Slides used in the session "Breaking SharePoint storage limits with Windows Azure" at Colombo SharePoint camp on 18th September at Galadari Hotel, Colombo. http://www.colombosharepointcamp.com

1. breaking SharePoint storage limits
with Windows Azure
by Sachintana Dissanayake

2. Agenda
• Storage considerations
• Large files in SharePoint
• Azure as a storage
• Demo
• Ideal scenario
• Other options
• Discussion

3. Storage considerations
• In SharePoint
– Document library
– Attachments
– Media assets
• Pictures
• Videos
• Slide shows

4. Large files in SharePoint
• 50MB - default max file size
• RBS - Remote BLOB Storage
– Database or file storage
• Shortcomings of RBS
– Must use SharePoint to read/write files
– Affects web server performance
– Database - backup issues, no mirroring
– Slow Crawling

5. Azure as a storage
• Separate storage from SharePoint
• High performance
– Multiple copies of data
– Location based delivery
• Store meta-data for the file
• Less cost up-front
– Pay-per-MB

6. Azure as a storage contd.
• Security
– public or private containers
– SSL (Secure Socket Layer)
• File integrity with
– SSL
– MD5 hashing
• End user experience
– asynchronous upload and download

7. Getting started with demo
• In SharePoint webpart
– Upload files
• FileUpload control
• Azure storage API
• Store file URL in a HyperLink column in a SharePoint list
– List name – AzureFiles
– Columns – FileName (Hyperlink), FileType (single line of text)
• Page handler
– Download files
– Querystring  container and filename
– Overrides ProcessRequest()

8. Pre-requisites for Demo
• SharePoint 2010 (foundation or server)
• Visual studio 2010
• Internet connection
• Supporting files
– Azure storage client assembly
http://bit.ly/SpAzureDll
– Azure storage account key
http://bit.ly/SpAzureAccountKey

9. Demo

10. Code snippets used
• http://bit.ly/SpMarkup
• http://bit.ly/SpCodeBehind

11. Ideal scenario
• How to keep integrity of the storage?
– Make sure azure files are deleted when deleting from
SharePoint
• Retention policies
• How to delegate SharePoint security to azure files
– OAuth in SharePoint 2013
• Private containers & HTTPS
• How to achieve search/crawling
– Using metadata in SharePoint lists

12. SharePoint + Azure integration
• Other options
– Custom Site column
• Not stable
• Most has only download functionality
– Event receiver in lists/document libraries
• Push attachments to azure

13. References
• Windows Azure
https://windows.azure.com/
• Azure Storage Explorer
http://azurestorageexplorer.codeplex.com
• Plan for RBS
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff628583.aspx

14. Discussion

15. Thank you