Tag Archives: Microsoft

Moving Applications to the Cloud on Azure – 3rd Edition (Free Download)

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We recently published the 3rd edition of “Moving Application to the Cloud “. Just like other Patterns and Practices books this books is also available for free download and the source code samples are available as well. I strongly recommend our customers and partners (and audiences :) ) to read this if they considering to move apps to Windows Azure.

Patterns and Practices

Quick summary taken from MSDN is:

 

How do you build and deploy applications to be scalable and have high availability? Along with developing the applications, you must also have an infrastructure that can support them. You may need to add servers or increase the capacities of existing ones, have redundant hardware, add logic to the application to handle distributed computing, and add logic for failovers. You have to do this even if an application is in high demand for only short periods of time.

The cloud offers a solution to this dilemma. The cloud is made up of interconnected servers located in various data centers. However, you see what appears to be a centralized location that someone else hosts and manages. By shifting the responsibility of maintaining an infrastructure to someone else, you’re free to concentrate on what matters most: the application.

This guide is the third edition of the first volume in a series about Windows Azure. It discusses the hosting options available in Windows Azure and demonstrates how you can adapt an existing, on-premises ASP.NET application to one that operates in the cloud. It introduces a fictitious company named Adatum that modifies its expense tracking and reimbursement system, aExpense, step-by-step so that it can be deployed to Windows Azure using a range of different hosting options.

The guide is intended for any architect, developer, or information technology (IT) professional who designs, builds, or operates applications and services that are appropriate for the cloud. It is primarily written for people who work with Windows-based systems. You should be familiar with the Microsoft .NET Framework, Microsoft Visual Studio, ASP.NET, SQL Server and Microsoft Visual C#.

You can download the free e-book here.

Sample Source code is available here.

41 HOLs and 35 Presentations on Windows Azure

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Windows Azure Training Kit has been updated and was released earlier today. This is one of the best resources out there for learning Windows Azure. This particular release delivers 41 HOLs (Hands On Labs), 35 Presentations including new content on Windows Azure SQL Database, SQL Federation, Reporting and Data Sync as well as Security and Identity.

On top of all the Azure learning goodness, this release also includes an agenda for Azure Dev Camps with 7 new branded presentations.

Enough with the blogging,  More details on the MSDN download page at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8396:

 

For direct download from any of your following favourite sources:-

 

Windows Azure Training Kit on GitHub In addition to downloading the training kit contents, you can also browse through the content, report any issues with the content, and make your own contributions on GitHub.   You can find the training kit content on GitHub at http://windowsazure-trainingkit.github.com

Windows Azure Training Kit – Full Package (WATK-August2012.exe) The full package enables you to download all of the hands-on labs and presentations to your local machine.  To use the full package, simply download and run the WATK-August2012.exe.  This file is a self-extracting executable that will extract all of the training kit files to the directory you specify.   After the content is extracted, the starting page for the training kit will be displayed in your default browser.  You can then browse through the individual hands-on labs, demos, and presentations. Download here: http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/7/C/A7CF725D-A215-4294-B0DC-2C01BDB01397/WATK-August2012.exe

Windows Azure Training Kit – Web Installer (WATK-WebInstaller.exe) The Web Installer allows you to select and download just the specific hands-on labs and presentations that you need.  The Web Installer is a much smaller download so it is recommended in situations where you cannot download the full package.  To use the Web Installer, simply download and run WATK-WebInstaller.exe.   The Web Installer will then display a list of the content in the training kit.   You can then select the hands-on labs and presentations to download.  After selecting the content proceed through the steps in the application to download the files to the directory that you specify.   Download it here: http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/7/C/A7CF725D-A215-4294-B0DC-2C01BDB01397/WATK-WebInstaller.exe
Enjoy!

Windows Server AppFabric Cookbook has been published.

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Earlier in March I shared with you that the book that I have been working on since last year is available for pre-order.

AppFabric Cookbook

Today, it gives me a great pleasure to share with you that “Windows Server AppFabric Cookbook” has been published and is en-route to the book shelves near you. Of course you can get an e-book  (PDF, epub, packtlib, mobi) version right away for your favourite reader (Kindle, Nook etc.). Once you purchase the book, the source code is available for download as well.

Some highlights from the book :-

Elevator Pitch:

This book has over 60 recipes that cover Caching, Hosting, Monitoring and Security aspects of Windows Server AppFabric. This book also delves deep in to additional capabilities added by Microsoft AppFabric 1.1 for Windows Server.

