by community-syndication | Oct 27, 2008 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Well, I’m at the Microsoft PDC (Professional Developers Conference) 2008 at the LA Convention Center in LA.
The keynote session is happening at the moment – Ray Ozzie has just announced Windows
Azure, the new name for the cloud-services platform (I had heard that they would
call is Windows Strata, but there you go!).
Azure look fairly cool, although the development environment is just VS.NET.
What’s new is that they host your services for you, including (in the future) SQL
Services i.e. hosting your databases, which will be fairly cool.
When you create an Azure service in VS.NET, and then choose deploy, the service is
packaged and you’re taking to the Azure
Developers Portal, where the service is uploaded.
Bear in mind that this Microsoft’s answer to Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google
Apps – Microsoft are joining the party late, but I’m hoping that they have learnt
something by being able to watch from the sidelines.
I’m also interested in all the Oslo sessions – for those of us in the BizTalk world,
Oslo gives us information about what future versions of BizTalk will look like (post
BTS 2009).
What’s important to realise is that Oslo is the code name for a whole suite of tools,
as opposed to a single product.
I imagine this means that there will be a whole lot of products that come out under
the Oslo codename/brand.
by community-syndication | Oct 27, 2008 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Ray Ozzie set the stage by talking about how cloud computing is all about moving to the next level of web applications and services that need to reach your customers. The traditional data center model takes a lot of resources to manage all of the data centers, servers, etc. involving dealing with resources like electricity, networking, local laws, etc. Microsoft, and other cloud vendors can help meet these challenges by using their skills and experience in managing data centers, as well as their deep pockets, to build out the infrastructure, tools, and services to help meet this demand.
Windows Azure is the new name for Windows in the cloud. It provides a core set of services in the cloud including storage, workflow, messaging, and live services. The best part is that developers get to use Visual Studio to build the applications – there is a real focus on using existing tools for building cloud applications. Steve Marx did a simple demo showing how a developer can just build an ASP.NET application in Visual Studio using a new project / solution template RUN AND DEBUG LOCALLY, then publish it to the cloud and run it on the MS data center servers. I think the killer here is the developer story. I've used services from Amazon and others for cloud computing, but I think Microsoft has a real chance here to blow them all away if building and deploying applications is as easy as it looks (and appears it is). A more detailed demo showed off a fun little application called BlueHoo that uses Windows Azure as the backbone for a social networking type site based on Bluetooth connectivity between mobile devices.
Bob Muglia talked a bit about Microsoft .NET Services including messaging (Service Bus), access control and workflow. A lot of this is the evolution of BizTalk Services which I talked about recently at the Heartland Developer Conference. These provide a set of core services that developers can use in their applications to take advantage of the scale and reliability of the data center as well as advanced capabilities around messaging and identity when crossing internet and enterprise boundaries.
Identity Services – incorporates tightly with Active Directory to provide a great management and interoperability story for federated identity that is easier to manage and enables support for single sign-on and other identity services.
Microsoft SQL Services is the new name for the SQL Server Data Services (SSDS) as it will shortly include more of the SQL features like reporting and analysis. Another interesting offering planned is to have a ton of reference data (think list of states, postal codes, e.g.) available as part of the data services so you don't have to buy and/or create all of that data.
Bob also talked about a project under development called "Atlanta" that is built in the System Center family, built on Windows Azure, and using Microsoft .NET Services to send data to the cloud and storing it in Microsoft SQL Services. He also showed using a new chart control in Silverlight displaying data queried from Microsoft SQL Services and then showed off a SQL Report using rich charts and gauges, again pulling data from Microsoft SQL Services. Pretty cool new stuff, and it is nice to see them integrating with and building on current tools and servers so it is not all new for developers.
For me, the best thing about the new cloud services is the way it leverages .NET and the current technologies and I'm impressed with the effort to make the developer experience really rich and simple for building cloud services.
Dave Thompson finished up by talking about SharePoint Services and CRM online and how developers can build components for these technologies. The idea is that for many businesses, they spend a lot of time managing services like SharePoint, exchange, etc. and that is not their core business. With the online services, Microsoft handles upgrades, patching, threat/security management, scale, etc. Also, instead of buying hardware and server licenses, you pay as you go for how much you use so the cost is not prohibitive for small businesses. Two key challenges/capabilities Dave talked about are extending the services just like we can extend the server products, and federated identity so a user can be managed in Active Directory and the Microsoft Services Connector links those to a Microsoft Services identity. This provides single sign-on for the user where they don't even know they are using an online service in some cases. For extending the systems, Exchange provides web services you can use, SharePoint online can use SharePoint Designer, web parts, etc. CRM provides web services as well and you can take advantage of data modeling and presentation capabilities.
by community-syndication | Oct 27, 2008 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
A limited Community Technology Preview (CTP) of Windows Azure (Microsoft's cloud based OS), has been unveiled at the Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles on Monday morning.
