Oakton involved in Development of Microsoft Azure Project for Queensland Government

We recently started work (a week ago) at the North Ryde Microsoft Offices on an Azure-based pledge application (www.qld.gov.au/floods/pledge). This relatively simple application supports the coordinaton of offers from private organizations and corresponding requests for help by flood-affected people in Queensland (and potentially other states affected by the floods).

As per the Australian Newspaper's IT section:

"Microsoft is helping to develop a flood-recovery pledge website for the Queensland government, which will go live later this week. It will be based on the company's Azure cloud computing technology. It has been working with partners Oakton, Devtest and Readify in its recovery program."

See original article at http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/industry-digs-deep-for-queensland-flood-recovery/story-e6frgakx-1225989795344

The solution is using the following technologies to deliver the end product:

1. Azure Web Roles (with 2 web applications on the one Web Role, which is allowed in the latest Azure 1.3 SDK).
2. SQL Azure, Development against local SQL Express instances on each machine, SQL Deployment and schema changes with the SQL Azure Migration tool - http://sqlazuremw.codeplex.com/
3. Visual Studio 2010 using Data Dude Projects for Deployment
4. ASP.NET Web Forms 4.0 (as opposed to MVC 3 which was just released and I did an initial mockup with) - with Entity Framework 4, EntityDataSource and the QueryExtender control (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd537669(VS.100).aspx) , one of the new controls in .NET 4.0. We didn't use MVC based on the existing skills of the team and the short timelines.
5. TFS 2010 with  the Agile template, using Web.Config transforms for different release builds as demonstrated in http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/Video/ff801895
6. Forms-based authentication, with a slighly modified version of the ASP.NET SQL membership and Role Provider Database Scripts (so it works on SQL Azure). This is using scripts as described in the MS KB article here:
   http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2006191/en-au
   This database can also be created by the SQL-Azure equivalent of the the aspnet_regql.exe  tool used for non-Azure applications called "aspnet_regAzure.exe".
7. A secured SSL site for the internal Administrative application (e.g. for basic approvals and vetting).

DDK

Important Microsoft Azure Links

Here is a list of the most critical links useful if you are developing or testing out SQL Azure or Windows Azure:

1. Azure Portal Site (using Silverlight) - for deployment and managment of the Windows Azure platform - http://windows.azure.com/
2. SQL Azure - https://sql.azure.com/
3. Tools and SDK - http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/getstarted/default.aspx
4. Azure Billing Site - https://mocp.microsoftonline.com/
5. Main Azure Landing Page - http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/

DDK

Windows Azure and SQL Azure - Free benefits for MSDN Premium Subscribers in Australia

I've recently started an Microsoft Azure Cloud-based project for the Queensland Government through my employer Oakton. To help me get up to speed with the latest developments in Azure, an MSDN Premium subscription gives you a whole heap of free goodies (Windows Azure and SQL Azure) to test out and demonstrate with.

The details of free benefits for Australian MSDN subscribers can be found here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/offers/popup/popup.aspx?lang=en&locale=en-AU&offer=MS-AZR-0005P

You will have to provide a credit card number if you do go over your MSDN Premium Subscription allowances - which are easily avoided if you're careful.

The following rates are current as of 19/01/2011:

MSDN Premium Subscription Benefit:

Windows Azure
750 hours of a small compute instance
10 GB of storage
1,000,000 storage transactions
SQL Azure
3 Web Edition databases (up to 1 GB relational database each)
Windows Azure platform AppFabric
1,000,000 Access Control transactions
1 pack of 5 Service Bus connections***
Data Transfers
North America and Europe (per region)
7 GBs in
14 GBs out
Asia Pacific Region
2.5 GB in
5 GB out

You may utilize up to the above amount of service each month without additional charge for 16 months following sign up for this offer as long as you maintain your MSDN Premium subscription. Any usage each month in excess of the MSDN Premium Subscription Benefit will be charged at the MSDN Premium rates. You can sign up for these Azure Benefits for your MSDN Premium subscription right here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/ee461076.aspx

There is really no excuse not to try it out if you have an MSDN premium subscription!

DDK

Microsoft Windows Azure Platform WILL be available as an on-premise solution - via a Turnkey "Appliance"

One of my biggest qualms about recommending a cloud-based solution (esp for sensitive data) is that the solution is then completely bound to hardware under a particular vendor's (e.g. Microsofts or Amazon's) control. This in turn makes it hard to sell to clients who typically like to have complete control over their data (whether this concern is well-founded is another debate).

Last month, Microsoft made moves to circumvent this reaction by announcing an "Appliance" - which is a specially configured box that will be able to be purchased for use in-house. Costs have not been announced - and it is only available to be used by a select pilot customers (in a "Limited Production Release") like Dell, Ebay, HP and Fujitsu.

However, it is a move in the right direction - to making the Azure business model appropriate in more business contexts - and without the variable (and somewhat unpredictable) expenses normally associated with a cloud-based (or any transaction/CPU cycle/storage fee-based) solution. Yet they still retain many of the seamless scalability advantages offered by Azure.

For more details on the Azure appliance, see:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/appliance/

DDK