Azure Services Platform
Encyclopedia
The Windows Azure Platform is a Microsoft cloud platform used to build, host and scale web applications through Microsoft data centers. Windows Azure Platform is thus classified as platform as a service
and forms part of Microsoft's cloud computing
strategy, along with their software as a service
offering, Microsoft Online Services
. The platform consists of various on-demand services hosted in Microsoft data centers and commoditized through three product brands. These are Windows Azure (an operating system providing scalable compute and storage facilities), SQL Azure (a cloud-based, scale-out version of SQL Server
) and Windows Azure AppFabric
(a collection of services supporting applications both in the cloud and on premise). Microsoft has announced free Ingress for all the customers of Azure from 1 July 2011.
Microsoft has also published plans to offer the Windows Azure Platform Appliance, which can be hosted in non-Microsoft data centers. This will enable resellers, such as HP, Dell, Fujitsu and eBay, to offer cloud services based on the Microsoft Azure Platform.
datacenters to host and run applications. It provides a cloud operating system called Windows Azure that serves as a runtime
for the applications and provides a set of services that allows development, management and hosting of applications off-premises. All Azure Services and applications built using them run on top of Windows Azure.
Windows Azure has three core components: Compute, Storage and Fabric. As the names suggest, Compute provides a computation environment with Web Role, Worker Role, and VM Role while Storage focuses on providing scalable storage (Blob
s, non-relational Tables, and Queues) for large-scale needs. Relational Database functionality is offered through SQL Azure, which is a scalable version of SQL Server that runs on the Azure platform.
Fabric (Windows Azure Fabric) makes up the physical underpinnings of the Windows Azure platform as the network of interconnected node
s consisting of server
s, high-speed connections, and switch
es. Conceptually, the repetitive pattern of nodes and connections suggests a woven or fabric-like nature. Compute and Storage components are part of the Fabric.
Fabric resources and applications and services running on those resources are managed by the Windows Azure Fabric Controller service. It acts as the kernel of the Windows Azure distributed cloud operating system, providing scheduling, resource allocation, device management, and fault tolerance for the nodes in the Fabric. It also provides high-level application models for intelligently managing the complete application lifecycle, including deployment, health monitoring, upgrades, and de-activation.
The Windows Azure Platform provides an API built on REST
, HTTP and XML
that allows a developer to interact with the services provided by Windows Azure. Microsoft also provides a client-side managed
class library which encapsulates the functions of interacting with the services. It also integrates with Microsoft Visual Studio
so that it can be used as the IDE
to develop and publish Azure-hosted applications.
Windows Azure became commercially available on 1 Feb 2010.
Windows Azure also offers Content Delivery (CDN)
services as an option. The Azure CDN enables worldwide low-latency delivery of static content from Azure Storage to end-users from 24 data centers worldwide.
Windows Azure ranked first among all cloud-platform providers in Cloud speed test conducted by application performance management vendor Compuware
.
, called Windows Azure, to run its "fabric layer" — a cluster
hosted at Microsoft's datacenters that manages computing and storage resources of the computers and provisions the resources (or a subset of them) to applications running on top of Windows Azure. Windows Azure has been described as a "cloud layer" on top of a number of Windows Server
systems, which use Windows Server 2008 and a customized version of Hyper-V
, known as the Windows Azure Hypervisor to provide virtualization of services.
The platform includes five services — Live Services
, SQL Azure (formerly SQL Services), AppFabric (formerly .NET Services), SharePoint Services and Dynamics CRM Services
— which the developers can use to build the applications that will run in the cloud. A client library, in managed code, and associated tools are also provided for developing cloud applications in Visual Studio. Scaling and reliability are controlled by the Windows Azure Fabric Controller so the services and environment do not crash if one of the servers crashes within the Microsoft datacenter and provides the management of the user's web application like memory resources and load balancing
.
