[Translate books]-moving applications to the cloud on the Microsoft Windows azure platform-1

Translator's words

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Microsoft's cloud computing screen is about to be opened. It's time to learn about it. this is a small book with more than one hundred and thirty pages. Translation is also a process of self-learning. I hope I can stick to it. I also hope that the translation of this book will be helpful to Chinese friends who love technology. -Zhongdao Xueyou

 

Original book address

Http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff728592.aspx

You can download this book from the address above.CodeAnd hands on lab.

 

Zhu Yanyi

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Millions of people are using cloud services from Microsoft. As a company, we will participate in this process without exception. as a person who has been involved in the azure tide since the very beginning, it is amazing to see its fruits. this is the first introduction and guidance to the Windows azure architecture. It is prepared by the Microsoft patterns & Practices Team for customers who are still exploring cloud computing for what they mean. this guide will answer many questions these customers may ask. microsoft attaches great importance to cloud computing. this guidance is one of Microsoft's numerous investments to ensure that customers can successfully start R & D applications.ProgramAnd migrate applications to cloud computing.

 

Familiar. net and other Microsoft platform developers will be able to use their existing skills to quickly build and migrate existing applications to the cloud, and can also use the power of cloud computing to expand to millions of user groups, let you touch everyone in the world. furthermore, Windows Azure is an open platform that works well with other technical groups and application architectures, this gives customers full options and flexibility to decide whether to migrate as many businesses as possible to the cloud, rather than starting from scratch.

 

This guidance is a good starting point for those who want to use the system and instance-based methods to learn about the cloud.

 

Sincerely

Amitabh Srivastava
Windows azure senior vice president

 

Zhu Yan 2

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Microsoft's recent release of the Windows azure platform has created a foundation that allows users to easily migrate their applications from local (on-premises) to the cloud. windows Azure is a platform for R & D, boarding, and management of cloud-based services. with Windows Azure, customers can benefit from enhanced flexibility. The Azure platform is well balanced and can reduce it costs. microsoft's cloud strategy has three broad principles:
• Flexible service deployment options based on business needs.
• Lossless, flexible, reliable, and secure enterprise-level services
• Consistent cross-device and cross-platform interconnection experience
Windows Azure is a key component of Microsoft's cloud policy.

Windows Azure is based on Microsoft's online services for millions of users and years of experience in building a platform for developers. we focus on our talents to make it easy for programmers and IT practitioners to switch from local (on-premises) to the cloud. their existing skills and experience are exactly what they need to learn about the windows azure platform.

 

Microsoft is committed to Windows azure and will continue to expand it because we have studied customers around the world, from the largest enterprise to the smallest isV. one of the benefits of automatic online platforms is that they allow us to quickly innovate.

I am very excited to introduce the guidance from the Microsoft patterns & Practices Team. This is a proof of our commitment to helping customers succeed on the Windows azure platform. whether you are new to Windows azure or you are already using it, you will find that this Windows azure guide is a good source of important information to consider. I encourage you to explore Microsoft public cloud services and follow more guidance from the patterns & Practices Team.

Sincerely

Yousef halidi

Windows azure distinguished engineer

 

Preface

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How can a company's applications be measurable and highly available? In addition to developing these applications, you must have an infrastructure that supports these applications. for example, you need to add more servers to increase the capabilities of providing services, add redundant hardware, and add logic to applications to handle distributed computing and failover. even if your application is only used by many people for a short period of time, you have to add these things. if you begin to consider network latency and security boundaries, it will become more complicated.

 

Cloud computing provides a solution to this dilemma. the cloud is composed of multiple servers interconnected in different data centers. however, it seems like it is owned and centrally managed by others. by outsourcing the operational infrastructure responsibility to others, you can focus freely on the important part-the application itself. if cloud services have data centers in different geographic locations, you can bring your content closer to the users who use your services most. if an application is heavily loaded in Asia, we can start an instance in the data center in Asia. this flexibility may not be achieved even if you have all the hardware. another cloud advantage is the idea that "only need to buy. if you don't need it, you can leave it alone. when the demand is good, you can spend some money to add the following processing capabilities. When the demand is weak, you can adjust it back to save the cost again.

 

Yes, you have to give up some control when you move applications to the cloud, but you have also achieved cost reduction, increased flexibility, and controllable and adjustable computing and storage capabilities. this Guide to the Windows azure architecture will show you how to do this to achieve these benefits.

 

Who is this book suitable?

This book is the first volume of Windows azure series. it shows you how to adjust an existing ASP on-premises.. NET application to make it a cloud-running ASP.. NET application. this book is suitable for any architects, R & D personnel, and information industry professionals who design, build, and operate services suitable for the cloud. although applications do not run on Windows OS or Windows Azure, this book is intended for readers working on Windows. you should be familiar with Microsoft. net Framework, Visual Studio, Asp.net, and C #.

 

Why is this book a question?

In general, the cloud is becoming a feasible option for users to use. specifically, Windows azure now has a complete set of tools to help developers and IT practitioners. developers can use Visual Studio to write their applications. in addition, Windows azure provides a complete simulation environment called development fabric. before deployment to the cloud, developers can use it to write, test, and debug their applications locally. microsoft also provides tools and APIs for managing windows azure accounts. in the following common scenario, (that is, how to modify the existing ASP. NET application and deploy to Windows azure), this book will show you how to use all these tools.

What is the structure of this book?

"Introduction to the Windows azure platform" provides an overview of the platform, allowing you to easily start your journey to Windows azure. it describes the Web role and worker role, and the different ways in which you can store data in Windows azure. it is a good idea to read this chapter before proceeding to other specific scenarios.

"The adatum scenario" introduces the adatum and aexpense applications to you. in the following sections, we will continue to describe how adatum migrates their aexpense application to the cloud. reading this chapter will help you understand why adatum wants to migrate some of their commercial applications to the cloud and describe some of their concerns.

"Phase 1: Getting to the cloud" describes the steps that adatum did before migrating the aexpense application. the goal of adatum is to simply allow applications to work in the cloud, but this involves many major problems, such as security and storage.

 

"How much will it cost ?" This article introduces the basic billing method for running aexpense in Windows Azure, and estimates the application overhead for one year. this chapter is optional. this chapter can be skipped before other scenarios are read.

 

"Phase 2: automating deployment and using Windows azure storage" describes how adatum uses powershell scripts and Microsoft build engine (msbuild) to automatically deploy aexpense to Windows azure. it also describes how adatum converts data from SQL azure to Windows azure table Storage in aexpense, and discusses the differences between the two storage modes.

 

"Phase 3: uploading images and adding a worker role" describes how to add a work role to the aexpense application, and shows how aexpense uses Windows azure blob storage to store scanned images.

"Application life cycle management for Windows azure applica-tions" discusses how to manage development, testing, and deployment of Windows azure applications. This chapter is optional.

"Phase 4: adding more tasks and tuning the application" shows how adatum adds more tasks to the worker role. in this phase, adatum also estimated the application performance test results and adjusted the test results.

To use the code in the book, you need:

• Microsoft Windows Vista SP1, Windows 7, or Microsoft Windows Server 2008 (32-bit or 64-bit)
• Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0
• Microsoft. NET Framework 3.5 SP1 or later
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 SP1
• Windows azure tools for Microsoft Visual Studio
• Windows identity Foundation

 

[Translator's note] for the author's introduction, the acknowledgment part will not be translated. The next article will be translated soon.