What is the Azure Services Platform ?
The Azure%u2122 Services Platform (Azure) is an internet-scale cloud
services platform hosted in Microsoft data centers, which provides an
operating system and a set of developer services that can be used
individually or together. Azure’s flexible and interoperable platform
can be used to build new applications to run from the cloud or enhance
existing applications with cloud-based capabilities. Its open
architecture gives developers the choice to build web applications,
applications running on connected devices, PCs, servers, or hybrid
solutions offering the best of online and on-premises.
Windows%u00ae Azure is a cloud services operating system that serves as
the development, service hosting and service management environment for
the Azure Services Platform. Windows Azure provides developers with
on-demand compute and storage to host, scale, and manage Web
applications on the Internet through Microsoft%u00ae data centers.
To
build these applications and services, developers can use their
existing Microsoft%u00ae Visual Studio%u00ae 2008 expertise. In addition, Windows
Azure supports popular standards and protocols including SOAP, REST,
and XML. Windows Azure is an open platform that will support both
Microsoft and non-Microsoft languages and environments.
Microsoft%u00ae .NET Services are a set of Microsoft-hosted, highly
scalable, developer-oriented services that provide key building blocks
required by many cloud-based and cloud-aware applications. Much like
the .NET Framework provides higher-level class libraries that make
developers more productive, .NET Services can help developers focus on
their application logic rather than building and deploying their own
cloud-based infrastructure services.
From
an interoperability perspective, the .NET Services are also available
to other development technologies through the use of industry-standard
protocols such as REST, SOAP, and HTTP. While more services are in the
works, .NET Services currently includes three core components – the
Access Control Service, Service Bus, and Workflow service.
Of particular interest within the stack of Azure Services is the .NET Service Bus, which forms part of the Microsoft .NET Services offering
Microsoft%u00ae SQL Services delivers on the Microsoft Data Platform vision
of extending the SQL Server capabilities to the cloud as web-based
services, enabling you to store structured, semi-structured, and
unstructured data. SQL Services will deliver a rich set of integrated
services that enable you to perform relational queries, search,
reporting, analytics, integration and synchronize data with mobile
users, remote offices and business partners. Currently, SQL Services
offers relational database service called Microsoft%u00ae SQL Data Services.
Other services will be available in future.
How does it work ?
For more information navigate your way to : http://www.microsoft.com/azure, and be sure to register for the CTP, as well as download the available SDK's
by community-syndication | Oct 27, 2008 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Together with my colleague Michel Heijman I was at the keynote speech of the PDC 2008.
I’ve to admit the name has been kept very well a secret, of course you could expect that Microsoft would do far more with BizTalk Services / Workflow Services.
So what is Windows Azure?
Windows Azure is the collection of "Cloud Services" It’s included: Live Services, Microsoft .NET Services (BizTalk- and Workflow Services), Microsoft SharePoint Services, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Services
This was certainly to expected but it’s cool to see how this vision gets more and more concrete.
What is a Cloud Service?
A Cloud service gives you the opportunity to host your (custom)application/process) in a hosted environment. Software+Services (SAAS) vision has been there for a while. In my opinion it kept for a long time as ‘vaporware‘. Why? Because it’s going to give a lot of added value to Businesses. (See the possibilities to get a Exchange online as a smaller company, connect that with Windows Mobile and you could go endless with the possibilities.)
Why host your application?
No more data centers, putting much efforts in managing servers etc etc etc.
The technical preview of Windows Azure has been released as we speak.
It promises to be some interesting time.
The final launch might take some time. But Microsoft has the intention to continuously give new bits to the community. But the want to exceed ‘beta quality”, so the first preview will not be a playing ground. 🙂
Some other cool remarks:
Azure will support the following languages:
- .NET
- Native code(not in CTP)
- PHP(not in CTP) (I never expected this, but it extends the interoperability by far.)
See more at: http://www.microsoft.com/azure/default.mspx
by community-syndication | Oct 27, 2008 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Finally, details about Oslo are being made public….. For those of you who are not at PDC, here are some links you may want to check out:
The Oslo dev center is now live:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/oslo/default.aspx
Cool new Oslo site from Connected Systems Div (see the cartoon “history of modeling” spoof video):
http://modelsremixed.com/
This is a start. There will be a lot more in days/weeks/years to follow.
