Introducing Windows Azure [Paperback]

Windows Azure is Microsoft's next-generation cloud-computing operating system and is designed to provide companies with new business opportunities as they migrate toward hosted services.

Introducing Microsoft Azure provides all the information developers need to get started with this technology and apply it across a range of situations. Presented in a clear, concise manner, this book provides a carefully measured learning curve for surmounting the architectural and coding challenges that need to be faced when building a well-balanced Windows Azure service.

Windows Azure is Microsofts next-generation cloud-computing operating system. This book provides all the information developers need to get started with this new technology and apply it across a range of situations.

Foreword Forget the buzzword-compliant prognostications of the IT pundits and forget the fevered predictions of open vs. proprietary, because everything is changing and changing fast. Maybe everything is changing so fast that some folks still see cloud computing as a discussion about the future, when in fact it is real, with many popular applications currently running in cloud environments. Cloud computing is just a term for what has been slowly brewing on the back burner for many years. It is the natural evolution of technology. The evolution timeline goes something like this. In the beginning there was the mainframe. The mainframe cost a lot and used a lot of power, so it made sense to sell slices of time to companies needing computing power. After a while, computers became smaller and less expensive and businesses and consumers began buying their own. But then networks began to form, and the eventually ubiquitous Internet was born. This led the way to the idea of the application service provider (ASP). Ah, those were the days.

1. Create Cloud Table Storage
2. Access Cloud Table Storage