An introduction to Windows Azure

Windows Azure is a platform for running Windows applications and storing their data in the cloud. The Azure platform reduces the need for up-front technology purchases, and it enables developers to quickly and easily create applications running in the cloud by using their existing skills with the Microsoft Visual Studio development environment and the Microsoft .NET Framework.

Azure simplifies maintaining and operating applications by providing on-demand compute and storage to host, scale, and manage web and connected applications. Infrastructure management is automated with a platform that is designed for high availability and dynamic scaling to match usage needs with the option of a pay-as-you-go pricing model. Azure provides an open, standards-based and interoperable environment with support for multiple internet protocols, including HTTP/HTTPS, REST, SOAP, and XML.



As the figure suggests windows Azure compute and storage services are built on top of the fabric which is the foundational resource manager of Windows Azure. The Windows Azure compute service is a .NET-based software such as ASP.NET applications and Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) services. The platform also supports background processes that run independently—it’s not solely a Web platform.

Both Windows Azure applications and on-premises applications can access the Windows Azure storage service, and both do it in the same way: using a RESTful approach.

Running applications and storing their data in the cloud can have clear benefits. Rather than buying, installing, and operating its own systems, for example, an organization can rely on a cloud provider to do this for them. Also, customers pay just for the computing and storage they use, rather than maintaining a large set of servers only for peak loads. And if they’re written correctly, applications can scale easily, taking advantage of the enormous data centers that cloud providers offer. Yet achieving these benefits requires effective management. In Windows Azure, each application has a configuration file. By changing the information in this file manually or programmatically, an application’s owner can control various aspects of its behavior, such as setting the number of instances that Windows Azure should run. The Windows Azure fabric monitors the application to maintain this desired state.