As everything goes “to the cloud” it would come to reason the same thing would happen to business applications and data storage. Enter the Microsoft Windows Azure Platform, Microsoft's cloud solution. Using a cloud benefits a company by allowing the usage of the online servers to store and run applications without the expense and man hours needed to maintain the hardware while saving money on licensing costs. This exploring course will cover the many aspects and components of Windows Azure. The course will give you an introduction to Azure, the different types of services that can be hosted in Windows Azure such as web and worker roles, and then move on to the basics of Azure's durable storage solution, which include Azure queues, blobs, and tables. Next you will get a full introduction in SQL Azure, Microsoft's cloud-based relational database, and how you can use SQL Azure to store your relational data on the cloud. This will be followed up by discussions including Azure AppFabric, Cloud Computing Patterns & Practices and Diagnostics & Service Management.

• What is the Windows Azure Cloud
• How roles are used in the Azure Cloud
• The differences between Azure storage Queues, Tables, Blobs and Drives
• How data works in Azure storage
• About SQL Azure
• How Azure security works
• About best Azure practices and diagnostics

• What is Cloud Computing?
• What is a Cloud Operating System?
• Key Scenarios for the Cloud
• The Development Environment

Windows Azure Basic Roles

• What is a Role?
• Purpose of Each Role
• Basic Role Configuration
• Local Debugging

Windows Azure Advanced Roles

• Learn how to Tune the Environment
• Use Local Storage
• Use Plugins

Introduction to Azure Storage Basics

• How Does Windows Azure Storage Work?
• How do I Access Storage?

Azure Storage Queues

• Learn About Messaging
• How Queues Work

Azure Storage Tables

• Learn how to Store Data in Tables
• Create and Destroy Data
• How Tables Scale

Azure Storage Blobs

• What is BLOB Storage?
• How do I Access It?

Azure Storage Drives

• What is Azure Drive?

Introduction to SQL Azure

• Learn how SQL Lives in Cloud
• What are the Differences
• How to Migrate Easily

SQL Azure Performance

• SQL Azure Sharding
• Azure Federations
• Partitioning in SQL Azure

Introduction to Windows Azure AppFabric

• What is the AppFabric?
• The Access Control Service
• Using the Service Bus
• Leveraging Distributed Cache

Cloud Computing Patterns and Practices

• Discover Some of the Common Uses
• App Migration Strategies
• Disposable Computing
• Dynamic Scale
• Shunting
• Prototyping

Diagnostic and Service Management

• How Do You Do Diagnostics for Azure?
• How Do You Manage Your Azure Applications and Services?