Visual WebGUI targets Web, Silverlight, and Azure

found this interesting article on how to port web applications to cloud applications with minimal change.

Development tool creates Web sites, RIAs, and cloud applications from desktop Windows Forms applications

Last Thursday I had the pleasure of speaking with Navot Peled, CEO, and Itzik Spitzen, vice president of R&D of the Israeli software firm Gizmox. Their product Visual WebGUI, which Iblogged about in January 2008, has outgrown its roots as a simple way to Web-enable Windows Forms applications.

Now you can start with a Windows Forms application (or develop one) and target the Web, Silverlight RIAs, and/or the Windows Azure cloud with a minimum of work. The general idea is that you copy your code into the correct kind of project, replace the System.Windows.Forms namespace in your code with Gizmox.Webgui.Forms, build, and deploy. These steps are illustrated for an Azure target in the screen shots below. (Click each image to see it full size.)

[ Also on InfoWorld: "Visual WebGui: Easier, More Secure Web 2.0 Apps?" | Keep up with app dev issues and trends with InfoWorld's Fatal Exception and Strategic Developer. ]

According to Peled, besides lowering the barrier to development of Web, RIA, and cloud applications, Visual WebGUI offers security and runtime efficiency advantages. In the Visual WebGUI architecture, all of the application logic resides on the server, which is much more secure than having it on the client. The Web client talks to the server over an optimized pipe, consuming 10 percent of the bandwidth and 40 percent of the CPU of a conventional Azure Web application, which reduces the Azure charges incurred.

Visual WebGUI can also utilize third-party ASP.Net controls in Azure using a simple wrapper. The WebGUI runtime takes care of simulating an ASP.Net environment for the control within the Azure fabric.

In July, Gizmox demoed this technology in the Windows Azure booth at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans.

read more from http://www.infoworld.com/d/developer-world/visual-webgui-targets-web-silverlight-and-azure-778

Company Helps ISVs Assess Cost of Microsoft's Windows Azure

An interesting article on how a MS partner creates a tool on cloud computing costs.  Read on.

With the commercial release of Windows Azure scheduled for later this year, one Microsoft partner is giving ISVs a tool to figure out how much deploying their application might cost once Microsoft starts charging for the cloud-computing platform.

As part of a new release of its existing Dotfuscator Suite, PreEmptive includes a way for ISVs (independent software vendors) to monitor an application not only to find out how many computing resources it requires when running on Windows Azure, but also to find out how people are using it, said Sebastian Holst, the chief marketing officer at PreEmptive, based in Mayfield Village, Ohio.

This latter functionality is especially key to helping ISVs calculate how much it would cost to run the application on Azure once Microsoft begins charging a fee because it allows them to specifically weigh the usefulness of the application, he said. By doing so they can decide which components of an application they may want to host on Azure and which parts they may want to sell for an on-premise deployment, Holst said.

"The challenge for developer organizations who are targeting Azure is to figure out how their application will be used," he said. "If you don't know what features [people] use, how much activity will be generated inside the cloud, you will have no way of predicting what the cost will be and what the behavior and value [of the application] will be ultimately to their business."

Dotfuscator is a tool that injects code into an application so its usage can be remotely monitored either through a company's own or third-party analytics software, he said. Alternatively, PreEmptive can provide a hosted dashboard for people to view the information.

Forrester analyst Frank Gillett said it's certainly going to be useful for companies to monitor applications as they begin deploying more of them on a third-party cloud infrastructure. While companies like RightScale and Hyperic offer tools for monitoring how applications consume computing resources, monitoring how people use them is still an emerging area of functionality, he said.

"The whole overall category of getting better visibility into your application is going to become a more important area," Gillett said.

He added that it's likely Microsoft will begin enhancing Azure with similar features as the platform evolves, although there will still be room for third parties to play in this market.

To this end, Microsoft actually bundles a lightweight version of Dotfuscator in its Visual Studio developer toolset, and will do the same with the release of Visual Studio 2010 once it's available so ISVs can measure application usage on Azure, PreEmptive's Holst said. Visual Studio 2010 is currently in beta.

PreEmptive charges US$12,000 for a development group to use the full suite, and then if users want to subscribe to a PreEmptive-hosted dashboard to view the data, it's $2,000 per user per year, Holst said.

At its Worldwide Partner Conference last week, Microsoft made Windows Azure available free for anyone to use until November, when it will begin charging for it mainly on a per-consumption basis so people pay only for what resources an application uses.

Microsoft also will offer what it's calling a development accelerator that will allow people to pay a one-time fixed price for six months of access to Windows Azure as a more predictable pricing option. In that scenario, Microsoft calculates how much it would cost to run an application on the platform for that time period and then discounts it 45 percent as part of the six-month promotion.


source here: http://www.pcworld.com/article/168854/company_helps_isvs_assess_cost_of_microsofts_windows_azure.html

MySynths - Publish Photosynths on Facebook via Windows Azure

An application called MySynths running in Azure.  Read on.