Overview:

  • Gain a solid understanding of the capabilities provided by Windows Server AppFabric with a pragmatic, hands-on, results-oriented approach with this book and eBook
  • Learn how to apply the WCF and WF skills you already have to make the most of what Windows Server AppFabric has to offer
  • Includes step-by-step recipes for developing highly scalable composite services that utilize the capabilities provided by Windows Server AppFabric including caching, hosting, monitoring and persistence

What will you learn from this book? 

  • Download, install, configure and get up and running with Windows Server AppFabric quickly
  • Learn how to take advantage of distributed caching for providing high performance and elastic scale on-premise today
  • Take advantage of the enhanced hosting capabilities that Windows Server AppFabric has to offer including Auto-Start and a greatly simplified configuration experience
  • Enable support for long-running composite applications that are resilient and fault-tolerant while maximizing computing resources
  • Gain insight into the health of your composite applications seamlessly, both proactively and when something goes wrong
  • Learn how to scale Windows Server AppFabric by leveraging farm deployments

 Want to know more?

Heard over to Rick’s blog and read more about the book.

In the end…

I have worked very hard on this book for over a year and I have been fortunate to have Rick Garibay co-author it with me. We sincerely hope that this will be a valuable addition to your libraries and you will learn quickly and effectively on how to utilize Windows Server AppFaric’s capabilities to build scalable, distributed and loosely coupled enterprise scale applications.

Feedback:

I will be really glad to hear your feedback. So please drop me a note at hammad[dot]rajjoub[at]gmail.com or a mention @hammadrajjoub.

 

Top Rated Speaker/Session at Singapore TechDays

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Guess what? My Windows Azure AppFabric Service Bus was the top rated session at Singapore Tech Days. Clemens Vasters will be happy to know this, I am sure about it ;) .

Here is the link for the video, if you want to watch it.

How to Run Middleware in the Cloud? Story of Windows Azure AppFabric from SpiffyTV on Vimeo.

Speaking at The Cloud Computing Asia 2011

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I will be speaking at the The Cloud Computing Asia 2011 – An Executive Breakfast Briefing on 18th of August. For more details on the event please visit the event page here.

I will be presenting on "Architecting for the Public and the Private Cloud". In this talk I will cover some of the common architectural practices for building scalable services that can run on the public/private cloud. I hope its going to be an interesting discussion.

I will also be participating in a panel discussion on “Beyond Hype : Applications in the cloud”.

New Adventure

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I have an exciting news to share with you all. I have joined Microsoft Singapore as an Architect Evangelist. Those who know me would testify on my passion for Architecture. I have written about it, I have presented on it at various conferences and more importantly in last 5-6 years I have spent a great deal of time working as System Architect, Solutions Architect and CTO at various organizations (including start-ups and fortune 500 companies).

Now, I am super excited to be working for Microsoft after being an MVP for 7+ years. I am also really glad to be working with smart people at Microsoft in general the Singapore SUB and DPE team in particular. I realize that this is an interesting time to be in this industry when the consumerization of IT is driving innovation, cloud is no longer a dream and its becoming reality, and enterprise (as well as business) architecture is (finally) gaining traction. I am very positive that this opportunity will give me a chance to work on things that I am really passionate about.

I have one more interesting news to share with you and i intend to blog about it in next couple of weeks. So stay tuned!

Wish me luck and expect much more (and hopefully exciting content and conversations) coming your way.

Hosting Gavin Warrener for a “Webmatrix Event”

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<dotnetbulls/> proudly presents our first tech event of the year 2011 by hosting Gavin Warrener from Microsoft Corp (Redmond) on 24, Feb, 2011. Gavin will be sharing his thoughts on Microsoft’s new Web Platform and Web Matrix product. For more details on Web Matrix pls visit Scott Gu’s post. We have limited capacity so kindly register at your earliest here

To download Webmatrix click here

Speaking on ALM/Connected Systems at SGdotNet’s CTU (2nd edition)

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I will be speaking at SGdotNet’s CTU (2nd edition) in developer track. I will be talking about Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate and its Architecture tooling and how to use it to build connected systems. Expect lots of demoes and exciting conversations all around. I will share the slides later on.

Visual Studio 2010 Architecture Tools

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I will be presneting a talk on Visual Studio Architecture tools at Microsoft Singapore’s ALM Workshop on 22nd September, 2010. I believe this is not a public event so unfortunately I cant request you to join me for it.

I will be covering tools and features available in Visual Studio 2010 Utlimate eidition that allow developers and architects to

1- gain better understanding of existing code (and hence helping with improvements/enhancements),

2- design up front (for those who are lucky enough to work on green field projects) :)

3- and to check and validate continuously if the design == code

I am super excited as this topic is very close to my heart! I am hoping the audience will like it and I will be able to share the slides + demoes with you all.