If you were one of the developers at one of my talks that was tempted to try Windows Azure, but didn’t want to pay to give the platform a shot, here is your chance. Previously, the only way to get some time on Azure was to have an MSDN Subscription but Microsoft noticed that a lot of their audience that wanted to try out the Azure a Platform didn’t have a subscription.
Microsoft has announced the Windows Azure Introductory Special which offers 25 free hours per month on a Small instance, a Web Edition SQL Azure Database, 2 Service Bus connections to AppFabric, and 500MB of Transfers coming to, and going from the Cloud. This is a fairly decent starting point for someone trying to launch an existing application to Windows Azure.
How do I get started?
If you just came across my blog there are a few posts that you may want to check out to get up to speed on Windows Azure:
You can also get some tools and an a free IDE to help you deploy your project to the cloud.
Where do I sign up?
Head on over to the Windows Azure Offers page, and click the Buy Now button under the Introductory Special.
What do I do next?
Head out to TechDays 2010 for some Training on Windows Azure.
[Update]
The Microsoft DPE Team in Canada is Dedicated to answering your questions about Windows Azure. If you have a question you would like to ask directly to a Microsoft Representative email the Canadian team at
[/Update]
I’m writing to you from my hotel room in Regina, Saskatchewan where this week I attended and Presented at the first ever PrairieDevCon. Saskatchewan, normally overlooked for Technology Events showed their support with nearly 100 attendees, featuring 50 sessions over two days, by 25 industry experts.
I contributed to this incredible event with 2 sessions both pertaining to the Microsoft Cloud. First up was Taking it to the Cloud, which pulled in a crowd of 10-15 attendees. To take a look at the code that was presented, it was released as an open source project on CodePlex called Azure Email Queuer [a Refactored Visual Basic Version is also available]. My Second session entitled Making your data Rain from the Clouds attracted between 7-12 attendees. Both Code Samples demonstrated are also available on CodePlex. Download ASP.NET SQL Azure Connection, or Ruby SQL Azure Connection to see how to leverage WCF Web Services that expose data using the OData Protocol.
A Special Thanks to Telerik for their sponsorship and support. Without them this trip wouldn’t have been possible. Take a look at their leading set of Controls for Microsoft Technologies, as well as their new set of Productivity tools including JustCode and TeamPulse.
What’s Next?
Next week, to finish off my 3 week conference tour, I’ll be in New Orleans for TechEd North America. I’m looking forward to learning more Advanced Topics on Windows Azure, SQL Azure, and get my feet wet with Windows Phone 7. Besides the ability to learn advanced topics, I’ll also be trying to meet some of my Programming Idols that will be in attendance. I look forward to meeting with Craig Shoemaker from Infragistics, Steve Marx from Microsoft, Shawn Wildermuth of AgiliTrain.
If you see me at the event, Please feel free to come introduce yourself. I look forward to making many new friends at the event.
I will also attempt to do some Live Blogging of some of the sessions so be sure to keep checking back for some interesting news from New Orleans.
With Microsoft’s release of Windows Azure and moving towards a future of Cloud Computing, I’ve been waiting to hear what is to be done in the Market of Gaming, more specifically the Community Contributions using the XNA Framework. Up until XNA version 3.0 Microsoft’s plan was to keep Community Content as a Closed faced application that wouldn’t be able to communicate with the outside world. XNA 3.0 delivered Xbox Live integration into Community Games, allowing hobbyist developers the ability to make their creations multiplayer. With the Resent release of XNA 4.0, which falls after the Release of the Cloud, I was hopeful to find some sort of Cloud Applicable use for community developers.
XNA 4.0 did however bridge a recent gap that would have been introduced with the Release of the Windows Phone. With the number of Gaming platforms that are being introduced it would be beneficial to tie them together with the Cloud. Lets close our eyes and dream for a moment.
Fading into Dream Land
Recently, I’ve downloaded a new game from the Xbox Live Marketplace, and I’ve become fairly addicted to this game as it allows me to be creative, as well it is extremely educational [Hey, it’s a dream right?]. I’ve been playing this game all morning but have to meet a friend of mine across town, but I’m about to reach Virtual Nirvana. I open up the save menu, and there is an option to save to a Cloud Drive. I don’t really understand what this is at the time, but think sure why not? I leave my house and head for the bus stop. As I wait for the bus I get a bit bored and pull out my Windows Phone, and go browsing through my games. I’ve downloaded my favourite game but am disappointed as I won’t be able to continue on from where I left off. I launch the Game, and it reports to me that there has been a recent game session saved to a Cloud Drive that is associated with my Xbox Live ID. The bus finally arrives, I step on the Bus and reach my seat. Looking down at my phone I realize that my game has loaded up to the exact place in which I saved it before I had left the house.
