Windows Azure Platform (Expert's Voice in .NET) [Paperback]

Tejaswi Redkar (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 6, 2010 | ISBN-10: 1430224797 | ISBN-13: 978-1430224792 | Edition: 1

The Azure Services Platform is a cloud-computing technology from Microsoft. It is composed of four core components—Windows Azure, .NET Services, SQL Services, and Live Services—each with a unique role in the functioning of your cloud service. It is the goal of this book to show you how to use these components, both separately and together, to build flawless cloud services.

At its heart, Windows Azure Platform is a down-to-earth, code-centric book. This book aims to show you precisely how the components are employed and to demonstrate the techniques and best practices you need to know to use them to best effect. That said, author Tejaswi Redkar regularly takes time out to provide a thorough overview of the architectural concepts that underpin Windows Azure. Without this understanding, you will find it hard to use the platform to its full potential.

By the time you've read this book, you will be comfortable building high-quality end-to-end Azure services of your own.

What you’ll learn

• Know everything you need to about the Azure Services components—from Access Control to SQL Services, from the Service Bus to Workflow Services
• Understand both the architectural thinking behind Azure and the nuts-and-bolts code that binds your service together
• Design, build, and deploy an Azure service with the assistance of a fully worked template for end-to-end application design that mimics a real-world scenario and gives you a rock-solid example of the design and development processes that you need to work through

Who this book is for

This book is intended for professional developers who want to dig into the internals of Azure and start investigating its features in depth and adopting them into their workflow systems. A taster to the subject is provided by the Apress title Introducing Windows Azure, published in December 2009.

Table of Contents

1. Introducing Cloud Services
2. Windows Azure Platform Overview
3. Windows Azure
4. Windows Azure Storage, Part I: Blobs
5. Windows Azure Storage, Part II: Queues
6. Windows Azure Storage, Part III: Tables
7. AppFabric: Access Control Service
8. AppFabric Service Bus
9. SQL Azure

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Tejaswi Redkar is a senior consultant at Microsoft Consulting Services. He has a master's degree from San Jose State University in California and is an experienced architect of service-oriented systems for financial services, telemetry, and e-commerce.

Product Details

• Paperback: 624 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (January 6, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1430224797
• ISBN-13: 978-1430224792
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 1.4 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,089,794 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Tejaswi Redkar is a software architect with a passion for writing. He works for
Microsoft and has been working on the Windows Azure platform since its very early days. Currently, he is
the Director of Application Platform Strategy & Communities in Microsoft and covers a broad range of Microsoft technologies. He and his team has built several small- and large-scale systems on
Windows Azure for Enterprises and ISVs. Tejaswi has not only written about
conceptual topics like Threading and MSMQ, but also on broader topics, such as
software ecosystems, businesses, and platforms. Tejaswi has a Master's degree in
Computer Engineering from San Jose State University and an MBA from
University of Wisconsin, Whitewater.
Tejaswi lives in the beautiful San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and two kids. When not working on what's next, he is either having fun with his family or bicycling on San Ramon trails.
You can find more details about him on his
LinkedIn profile at linkedin.com/in/tejaswiredkar.
Follow him: Twitter: @tejaswi_redkar

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Skip this one April 28, 2010

By Robert M. Downey

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I was hoping this would give me a solid understanding of how to best architect a Windows Azure solution. Instead, it gave me a good understanding of how to pump out a 600 page tech book in as little time as possible.

As another reviewer mentioned, this book consists of tons of screen shots. I'm not against screen shots when they provide something of value, but most of these screen shots consist of simple web pages. It seems as though they were only included as a way to increase page count.

Not only that, the author seems to have copied and pasted chunks of text from one section to another. Indeed, in some places, it looks as if he even forgot to change the heading when he did so.

In general, typos don't bother me, but it seems to be more evidence that this book was rushed out the door.

In summary: don't bother. Use MSDN and other internet resources until a better book comes out.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Not a good book January 22, 2010

By Rudy Lacovara

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a very disappointing book. It may be the worst tech book I've ever seen. A significant part of the book is actually spent showing screenshots of Azure and competing services and then reiterating what the text on the screenshot says. Reading this book feels like when your talking to someone who really does have something of value to tell you, but they drown it in so much useless verbiage that you become frustrated and angry because they just can't get to the point and communicate. I'm not really sure what this book is trying to communicate. I think it might be "Don't buy me."

BTW, despite the harsh review I have tremendous respect to anyone who spends their time writing a tech book these days. I know it's a job with little in the way of rewards so thank you to Mr. Redkar for taking the time to write this book. I think the problems here are almost entirely due to the total lack of editing. Shame on Apress for letting this one get through.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A Broad Introduction to Windows Azure Platform, not much code samples July 4, 2010

By Andy Zhang

Format:Paperback

The book, Windows Azure Platform, covers all three major core services: Windows Azure, AppFabric, and SQL Azure. The book also contains a significant section on Blob storage. For readers who are beginning to learn Windows Azure Platform, this a book explains key concepts in a systematic and logical order. The book is useful resource to learn what Windows Azure platform has to offer. The focus of this book is centered around Azure architecture. This is not a book for programmers who want to develop enterprise Azure solutions and the book offers scattered, small amount of code samples.