MySynths is a Cloud application designed to no less than bridge Facebook and Microsoft Photosynth. Essentially, the app allows users of the social networking website to integrate content created with Photosynth into Facebook profile pages. “MySynth” was developed by speakTech with CEO Aaron Sloman presenting the application at the Real Estate Connect Conference, and is currently available for Facebook members, revealed Chris Pendleton, the Virtual Earth Technical Evangelist for Microsoft. At the same time, MySynths is a pure Cloud application, as it leverages not only Facebook and Photosynth, but also Microsoft's Cloud operating system, Windows Azure.


 “Once you find the Photosynth you want to publish, simply complete the form on the application page. The Title can be anything you want. You can choose to use the name of the Synth itself from the site or make up your own. Next, put in the URI string from the Photosynth site. You can get the URI from landing on the actual synth page (out of the address bar) or by clicking the EMBED tag (the little <> carrots) on the page. Next, add an URI to the thumbnail. This is a little trickier for the novice, but I went to the user’s collection of Synths, right clicked on the respective thumbnail of the Synth, view the image properties, copied the URI from there and pasted it in,” Pendleton explained.

MySynths will first of all enable Facebook members to add Photosynths to their page. Each Synth needs a Title and a source URL. But Facebook users are also free to add a Thumbnail Image URL, a Thumbnail Description, extra details, location data, and even external URLs with more information on the content shared. For every Synth added, a thumbnail will be displayed on the profile page featuring a link to the Facebook page that hosts the embedded Photosynth.

“The Thumbnail Description, again can be anything you want, but you may be best off to just copy the content from the site. Same goes for the long description,” Pendleton said. “The location is a bit trickier. If there is a globe icon on the Photosynth page, that means that it has been georeferenced and you can sort of reverse figure it out for yourself. If you uploaded the Synth yourself, you obviously know where the Synth belongs in this world and can enter it yourself. Add a URI for more information – in this case I put the Real Estate Agent’s web site URI.”

Users will also be able to opt for their Synths to be added to the application tabs and even for them to be published via their Facebook feed. Of course that MySynth also offers the possibility to manage and edit synths after content has been embedded. “Before you can publish to your feed, you have to grant the application the ability to publish posts or comments, so remember to click the link and configure that before you continue. Click “Add Synth” and BOOM! you’re done,” Pendleton stated.


source here http://news.softpedia.com/news/MySynths-Publish-Photosynths-on-Facebook-via-Windows-Azure-119049.shtml

Windows Azure Blob Gets New Set of Features

Microsoft announces new features for Blog:


The Windows Azure Blob features that allow customers to manipulate files as large as 50 GB have been updated. Brad Calder, from Windows Azure Storage, revealed that the new additions to Microsoft’s Cloud operating system went live on August 11, 2009. Testers currently leveraging the Community Technology Preview of Windows Azure are already able to take advantage of the evolution of Windows Azure Blob modifications. However, Windows Azure CTP users should know that the new collection of features is only available via the Windows Azure Storage REST interface. However, Microsoft does plan to continue with the evolution of Windows Azure, by integrating the new features into future release of the Windows Azure SDK and storage client library.

“We are releasing a new set of features for Windows Azure Blob. Windows Azure Blob enables applications to store and manipulate large objects and files in the cloud. The blobs (files) can be up to 50GB in size for the CTP. All changes for this release are versioned changes, using “x-ms-version: 2009-07-17”. All prior versions of commands executed against the storage system will continue to work, as we extend the capabilities of the existing commands and introduce new commands,” Calder noted.


 The latest features added to Windows Azure include Update Blob with PutBlockList, Root Blob Container, and Shared Access Signatures for Signed URLs. Windows Azure testers will now be able to update the contents of specific blobs. This was not the case ahead of the August 2009 refresh. In fact, before the update, refreshing content was synonymous with re-uploading the entire blob, even though the changes introduced were affecting a single block.

“With this new version, PutBlockList now allows you to add blocks, remove blocks, replace blocks, shuffle the order of existing blocks, or any combination of these for an existing blob. The benefit of this new feature is that to perform these changes you only have to upload the blocks you want to add or change. PutBlockList now allows you to create a new version of the blob by choosing blocks from a combination of (a) the existing set of blocks that comprise the current blob from the committed block list and (b) the newly uploaded blocks from the uncommitted block list,” Calder explained.

With the introduction of the Root Blob Container – Windows Azure now supports scenarios in which multiple storage accounts can leverage a single root blob container. In this regard, Cloud applications will be able to not only store but also reference blobs right off the domain address. “With this versioned change, we also changed the way applications perform operations on containers to make it explicit that it is a container operation instead of a blob operation,” Calder added. “Note, to use the root blob container “x-ms-version: 2009-07-17” must be specified. Support for anonymous requests that do not require a x-ms-version HTTP header to be specified will be added in the future.”

