Excellent keynote today by Scott Guthrie and the Windows Azure team! I don’t know if it’s because I’m seeing it on the other side for the first time or if it’s due to the amazing new capabilities introduced into Windows Azure, but I loved every second of it! Within a few minutes Scott had jumped into a demo and it was nonstop thereafter!
I’ve been waiting for almost a year to write this blog post.
Keynote with Scott Guthrie
In order to get this post out quickly I decided to share my rough notes from the keynote. Over the coming days and weeks I will certainly expand this with more information.
Scott Guthrie:
Today’s release “elevates Windows Azure to a new level”
Capabilities like Windows Azure Web Sites and open source libraries open the platform to many more developers
Three pillars of Windows Azure:
Flexible
Open
Solid
Windows Azure has pioneered Platform-as-a-Service
Today we’re enabling Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
Support of Linux is how we’re embracing openness in a new way
Supporting more languages, protocols, and SDKs
Open-source libraries and SDKs on Github under the Apache 2.0 license
Demo: New Windows Azure website
There’s a new Linux and Mac installer for Node.js
Spent time optimizing the portal to work across platforms
Full monitoring and statistics through the portal
Everything done through the portal is communicating to APIs thereby allowing you to do everything through the command line
IaaS
Create a new virtual machine
Anything installed on the machine will persist; full durable VM
Image gallery
We have a number of SDKs to download, including Mac
installs an Azure utility and wires up a BASH shell
including ASCII art
SSH’d into Ubuntu machine
Virtual Networks
Not just upload VMs into the cloud
Integrate into your existing networks and VMs you already have
Shipping virtual private networking
A wizard to create an address space and subnet; we’ll virtualize these addresses
You can provide DNS servers in the cloud or on-premises
Scott Guthrie on VMs:
Virtual machine portability
Between the cloud and different environments
All VMs are running a VHD format which is an open spec
Because it’s the same file format you can take a VM and move to Windows Azure or even move it back; you don’t have to export or convert the VHDs
This allows you to run in your data center, other service providers, or within Windows Azure: flexibility, portability, and no lock-in
VM persistent drive
Mount durable drives to the virtual machines
Reliable and consistent
When you mount a drive the disk is backed with the Windows Azure storage system
Triple replicate the content; no interruption of service if there’s a failure
Continuous storage and geo-replication
Partner: RightScale
Michael Crandell, CEO
Mission: to build a broad cloud management platform
Web-based environment that allows companies to manage everything from development to delivery of applications running on cloud infrastructures
Think of us as a bridge between the apps and the infrastructures you want to run on (public, private, or hybrid)
Partner: worked with the Windows Azure team to interact with the new IaaS APIs
Brought to Windows Azure the full set of RightScale capabilities
When run by RightScale the solution includes auto scale
Why Windows Azure?
Microsoft knows how to run global cloud infrastructure with a high degree of operational excellence
IaaS + PaaS is an industry first – provides an entire environment for the development and deployment of apps that are compelling, from simple to complex
Openness – a clear commitment of openness at multiple levels
Scott Guthrie on Web sites:
Benefits
Build with ASP.NET, Node.js, or PHP
Deploy in seconds with FTP, Git, or TFS
Start for free, scale up as your traffic grows
Bill Staples demo
Opposite end of the cloud spectrum
Visual Studio & .NET
Quickly created a website
Downloaded a publishing profile that includes all the connection information
Opens up Visual Studio and ASP.NET MVC 4
Import the profile and publish
Support in both VS 20120 and VS 2012
Built and published into the cloud in just a few seconds
Updated a string and republished
Preview shows the deltas between local and cloud
Just push the change
Mac with Node.js
Instead of the portal use the commandline
Use the azure command
Uses git to deploy
One update connects to Mongo running in a Linux VM
Sometimes it’s nice to build an application without writing code
Best of Windows Azure and the power of open source
MySQL: worked with ClearDB to provide MySQL as a service
Scale
Scale out
By default, website is running as a Shared Website
You can increase instance count
Scale up
Move from Shared to Reserved
Only my websites are routed
10 free shared websites
Scott Guthrie on Cloud Services:
Another model for building infinitely scalable applications and services
The traditional PaaS offering that Windows Azure has had since release
Creates a multi-tier applications using the website Bill created and adding a worker role
Process
Upload a service package (which is essentially a zip file) into the cloud
Fabric controller provisions the machines and deploys my bits and brings it into rotation through load balancer
Scott Guthrie on Building Blocks:
Overall message is to enable developers to focus on applications and less about infrastructure
Application building blocks
big data
database
storage
traffic
caching
messaging
identity
media
CDN
networking
Delivered by MSFT and partners
Language support for: .NET, Node.JS, Java, PHP, Python
Libraries you can consume natively
Libraries on Github under Apache2
SQL Database
Relational SQL database
Clustered for high availability
Fully managed service
SQL Reporting support
Blob storage
Features
Highly available, scalable and secure file system
Blobs can be exposed publically over http
Continuous geo-replication across datacenters
Real-time data showed in portal
SQLs surfaced in the portal
Cache
implementing Memcached protocol support
Use the distributed service or run it in your own instances
Identity
Integrate with enterprise identity
Enable single sign-on within your apps
Enterprise Graph REST API
93% of Fortune 1000 use Active Directory
Service Bus
Secure messaging and relay capabilities
Easily build hybrid apps
Enable loosely coupled solutions
Cross platform SDKs
Media Service
Create, manage, and distribute content
Target any device or media format
Ingest, Encode, Protect, Stream
Marketplace integration
Azure in 89 countries and territories