Microsoft Azure

Have any of you checked out Microsoft Azure? I'm curious to see if anyone has had any experience with it? I've done a lot of reading up on it but I think their site is still in beta as its a lot of text to read through.

I still have no idea what the *^%#$ a cloud is....hehe

Watching the guys at the PDC using Azure to send something up to the cloud just looked like it was uploading to a normal server to me. Maybe I'm missing the point.

Harlequin said:

I still have no idea what the *^%#$ a cloud is....hehe

Watching the guys at the PDC using Azure to send something up to the cloud just looked like it was uploading to a normal server to me. Maybe I'm missing the point.

From all I have read cloud computing is simply accessing applications, resources, or development tools directly from your web browser. The cloud is the "internet" or web 2.0

Not really.

DarrenP said:

Harlequin said:

*snip*

From all I have read cloud computing is simply accessing applications, resources, or development tools directly from your web browser. The cloud is the "internet" or web 2.0

The difference between cloud computing and a regular web server is that the cloud is virtualized, you can run any number of instances of your application, it doesn't matter on what server it's (currently) running and you don't have to worry about the hardware. Want to scale up? Launch more instances of your application.

TommyCarlier said:

DarrenP said:

*snip*

The difference between cloud computing and a regular web server is that the cloud is virtualized, you can run any number of instances of your application, it doesn't matter on what server it's (currently) running and you don't have to worry about the hardware. Want to scale up? Launch more instances of your application.

Best way is think of it as a runtime environment for you app that needs no hardware.  You create your app, define the environment you want it to run in as part of your projects config and then upload it to a web site and magic happens and a few minutes later you have a function web application with near infinite scale, if you’re willing to pay.

TommyCarlier said:

DarrenP said:

*snip*

The difference between cloud computing and a regular web server is that the cloud is virtualized, you can run any number of instances of your application, it doesn't matter on what server it's (currently) running and you don't have to worry about the hardware. Want to scale up? Launch more instances of your application.

Except that "Cloud computing" is being thrown around by the lower echelons of the IT media and it's gone full-circle and now refers to any kind of hosted service, Hotmail, now 13 years old is a "cloud computing application", same with Google Apps (they're just more fashionable).

Harlequin said:

I still have no idea what the *^%#$ a cloud is....hehe

Watching the guys at the PDC using Azure to send something up to the cloud just looked like it was uploading to a normal server to me. Maybe I'm missing the point.

It's all 1's and 0's flowing over a bus into the CPU  

I'm surprised that no ones tried Microsoft Azure yet, is it currently free?

DarrenP said:

I'm surprised that no ones tried Microsoft Azure yet, is it currently free?

Who says we haven't, I got my access codes approved couple of weeks ago....  What sort of thing do you want to know?  The best way is just go download the SDK and have a play.

PerfectPhase said:

DarrenP said:

*snip*

Who says we haven't, I got my access codes approved couple of weeks ago....  What sort of thing do you want to know?  The best way is just go download the SDK and have a play.

I'm just curious to get some reviews of their service really, I'll go download the SDK but have you been impressed so far?

DarrenP said:

PerfectPhase said:

*snip*

I'm just curious to get some reviews of their service really, I'll go download the SDK but have you been impressed so far?

DarrenP you should sign up for the beta and download the SDK to playaround with. This includes some tutorials that take you through the functionality. 

Excuse the blatent promotion but I wrote a short summary of Azure. This also has links to the PDC presentations which you should watch if interested:
http://www.simpleisbest.co.uk/Blog/BlogEntryDetail/Azurefirstlook?id=60

Chris Hay wrote a good post and presentation overview as well:
http://silverlightuk.blogspot.com/2008/11/ddd7-welcome-to-cloud-windows-azure.html

The best way to learn about it is to walk hrough their examples on the SDK download. The web ui is still a bit clunky but it is early days.

In the SDK there is an chat program example that talks via a message broker called the Service bus. Their is no noticable lag and on the whole I am quite impressed by Azure.

I havent used the Amazon or Google offering so not sure how it compares to these.

alexmac said:

DarrenP said:

*snip*

DarrenP you should sign up for the beta and download the SDK to playaround with. This includes some tutorials that take you through the functionality. 

Excuse the blatent promotion but I wrote a short summary of Azure. This also has links to the PDC presentations which you should watch if interested:
http://www.simpleisbest.co.uk/Blog/BlogEntryDetail/Azurefirstlook?id=60

Chris Hay wrote a good post and presentation overview as well:
http://silverlightuk.blogspot.com/2008/11/ddd7-welcome-to-cloud-windows-azure.html

The best way to learn about it is to walk hrough their examples on the SDK download. The web ui is still a bit clunky but it is early days.

In the SDK there is an chat program example that talks via a message broker called the Service bus. Their is no noticable lag and on the whole I am quite impressed by Azure.

I havent used the Amazon or Google offering so not sure how it compares to these.

Have you actually developed an application on Azure yet? I downloaded and tried the SDK and went through the examples that you said to check out.

I've researched Google AppEngine and it seems more for developers who want to make quick little applications or even games/basic applications rather than corporate developing or building applications that are more complex.

PerfectPhase said:

TommyCarlier said:

*snip*

Best way is think of it as a runtime environment for you app that needs no hardware.  You create your app, define the environment you want it to run in as part of your projects config and then upload it to a web site and magic happens and a few minutes later you have a function web application with near infinite scale, if you’re willing to pay.

From what I understand, Azure is simply a web service hosting scheme where Microsoft takes care of setting up the hardware, and you simply supply the software.

From Tommy's and PerfectPhases' responses, this sounds pretty much correct.

spivonious said:

PerfectPhase said:

*snip*

From what I understand, Azure is simply a web service hosting scheme where Microsoft takes care of setting up the hardware, and you simply supply the software.

From Tommy's and PerfectPhases' responses, this sounds pretty much correct.

Yeah, after reading through their site it seems like thats an accurate description. You don't develop the applications using Azure, its simply a deployment environment where the hardware responsibilities are on Microsoft.

Seems pretty useful.

DarrenP said:

I'm surprised that no ones tried Microsoft Azure yet, is it currently free?

This week Microsoft is offering a free trial one week (no credit card required).

http://blogs.msdn.com/usisvde/archive/2010/05/01/try-windows-azure-sql-azure-free-for-a-week.aspx

Harlequin said:

I still have no idea what the *^%#$ a cloud is....hehe

Watching the guys at the PDC using Azure to send something up to the cloud just looked like it was uploading to a normal server to me. Maybe I'm missing the point.

I do NOT like the word "cloud", I find it very very offensive as a techie. Fits on a tabloid crappy newspaper. Frankly, I can not believe that "we" allow this word to be attached to Internet services.

 

I don't see why when all the tabloid "IT-news" sites and corporates start puking out some insulting name like "cloud", we just pick that piece of crap up and eat it, It doesn't taste all that good! One could say I'm fairly disappointed at the IT-crowd, I thought we were more aware than "regular" users.

 

I also dislike the word Azure very very much.

 

...and when I dislike a name on something, I won't touch it.

 

Just my two cents.