This document provides an overview of Windows Azure and the benefits of cloud computing. It discusses how cloud computing addresses inefficiencies in traditional IT by allowing resources to scale up and down as needed. It outlines some "instant wins" possible with cloud, such as reducing inactive compute time and enabling burst scenarios. The document then covers the main services available on Windows Azure, including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). It provides examples of how companies have used Windows Azure and encourages readers to get started with Windows Azure.
4. inefficiencies in traditional IT…
Allocated Load Forecast
IT-capacities
“Under-supply“ of
capacities
IT CAPACITY
“Waste“ of Fixed cost of IT-
capacities capacities
Barrier for
innovations Actual Load
TIME
5. however, in a Cloud View
Load
Allocated IT Forecast
capacities
No “under-supply“
IT CAPACITY
Reduction of Possible reduction
“over-supply“ of IT-capacities in
case of reduced
load
Reduction
of initial
investments
Actual Load
Time
6. instant wins
Average Usage
Compute
Compute
Compute
Inactivity
Period Average Usage
Average Usage
Time Time Time
On and off Scale fast, fail fast Burst scenarios
9. datacenters around the world
Windows Azure
San Antonio, TX
Approx 477K sq ft, 27MW, uses recycled water for
cooling
Chicago, IL
707,000 square feet with critical power of 60
MW, uses water side economization, containers
Dublin, Ireland
Approx 570K sq ft, up to 27MW, uses outside air
for cooling.
19. Provision Virtual Servers
Deploy App Code
Configure Network
service
package
new virtual server new virtual server
Server Rack 1 Server Rack 2
61. An example: Mobistar
Three-day campaign
> 3mio unique visitors
Components used:
Compute
Storage
Caching
CDN
(Content Delivery Network) Number of servers vs. actual load
62. An example: Syntra
Only uses the Access Control Service block
Reduces maintenance
No more identity integration issues
Moodle
Hosted Exchange
Other apps
63. An example: myShopi
Uses a lot of the Windows Azure components
Mobile application to share shopping lists
iPhone, iPad, Android, WP7, Web, …
Needs a back-end!
Needs to scale!
69. AZUG.BE – Azure User Group Belgium
Monthly session around a Windows Azure related topic
National & international speakers
Community driven
www.azug.be
71. What to remember?
Cloud is here to stay
Windows Azure is
Application services
Storage services
Foundation / integration services
Cloud is not all-or-nothing
Quick wins
On and Off
Scale fast, fail fast
Peak scenarios
Start today – www.azure.com
Notes de l'éditeur
To build an application or solution in a legacy world, you have to think about network, OS, storage, and scale. But they have little to do with what you really want to build, an application.But what if there were a different way.
Talking points:Some applications are perfect matches for a cloud model.<click> On and off scenarios are typically applications that perfectly fit in a cloud model. Imagine processes that only run for an hour a day, or a day per month, or once a year. We have a client who does school registrations for some schools, ensuring no parents have to stay in tents and have to wait until registration opens. Their engine calculating who gets priority in registering ther children in a school typically runs for 5 hours, twice a year. They use Windows Azure to host that flow and only pay for 10 hours of sever use, yearly. Or, in money terms: just below 2 EUR per year.<click> Scale-fast, fail fast scenarios are also common indicators for working with a cloud platform. By scale fast, we are talking not only about the Facebooks and Twitters in this world, but also incubator ideas. Imagine you have an idea for an application, for example one where users can request an offer for some products. Why not go ahead and build that app, and hosting on Windows Azure? If it works out and gives value, keep it running. If after 2 months nobody used it, simply trash it: fail fast. The idea had a chance to prove itself. In non-cloud scenarios where servers had to be bought, chances are this idea would have never been tested. Scale-fast, fail-fast is all about stimulating innovation: testing ideas, apart from developing them, costs little compared to what they may bring in revenue afterwards.<click> Burst scenarios, predictable and non-predictable, are another scenario. Imagine you run a campaign, you know you’ll have more users at that time. Simply add some resources in the cloud platform and remove them again afterwards. Also unpredictable bursts are a good scenario: if you sometimes have peak usage on your apps, host them in a cloud. Windows Azure can scale up when needed and scale back when no longer needed.Do remember other scenarios are possible as well. These are just three scenarios where, if you recognize your app in one of them, the cloud will be a perfect match and you will benefit in terms of stability, scalability and cost reduction.Note to speaker: if people ask about “autoscaling”: this is not supported out of the box but can easily be added. The new version of EntLib contains a ready to use block. Also, RealDolmen has developed a component that takes care of this.
