo – HPC and Hadoop Specialist on tour in Australia 26th -30th!!

7. Tips and Resources Tip/s of the week Windows Azure Security Best Practices Series Windows Azure Basics Series Windows Azure @ Home – Protein Folding [Updated] Windows Azure Guidance area on Codeplex Tips & Tricks On Architecting Windows Azure For Costs Resources Standard Response to Request for Information – Security and Privacy Building Azure Applications using Agile Methodologies and Continuous Integration Moving SQL Azure Servers Between Subscriptions Service Bus support in azure npm 0.5.2 Did you know: MSDN Users get up to $3,700.00 in annual Windows Azure benefits? A Primer on Hadoop (from the Microsoft SQL Community perspective)

9. Tools Windows Azure PowerShell Cmdlets (v2.2.2) CloudNetCare, a solution to test the performance of Web sites Opstera- tracking its health, the underlying Cloud Platform and the 3rd party Cloud Services it is dependent on Microsoft Research •Azure Fluent Management including Sql Azure management 0.3 •Azure User Management Console – AUMC Microsoft Translator Hub ChronoZoom – •Cotega - Web based monitoring for SQL Azure and cloud hosted SQL Server FetchClimate!:

10. Local Australia CSV OneNimbus® 2SQL Limited Offer Breeze Consulting Windows Azure Airlift 1 day training Locate Windows Azure partners with Microsoft Pinpoint directory Get your Travel Gear – Harvey Norman enabled once more with Windows Azure

11. DevOps Examples…. Hands on: Windows Azure Diagnostics [Mar 29] • •Team Foundation Server on Windows Azure Cloud – Part 3 – Administer Security • •How to use Diagnostics.wadcfg to configure Windows Azure diagnostics collection • •Setting Up Diagnostics Monitoring In Windows Azure • Team Foundation Server on Windows Azure Cloud • Advanced (and flexible) Configuration for Windows Azure .NET Applications(configure .Net applications running in Windows Azure in the same way you do with traditional On-Premise applications) •Applying Config Transformation app.config in Windows Azure Worker Role Programmatically finding Deployment Slot from code running in Windows Azure Automated Performance Counter Injection in Windows Azure Roles •Choosing What To Monitor In Windows Azure •Monitoring in Windows Azure •SCOM 2007 R2: MP to monitor SQL Azure

12. Competition RightScale: Hybrid clouds on the rise HP Offers Developer Tools for New Cloud Platform - SaaS Google going forward with Go language Salesforce Aims to Obsolete the CMS with Site.com Launch compose the entire site, including layout template and content, and host the site including the database on the Force.com platform, for a flat fee of $1,500 per month. Amazon EC2 Recovers After Brief Downtime Dell blows Clouds of love into the channel Amazon cuts cloudy prices Rackspace snaps up SharePoint911 Amazon Giant Aims to Squash PaaS Competition with Elastic Beanstalk