The Azure Services Platform can currently run .NET Framework
applications compiled for the CLR
, while supporting the ASP.NET
application framework and associated deployment methods to deploy the applications onto the cloud platform. It can also support PHP websites. Two SDKs have been made available for interoperability with the Azure Services Platform: The Java SDK for AppFabric and the Ruby SDK for AppFabric. These enable Java
and Ruby
developers to integrate with AppFabric Internet services.
March 2009
November 2009
February 2010
June 2010
October 2010 (PDC)
The location of the data centers are:
The CDN nodes are located in 24 countries.
The $500 million facility is one of the largest construction projects in Ireland over last 12 months and has generated approximately 1 million man-hours of work with a peak workforce of around 2,100 workers. The data center will also provide approximately 35-50 jobs in the Dublin area.
The facility, which began operations on July 1, 2009, currently covers 303,000 square feet (2.815 hectares), with 5.4 mega watts of critical power available to deliver services to consumers and business customers. Over time, the data center can expand to a total of 22.2 mega watts of critical power to support future growth.
Platform as a service
Platform as a service is a category of cloud computing services that provide a computing platform and a solution stack as a service...
and forms part of Microsoft's cloud computing
Cloud computing
Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over a network ....
strategy, along with their software as a service
Software as a Service
Software as a service , sometimes referred to as "on-demand software," is a software delivery model in which software and its associated data are hosted centrally and are typically accessed by users using a thin client, normally using a web browser over the Internet.SaaS has become a common...
offering, Microsoft Online Services
Microsoft Online Services
Microsoft Online Services is Microsoft's hosted software offering and a component of their Software plus services strategy. Microsoft Online Services are hosted by Microsoft and sold "with" Microsoft partners....
. The platform consists of various on-demand services hosted in Microsoft data centers and commoditized through three product brands. These are Windows Azure (an operating system providing scalable compute and storage facilities), SQL Azure (a cloud-based, scale-out version of SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database server, developed by Microsoft: It is a software product whose primary function is to store and retrieve data as requested by other software applications, be it those on the same computer or those running on another computer across a network...
) and Windows Azure AppFabric
AppFabric
AppFabric refers to two related Microsoft products.* Windows Server AppFabric* Windows Azure AppFabric-Windows Azure AppFabric:Windows Azure AppFabric is a part of the Microsoft Windows Azure Platform...
(a collection of services supporting applications both in the cloud and on premise). Microsoft has announced free Ingress for all the customers of Azure from 1 July 2011.
Microsoft has also published plans to offer the Windows Azure Platform Appliance, which can be hosted in non-Microsoft data centers. This will enable resellers, such as HP, Dell, Fujitsu and eBay, to offer cloud services based on the Microsoft Azure Platform.
Overview
The Windows Azure Platform is an application platform in the cloud that allows MicrosoftMicrosoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
datacenters to host and run applications. It provides a cloud operating system called Windows Azure that serves as a runtime
Run-time system
A run-time system is a software component designed to support the execution of computer programs written in some computer language...
for the applications and provides a set of services that allows development, management and hosting of applications off-premises. All Azure Services and applications built using them run on top of Windows Azure.
Windows Azure has three core components: Compute, Storage and Fabric. As the names suggest, Compute provides a computation environment with Web Role, Worker Role, and VM Role while Storage focuses on providing scalable storage (Blob
Blob
- In biology :* Blob , sections of the visual cortex where groups of color-sensitive neurons assemble* Globster, an unidentified organic mass that washes up on the shoreline of an ocean or other body of water...
s, non-relational Tables, and Queues) for large-scale needs. Relational Database functionality is offered through SQL Azure, which is a scalable version of SQL Server that runs on the Azure platform.
