Azure Management Portal

We build the first cloud application; itz time to host it in Microsoft Cloud center. As the first step, logged into the azure home page (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure). On right top location, therez a link called SignIn. Using msn account (ganscloud@hotmail.com), I created an account for azure platform with extra small instance. As of now, itz more than sufficient for my proof of concept (POC) model. For more information on cloud hosting cost, plz refer the site (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/offers/)

Account is succesfully set up in cloud space and the domain is named as 'http://ganesansenthilvel.cloudapp.net/'. Itz time to host after creating the account. To do so, we need to build the cloud application in Release mode of VS2010 IDE. It will create two files at bin\Release\Publish folder namely (1) HelloAzure.cspkg (cloud app package file) and (2) ServiceConfiguration.cscfg (cloud app configuration file).

On getting into cloud management portal, we have two regions to host our first cloud application. They are (1) Staging (2) Production. Staging can be used as pre production i.e. customer acceptance testing zone. Once, the user signed off, Staging app can be easily shifted to Production zone by clicking the middle double arrowed button. Staging URLs are self generated numbers, where as production version is meaningful complete url. In our app, itz ganesansenthilvel.cloudapp.net. Isn't it cool?

Buttons in the attached image, are self descriptive. Upgrade button is used to import cspkg and cscfg files in the cloud space. Suspend button is used to stop the running cloud app. OS Settings is helpful to configure the cloud Operating System.

ServiceConfiguration

Last week, spoke about ServiceDefinition file and now itz about ServiceConfiguration.csdef file. Letz ellaborate XML elements of this cloud configuration file.

The root element ServiceConfiguration has only one attribute, namely serviceName. The serviceName attribute is mandatory element in ServiceConfiguration file. If you omit this attribute, Visual Studio is going to complain about your XML during compilation. The name of the service must match the name of the service in the service definition.

ServiceConfiguration element can have only Role elements as children. Because the only role we have is ASP.NET Web role, we can see only one Role element. In case our project contained another role the Service Configuration file would reflect this fact.

Role element also has a single name attribute which is required. The name attribute represents the name of the service and must match the name of the service in the service definition defined in the WebRole element. The Role element can have three children elements: Instances, ConfigurationSettings and Certificates. In the attached snap, the number of cloud instance is makred as 1. Certificates are related to the security methodology followed in the related cloud app.

Looking at our ServiceConfiguration.cscfg file we can see that it contains ConfigurationSettings and Instances elements.

ServiceDefinition.csdef

Couple of weeks back, wrote abt hello world program. Letz open it. Under roles, therez a entry called HelloAzure_WebRole. On opening it, the configuration contains Instances section with count, vmsize. After updating the details,open ServiceDefinition.csdef file

The service model is determined by the settings listed in the ServiceDefinition.csdef file and configured in the ServiceConfiguration.cscfg file. The definition file is packaged with the role binaries when the application is prepared for deployment. The ServiceConfiguration.cscfg file is deployed with the package and is used by Windows Azure to determine how the application should run.

By defining settings in the ServiceDefinition.csdef file, you can define the roles and resources for an application. An application that runs as a hosted service in Windows Azure implements one or more instances of the available role types. Within Windows Azure, running instances of a role are replicated across multiple computers to implement all or part of the functionality of the hosted service.

In our cloud app, the instance count setup is get reflected in csdef file as attached.

Cloud trend in business

Cloud computing isn’t a technology, or even a set of technologies. It is a newly understood paradigm for approaching application delivery. This is why every vendor you can think of has been saying for the past two years that it has cloud products. Itz not invention; but discovery of 1970s time shares methodology with enrichment. We just didn’t put them in the wider context of the global communications network. Now we do.

We do anticipate ongoing centralization. For example, today’s ERP cloud will become tomorrow’s ERP-human resource management cloud, and the day after tomorrow’s corporate private cloud for general company use. The biggest share of dedicated private cloud budgets today comes from hardware investment as indicated in the graph.Nearly all organizations have hardware as part of their private cloud budget, closely followed by software products.

Organization and management become critical issues. And this need for staffing is an ongoing cost, not something you can write off after startup. Much of cloud spending is drawn—and will continue to be drawn—out of non-cloud budgets. This is a perfect example of how cloud computing functions as a framework for building corporate service strategies, rather than serving as a technology unto itself.

Get ready folks into cloud gear via Microsoft certification 70-583 of Designing and Developing Windows Azure Applications.

Friendship

This week blog is not about tech cloud; but friendship cloud. When cloud merges, itz joy of rain. On friends merger, itz joy of true love.

After the last year successful get together (http://ganesansenthilvel.blogspot.com/2010/05/gettogether.html) of friends+families, professors, principal, we decided to have the family reunion for 2 days in well-planned manner. The highly expected enthusiastic days came on 2011-May 1st weekend. We had nice time at beach home with lots of fun, teasing, memories, etc. Every homemakers jumped to kitchen for true team food work. kids had undisturbed out door games, swimming, etc. with lot of free environment. Our friends recollected the old days incidents, which couldn't share for years; our ventilated session on Sat night at terrace.

No ego, no expectation, no politics, no vengeance - among true non-sinking friendship. When we played cricket with old stories, itz thrilling/interesting knowledge for our kids. We didn't miss each sec for the cherish moment. Awesome collabrative effort by every friend. Hats off to them!

As the outcome, all homemakers planned to gather in an year without hubbies! Kids wished to continue to have the meet annually. For our friends, back to history of college days! Net to net, itz one of lovely/remembering moment in our life records.

Closure quote is: Friendship is like money, easier made than kept. Count your age by friends.