Windows Azure users can take advantage of Shared Access Signatures for Signed URLs to produce signatures that will streamline access to Azure Blobs. All signatures can be time-bombed, and have specific expiration dates, making it possible for Azure Blobs to be accessed without owning a private key or without the content being public.

“Applications can now create these Signed Access Signatures and add these to requests to Azure Blobs to create Signed URLs. You create a signature computing a hash over a canonicalization of the request using your storage account secret key. The signature can then be used as part of the URL to provide read, write, or delete access for blob requests. Note, Shared Access Signatures do not require the use of x-ms-version,” Calder stated.


click here for more http://news.softpedia.com/news/Windows-Azure-Blob-Gets-New-Set-of-Features-119134.shtml

Riviera Windows Azure Reference Application Available

Here's one article where one company jumps into the Windows Azure wagon:


The release of version 1 of Microsoft’s first Cloud operating system is approaching fast and will be available to customers in November 2009. In this regard, companies that are looking to jump aboard the Windows Azure wagon now have available a reference application. Project Riviera can be accessed through the MSDN Code Galley and is available for download with components governed by three separate licenses. Source code files are up for grabs via the Microsoft Public License (Ms-PL), the binary files are offered with an MSDN Code Gallery Binary License, and the documentation files with a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.


 “Project Riviera is a comprehensive code sample to demonstrate how to develop multi-tenant highly-scalable line-of-business application on Windows Azure Platform. This sample is developed by Global Partner Architecture Team in Developer & Platform Evangelism group at Microsoft in collaboration with Cumulux - our Cloud ISV partner. Riviera uses Customer Loyalty Management scenario for illustration purpose but many building blocks are applicable to range of line-of-business applications,” Microsoft revealed.

Customers should know that Project Riviera is in no way a product or solution from the Redmond company. In this regard, the software giant indicated that the sample code had been built and offered only for evangelism purposes. Windows Azure, the company’s Cloud platform, was debuted into public testing at the end of October 2009. For the time being the Cloud OS continues to be available to testers as a Community Technology Preview.

“Key features of Riviera:
-Multi-tenant data store based on Azure Table Storage as well as SQL Azure.
-Per tenant customization of data model
-Per tenant customization of business logic (using Windows Workflow in Windows Azure)
-Per tenant customization of user interface using Silverlight 3.0. Customization can be multi-level – custom theme, custom XAML, and custom XAP.
-Automated tenant provisioning.
-Windows Azure web role->Azure Queue->worker role pattern for high volume transaction processing that can scale on demand
-Claims aware web service and web application using Geneva Framework
-Active and Passive Federation using Geneva Framework, Geneva Server and .NET Access Control Service (ACS)
-Windows Live ID authentication for consumer facing web site
-Use of Patterns & Practices Enterprise Library Caching and Logging application blocks in Windows Azure,” reads an excerpt from the description of Project Riviera.


source here http://news.softpedia.com/news/Riviera-Windows-Azure-Reference-Application-Available-119238.shtml

NY Times on Google vs. Microsoft

an article about data center operations...

August 17th, 2009 : Rich Miller

As we’ve often noted here at DCK, data centers are the front line on many business battles of the Internet age, including the rivalry between Microsoft and Google. Ashlee Vance at The New York Times examines how the two companies approach their data center operations this morning on the Bits blog, noting Microsoft’s roof-less Generation 4 design and the company’s recent decision to migrate its Windows Azure operations out of Washington State for tax reasons.

source here http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2009/08/17/ny-times-on-google-vs-microsoft/

The Geopolitics of Cloud Computing - Gartner

Just went through this article about cloud computing. Read on.

Like most highly hyped technology topics, also cloud computing is raising increasing political attention. This is already clear for the U.S: Federal Government where many people at OMB and GSA push the idea of cloud computing as a cure for various IT diseases. But this is happening also at the state and local level. Two apparently unrelated news concerning the State of Washington give a flavor of what I mean:

According to a CIO article, some lawmakers recently criticized the creation of a new State data center and office complex, claiming that the use of cloud infrastructure from vendors would be less expensive.

According to a Microsoft blog post, due to a change in local tax laws, Microsoft decided to migrate Windows Azure applications out of their northwest data center (actually in the State of Washington) prior to the commercial launch scheduled for November. An article on The Register reminds that “When Microsoft first started work on its Quincy, WA, facility, it enjoyed from a manufacturer tax break, but in December 2007, the break was rescinded by the state attorney general because data centers “do not produce a product which is sold to the companies’ customers.” Microsoft soon halted construction on its local data center (as did Yahoo!)”. This latest announcement looks like an additional step in the direction of divesting from Washington.

source here: http://www.dabcc.com/article.aspx?id=11487