Fabric (Windows Azure Fabric) makes up the physical underpinnings of the Windows Azure platform as the network of interconnected node
Node (networking)
In communication networks, a node is a connection point, either a redistribution point or a communication endpoint . The definition of a node depends on the network and protocol layer referred to...
s consisting of server
Server (computing)
In the context of client-server architecture, a server is a computer program running to serve the requests of other programs, the "clients". Thus, the "server" performs some computational task on behalf of "clients"...
s, high-speed connections, and switch
Network switch
A network switch or switching hub is a computer networking device that connects network segments.The term commonly refers to a multi-port network bridge that processes and routes data at the data link layer of the OSI model...
es. Conceptually, the repetitive pattern of nodes and connections suggests a woven or fabric-like nature. Compute and Storage components are part of the Fabric.
Fabric resources and applications and services running on those resources are managed by the Windows Azure Fabric Controller service. It acts as the kernel of the Windows Azure distributed cloud operating system, providing scheduling, resource allocation, device management, and fault tolerance for the nodes in the Fabric. It also provides high-level application models for intelligently managing the complete application lifecycle, including deployment, health monitoring, upgrades, and de-activation.
The Windows Azure Platform provides an API built on REST
Representational State Transfer
Representational state transfer is a style of software architecture for distributed hypermedia systems such as the World Wide Web. The term representational state transfer was introduced and defined in 2000 by Roy Fielding in his doctoral dissertation...
, HTTP and XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
that allows a developer to interact with the services provided by Windows Azure. Microsoft also provides a client-side managed
Managed code
Managed code is a term coined by Microsoft to identify computer program code that requires and will only execute under the "management" of a Common Language Runtime virtual machine ....
class library which encapsulates the functions of interacting with the services. It also integrates with Microsoft Visual Studio
Microsoft Visual Studio
Microsoft Visual Studio is an integrated development environment from Microsoft. It is used to develop console and graphical user interface applications along with Windows Forms applications, web sites, web applications, and web services in both native code together with managed code for all...
so that it can be used as the IDE
Integrated development environment
An integrated development environment is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development...
to develop and publish Azure-hosted applications.
Windows Azure became commercially available on 1 Feb 2010.
Windows Azure also offers Content Delivery (CDN)
Content Delivery Network
A content delivery network or content distribution network is a system of computers containing copies of data placed at various nodes of a network....
services as an option. The Azure CDN enables worldwide low-latency delivery of static content from Azure Storage to end-users from 24 data centers worldwide.
Windows Azure ranked first among all cloud-platform providers in Cloud speed test conducted by application performance management vendor Compuware
Compuware
Compuware Corporation is a software company with products aimed at the information technology departments of large businesses. The company's services also include testing, development, professional services automation, project and portfolio management, cloud-based collaboration and performance...
.
Azure Platform Components
- Windows Azure Compute
- Web Role
- Worker Role
- VM Role
- Windows Azure Storage
- Table
- Queue
- Blob
- SQL Azure
- SQL Azure Data Sync
- SQL Azure Reporting
- Content Delivery Network
- Azure AppFabric
- Access Control
- Caching
- Service Bus
- Windows Azure Fabric Controller
- Azure Market Place
- Azure Virtual Network
- Azure Connect
- Azure Traffic Manager
Implementation
The Windows Azure platform uses a specialized operating systemOperating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
, called Windows Azure, to run its "fabric layer" — a cluster
Cluster Computing
Cluster Computing: the Journal of Networks, Software Tools and Applications is a journal for parallel processing, distributed computing systems, and computer communication networks....
hosted at Microsoft's datacenters that manages computing and storage resources of the computers and provisions the resources (or a subset of them) to applications running on top of Windows Azure. Windows Azure has been described as a "cloud layer" on top of a number of Windows Server
Windows Server
Windows Server is a brand name for a group of server operating systems released by Microsoft Corporation. All are part of Microsoft Servers.- Members :This brand includes the following software:* Windows 2000 Server* Windows Server 2003...
systems, which use Windows Server 2008 and a customized version of Hyper-V
Hyper-V
Microsoft Hyper-V, codenamed Viridian and formerly known as Windows Server Virtualization, is a hypervisor-based virtualization system for x86-64 systems. A beta version of Hyper-V was shipped with certain x86-64 editions of Windows Server 2008, and the finalized version was released on June 26,...