Talking points:This is Microsoft’s Northern Europe Datacenter (also known as Dublin). It is a so-called generation 3 datacenter, which means no “containerized” servers are in there. Instead, a large amount of racks are in the datacenter.Within RealDolmen, 2 persons have had the luck of being able to visit this datacenter on different times. Both came back, impressed, and could not stop talking about many of the environmental and security measures being taken. Unfortunately, those things are covered by an NDA. Some non-NDA items are, for example the fact that no one can enter the datacenter alone. Every room requires authentication, often with biometric scans. No human in the datacenter knows where which workload and thus your app resides within the datacenter. The datacenter decides this for itself based on security, privacy and load constraints.
Talking points:The Chicago datacenter is double the size of the Dublin datacenter.It is a generation 4 datacenter, which means: containerized and more efficient.
Talking points:When extra capacity is required in the datacenter, containers are “plugged” into the giant “USB ports” you see on this picture.
Talking points:- No cooling is required: containers are cooled, not the empty space in between. A container typically is either compute (servers) or cooling. The ones inb the picture probably always are servers below, cooling in the upper container.
Talking points:The amount of servers in a typical Microsoft datacenter is enormous. Imagine a few thousand server racks, stuffed with 1 U or ½ U servers all running a couple of virtual machines. Nobody but large companies like Microsoft can provide that amount of power in a central location.
Demo: Hello World
Demo: switch staging / production
Demo: Connect tolocalblob storage usingCerebrata tools, show itssimilarto FTP/…Use VS and upload anuploaded file toblob storage (ASP.NET file upload Blob storage)
Demo: Create a database server on SQL AzureCreate a databaseExplain the firewall rukesShow the SL administrative UI
DemoSendMessage
Show developer guides on www.azure.com
Talking points:To give you an example on how to combine blocks, look at a project we did with Mobistar. They had a campaign running for only 3 days with > 3mio unique visitors. After these 3 days, the app was still live for 14 days just showing a thank you page.To handle that load, a series of Compute instances on Windows Azure were used, a virtual server farm with a large number of services used on demand. For example, during nights we only had 2 servers running, at peak moments we scaled to > 50 servers. This resulted in an average consumption of compute resources which was a lot lower than having to buy or rent 50+ servers the whole time. I can not disclose the actual # of servers, but the total Windows Azure invoice (just the resources used) was only USD 580. Including VAT. FOR 50+ SERVERS!!!Next, we of course required storage. Some GB were used, but at USD 0.12 per month those were not expensive.Caching was used: session state for users had to be distributed over multiple servers, the caching block offers this functionality.CDN, the Content Delivery Network, was used to host images, CSS and JavaScript. Why bother the compute instances with static file hosting?
Talking points:Not only scaling out can be a reason to move to Windows Azure. For Syntra, we have a solution which uses the Access Control component to have users authenticate on their Active Directory from different applications like a hosted Exchange, a PHP-based Moodle installation, ...This solution does not require open firewall ports, minimal maintenance.This solution costs them 30 EUR per year. Including VAT.
Talking points:Another example is MyGet.MyGet uses a lot of the components in Windows Azure. It is a software-as-a-service, meaning anyone out there can use this application and eventually pay for using it.The business model was uncertain: would it work? Would people like it and use it? Or was it doomed from the start?To cover that uncertainty, Windows Azure was the platform of choice: it provides a rich set of services (compute, storage, access control, database, a global deployment on 2 continents, ...).Running in 2 datacenters globally, MyGet only costs 150 EUR incl. VAT in pure computational resources. Or 5 EUR per day. This means, if the application would have proven not to work, letting it “fail” and taking it offline would be possible at any time, without the risk of having a few servers that were bought or leased for three years sitting idle.