Sunday, March 16, 2014

Azure Starter Steps - Building your own first Azure application

As the next technology trend gets strong inclined towards Cloud Computing be it - Sales Force.com, Amazon AWS or Microsoft Azure, my curiosity towards technology increases and have made an attempt to learn more about it myself :) I needed to get this blog rebooted to a new start as well and think this is the right topic to learn, explore and share as I move along further too.
Focus here would be Microsoft Cloud technology stack - Azure. Here are few bytes that would be helpful for starters who would want to learn about Windows Azure and Cloud computing in general. Ofcourse, there are bunch of materials lying out there but this is one stop shop for everything you need to know about Microsoft Azure.

First, you can create your own Microsoft Azure Account and get free space on cloud - absolutely free! Microsoft has announced that it doesn't even require Credit Card information, only thing required is your cell number to validate your identity! It also provides retail subscriptions for Windows Azure. You would like to go here to sign up -
 

Benefits that come along with -
  • 30 day free trial
  • Pay as you go
  • 6 month plans - $500 per month minimum w/- discounts
  • 12 month plans - $500 per month minimum w/- greater discounts
  • VL Enterprise agreements
  • MSDN Subscription
  • Free credit depending on MSDN level up to $150 / month for Ultimate
  • Discounted rates
  • Microsoft FTE Azure employee pass was discontinued -> MSDN
  • Microsoft Internal Billing for sponsored Azure solutions
Once you have created your Azure subscription account, you can get started creating your first Azure application with easy steps- 
  1. Install Visual Studio and Azure SDK
  2. Sign in to Windows Azure in Visual Studio Server Explorer
  3. Create a Windows Azure Cloud Service Visual Studio project
  4. Enter project name
  5. Add ASP.Net Web role which would be Empty
  6. Add "default.aspx" web form
  7. Publish the Azure application from Visual Studio
  8. Access your application – http://.cloudapp.net/ from cloud and wola!
In addition, below you can find Azure Service Visual Studio Template:


It includes templates and components around Windows Azure services -
1 ASP.Net web role
2 WCF Service web role
3 Worker Role with Service Bus Queue
4 Worker Role
5 Basic Azure component management in Server Explorer
6 Cache Worker Role – provides a dedicated cache

Azure retail subscription pricing calculator:



Manage your portal w/easy to use Azure management portal:
 
 
More.... - DJ

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