, known as the Windows Azure Hypervisor to provide virtualization of services.
The platform includes five services — Live Services
Live Services
Live Connect is a collection of APIs and common controls that allow developers to have a deeper control and offers access to the core Windows Live services and data through open and easily accessible application programming interfaces...
, SQL Azure (formerly SQL Services), AppFabric (formerly .NET Services), SharePoint Services and Dynamics CRM Services
Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a multi-lingual Customer Relationship Management software package developed by Microsoft. Out of the box, the product focuses mainly on Sales, Marketing, and Service sectors, but Microsoft has been marketing Dynamics CRM as an XRM platform and has been encouraging...
— which the developers can use to build the applications that will run in the cloud. A client library, in managed code, and associated tools are also provided for developing cloud applications in Visual Studio. Scaling and reliability are controlled by the Windows Azure Fabric Controller so the services and environment do not crash if one of the servers crashes within the Microsoft datacenter and provides the management of the user's web application like memory resources and load balancing
Load balancing (computing)
Load balancing is a computer networking methodology to distribute workload across multiple computers or a computer cluster, network links, central processing units, disk drives, or other resources, to achieve optimal resource utilization, maximize throughput, minimize response time, and avoid...
.
The Azure Services Platform can currently run .NET Framework
.NET Framework
The .NET Framework is a software framework that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. It includes a large library and supports several programming languages which allows language interoperability...
applications compiled for the CLR
Common Language Runtime
The Common Language Runtime is the virtual machine component of Microsoft's .NET framework and is responsible for managing the execution of .NET programs. In a process known as just-in-time compilation, the CLR compiles the intermediate language code known as CIL into the machine instructions...
, while supporting the ASP.NET
ASP.NET
ASP.NET is a Web application framework developed and marketed by Microsoft to allow programmers to build dynamic Web sites, Web applications and Web services. It was first released in January 2002 with version 1.0 of the .NET Framework, and is the successor to Microsoft's Active Server Pages ...
application framework and associated deployment methods to deploy the applications onto the cloud platform. It can also support PHP websites. Two SDKs have been made available for interoperability with the Azure Services Platform: The Java SDK for AppFabric and the Ruby SDK for AppFabric. These enable Java
Java (programming language)
Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...
and Ruby
Ruby (programming language)
Ruby is a dynamic, reflective, general-purpose object-oriented programming language that combines syntax inspired by Perl with Smalltalk-like features. Ruby originated in Japan during the mid-1990s and was first developed and designed by Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto...
developers to integrate with AppFabric Internet services.
History
October 2008 (PDC LA)- Announced the Windows Azure Platform
- First CTP of Windows Azure
March 2009
- Announced SQL Azure Relational Database
November 2009
- Updated Windows Azure CTP
- Enabled full trust, PHP, Java, CDN CTP and more
- Announced VM Role, Project Sidney, Pricing and SLAs
- Project “Dallas” CTP
February 2010
- Windows Azure Platform commercially available
June 2010
- Windows Azure Update
- .NET Framework 4
- OS Versioning
- CDN
- SQL Azure Update (Service Update 3)
- 50GB databases
- Spatial data support
- DAC support
October 2010 (PDC)
- Platform Enhancements
- Windows Azure Virtual Machine Role
- Role enhancements
- Admin mode, Startup tasks
- Full-IIS support
- Extra Small Instances
- Windows Azure Connect
- Access to on-premise resource for cross-premise apps
- Support for Domain-joining VMs
- Direct role-instance connectivity for easier development
- Use your existing remote administration tools
- Improved Dev / IT Pro Experience
- New Windows Azure Platform Management Portal
- Multiple users & roles for management
- Remote Desktop
- Enhanced Dev Tools
- PHP Development
- Marketplace
Datacenters
Some datacenters have servers grouped inside containers - each containing 1800-2500 servers.The location of the data centers are:
- North America
- North-central US - Chicago, IL
- South-central US - San Antonio, TX
- Asia
- East Asia - Hong Kong, China
- South East Asia - Singapore
- Europe
- West Europe - Dublin, Ireland
- North Europe - Amsterdam, Netherlands
The CDN nodes are located in 24 countries.