Ladies and gentlemen of the dev community, fasten your seatbelts, you are about to evolve (again).
Technorati Tags: Oslo,SOA,ESB,BizTalk,Dublin,WCF,WF
by community-syndication | Oct 27, 2008 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Microsoft just unveiled the Azure Services Platform during the keynote address at the Professional Developer Conference this morning. Windows Azure promises to provide a flexible environment in the cloud for hosting high demand and high availability apps.
You can follow any new developments at the wiki which has been set up here: http://www.mycloudapp.net/
by community-syndication | Oct 27, 2008 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Well, we’re finally here, on the ground in LA at PDC. After months of speculation, chatter and building curiosity about Microsoft’s next move in the cloud space, we’ve officially gone on record with the details. It’s always interesting to take a quick look back at what’s been said up to this point; I have to say, some folks got it right and some were way off. My hope is that the details Ray Ozzie and Bob Muglia provided in today’s keynote kick off a fact-based ’round two’ of these industry discussions.
And while we’re all ready to celebrate, I want to take a moment to re-emphasize what a critical day this is. It’s not just critical for Microsoft, but for partners, developers, consumers, IT Pros and technology watchers alike. We all know that we’re in the midst of another paradigm shift; it’s time to carve out your place in making it real and to move forward. I’ll start: My commitment is to do my part in helping develop and bring to market the best possible solution in the Azure Services Platform. This means continuing to have conversations with partners and customers early on, and pushing the boundaries of transparency to ensure the feedback we’re collecting is based on a fully informed view.
So, let’s start with a few of the most important facts from today’s keynote. There are a host of sources live today that can provide all the nitty gritty details.
%u00b7 Ray announced the Azure Services Platform today. The Azure Services Platform is an internet-scale cloud computing and services platform hosted in Microsoft data centers, which provides an operating system and a set of developer services that can be used individually or together. It gives developers the choice to build web applications; applications running on connected devices, PCs, or servers; or hybrid solutions offering the best of both worlds.
%u00b7 The Azure Services Platform consists of the following components: Windows Azure, Live Services, SQL Services, .NET Services, SharePoint Services, and Dynamics CRM Services.
%u00b7 There are CTPs available today, as well as other important technologies that will foster innovation in the world of application development and help to bridge on-premise and cloud domains, such as “Oslo” and the “Dublin” app server enhancements I recently detailed in my blog. Folks at the show today should begin taking a look at all of these pieces.
My group will continue to work on the .NET Services and Windows Azure, as well as “Oslo” (tools, repository and language for modeling), “Dublin”, BizTalk Server and Windows Communication Foundation, Windows WorkFlow Foundation. Thus, we will have our foot in both cloud and premises investments, and those technologies that serve to unite the two: the ’+’ in S+S, if you will. .NET Services, which was previously the BizTalk Services incubation, includes hosted workflow execution, a service bus for communicating across applications and services, and access control for securing applications. These hosted services allow you to easily create federated applications that span from on-premises environments to the cloud. “Oslo”, which we recently provided more details about, was highlighted in the keynote today as the core of Microsoft’s modeling investments for both cloud and premises. We also committed to furthering our interoperability efforts around the declarative language, “M”, by including it under Microsoft’s Open Specification Promise. “Dublin”, “BizTalk Server” and WCF + WF are also big topics at this year’s PDC, so be sure to check out the sessions to hear more.
I look across all these pieces, and I’m incredibly excited and passionate about what’s to come. I feel confident that our investments in innovation, including both new and existing technologies, are the right ones and will help our customers and partners with more choice, interoperability, better security & reliability, simpler management & planning and truly breathe new life into today’s investments.
Now, on to day 2!
by community-syndication | Oct 27, 2008 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
So I’m here at PDC – I plan to post nuggets of data here to my blog. I am going
to keep a running count of new stuff announced relating to REST thought.
All the APIs for this new platform (Windows Azure): storage, queues for communication
are all RESTful endpoints.
REST FTW!
I’ve been talking about REST – and as I’ve been doing it, I’ve been hinting
that more and more stuff from MS would be based on the principles of REST. 9:30
– one hour into the PDC and already a big announcment IMO.
Check out my new book on REST.
by community-syndication | Oct 27, 2008 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Follow me here: http://www.twitter.com/LokiJota
by community-syndication | Oct 27, 2008 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Check out his reasooning here…(read more)