Once I arrive at my destination I save the game before exiting the bus. I stop into my friends house, he tells me he’s found this amazing game for the PC on Xbox Live. Wouldn’t you know, it’s the same game that I’ve been playing all day. Wanting to impress my friend I show him that I can load up my session by logging into my Xbox Live Account.
Snap Back to Reality
If saving to a Cloud disk seems a little far fetched [There would be a lot of security folk at my neck for even suggesting it], it could re-introduce the Latter match back into games, like PC games back in the early 90’s. Saving information from gaming sessions out to a SQL Azure database to offer a bit more than most community run games. I would really enjoy to see content being able to be delivered for an in game experience, however that opens up a large number of security talks, especially with the ability for Media Extenders to expand the content onto a PC.
I have a game idea which would benefit from fresh content being delivered from a Web Service to be injected into game play. Currently the only way to expand a game would be to create game add-ons in which Gamers could download and attach to your game, but I am still searching to find if this ability is enabled for Community Developers using XNA.
Get In the Game!
If you haven’t tried out Developing for Windows, Xbox 360, Zune, or would like the jump on Developing for the Windows Phone. Check out the XNA Game Studio 4.0 CTP. Microsoft has also released a full tool set for developers that are specifically interested in Developing for the Windows Phone.
If you are excited about Cloud computing or are looking at the cloud as a viable option for your business. You might want to join the Windows Azure Firestarter Event that is going on in Redmond.
This event will be taking an end-to-end look at the Cloud computing offerings of Windows Azure. You can attend the event online however you still have to Register for the event.
I’m excited to understand more of the direction that Microsoft is leaning towards with the Windows Azure Platform. I’m hoping to hear more about Windows Azure and the Xbox 360 to see if they plan to open up more flexibility for the XNA Framework developers that are bringing many community games to the Xbox Gaming Platform.
Wednesday, 17 March 2010 19:45 by
SyntaxC4Last week I had the Pleasure of going out to Montreal, Quebec to present at an Open Source Developers Conference called Confoo. Confoo was put on by PHP Quebec, with hard hitting sponsors including Savoir-Faire Linux, Microsoft Canada, and Google.
Presenting at Confoo was a big deal for me it’s the first time I’ve been to Quebec, and the first time flying on an air plane by myself. It’s was also a great experience, even though I try to keep a vanilla front on the diversity of programming languages Microsoft folk, and Open Source folk are normally on two separate planes. However the crowd that came out to my presentations were extremely attentive and even though I was pitching a Microsoft product you could see there was quite a bit of interest in Windows Azure in the group.
In the spirit of open source I have released my source code on CodePlex. I hope that people will be able to download and learn from the code I’ve created. Unfortunately, I had to remove the references to the database and I will be decommissioning my WCF Service in the cloud (SQL Azure). Currently I have only release three projects on CodePlex but I will update this post in the future with the new Projects as I complete the PHP and Python versions that I am still working on.
The LittleBlackBook Database Project
This project contains the SQL Script to create the database on either a local installation of SQL Server, or run against your SQL Azure database. This Project also contains the WCF Data Service code so you have all you need to expose the data as an OData Service.
Download the LittleBlackBookDB Project
The LittleBlackBook .NET Connection Project
This project consumes the data from the WCF Data Service and uses the Entity Framework to provide the strongly typed classes to represent the data in the Service. You can add new People, and modify their Bets.
Download the LittleBlackBook.NET Project
The LittleBlackBook Ruby Connection Project
Because I’m primarily a .NET developer I got a fellow Guelph Coffee and Code member and good friend of mine Tony Thompson. Tony is a Graduate Student at the University of Guelph, and is currently looking to find a steady job as a Developer. He is primarily a Ruby, or Python Developer, but can easily adapt to any language.
Tony used an Atom gem to read the OData from the WCF Data Service.
Download the LittleBlackBook Ruby Project
More to come!
As I would like to be able to help anyone start working on the Azure platform, I am still in the midst of creating a PHP and Python application. If you are interested in seeing those demos check back or follow me on twitter.
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