Microsoft Azure in Ireland
As of July 2010, “Microsoft had completed 6,000 Irish installations of its cloud-based Windows Azure platform”. Executives at Microsoft are hoping that this figure will rise to 100,000 installations by 2011. Examples of companies using Windows Azure in Ireland are Aer Lingus and HR Locker. “Aer Lingus, is using Azure to create an interactive web application that integrates route maps with their reservation and booking process”. Whereas HR Locker, a Web 2.0 provider of HR solutions to small to medium size companies was built on Window’s Azure cloud based computing platform. HR Locker chose to build their application on Windows Azure with the intention of improving scalability, backup, security and the various other issues associated with hosting.The $500 million facility is one of the largest construction projects in Ireland over last 12 months and has generated approximately 1 million man-hours of work with a peak workforce of around 2,100 workers. The data center will also provide approximately 35-50 jobs in the Dublin area.
The facility, which began operations on July 1, 2009, currently covers 303,000 square feet (2.815 hectares), with 5.4 mega watts of critical power available to deliver services to consumers and business customers. Over time, the data center can expand to a total of 22.2 mega watts of critical power to support future growth.
Competitors
- Amazon Web ServicesAmazon Web ServicesAmazon Web Services is a collection of remote computing services that together make up a cloud computing platform, offered over the Internet by Amazon.com...
- Engine YardEngine YardEngine Yard is a San Francisco, California based company focused on Ruby on Rails deployment and management-Software development:One of Engine Yard's four founders, Ezra Zygmuntowicz, was the creator of the Merb project, and the company continued supporting the project by hiring Yehuda Katz to work...
- Google App EngineGoogle App EngineGoogle App Engine is a platform as a service cloud computing platform for developing and hosting web applications in Google-managed data centers. It virtualizes applications across multiple servers,...
- HerokuHerokuHeroku is a cloud Platform as a Service run by the San Francisco, California-based company with the same name. Heroku led the way for a multi-language PaaS, introducing the 'polyglot platform'. Heroku initially supported the Ruby programming language, with Rack and Ruby on Rails. Heroku PaaS now...
- Force.comForce.comForce.com is a cloud computing platform as a service system from Salesforce.com, that developers use to build multi tenant applications hosted on their servers as a service. The company pushes the "development as a service" phrase, but it has not gained acceptance outside the context of their...
- SkytapSkytapSkytap, Inc., founded in 2006, is a cloud computing provider that provides virtual lab automation as a cloud service. It is headquartered in Seattle, Washington...
- VMwareVMwareVMware, Inc. is a company providing virtualization software founded in 1998 and based in Palo Alto, California, USA. The company was acquired by EMC Corporation in 2004, and operates as a separate software subsidiary ....
- Rackspace Cloud
- GoGridGoGridGoGrid is a cloud infrastructure service, hosting Linux and Windows virtual machines managed by a multi-server control panel and a RESTful API. GoGrid is privately held and competes in the dedicated hosting space against Rackspace and in the cloud computing hosting space with those listed in the...
External links
- MSDN UK Windows Azure Platform
- The Official Home Page of the Windows Azure platform
- Introducing the Azure Services Platform, David Chappell, Chappell & Associates
- "Tribune Transforms Business with Windows Azure"
- AzureSupport.com - Azure Tutorials and News
- Cloud Computing Tools Blog
- JAzure, a Java API for Azure Storage
- Voclare, a Windows Azure Diagnostics Service
- Conceptual View of Windows Azure in Spanish. Made by Microsoft Developer Evangelist
- Microsoft Cloud Computing for Government
- Microsoft Virtual Academy | Cloud-based learning experience focusing on Microsoft Cloud technologies