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Today, at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference 2009, we announced the business and partner model for the Windows Azure platform including service level agreements and support programs.

The Windows Azure platform, which includes a cloud services operating system – Windows Azure, a Web-based relational database in Microsoft SQL Azure (formerly SQL Services), as well as connectivity and interoperability services with .NET Services. Today, we announced a consumption-based pricing model, allowing partners and customers to pay only for the services that they consume.  Here is a summary of that pricing:

Windows Azure:

  • Compute @ $0.12 / hour
  • Storage @ $0.15 / GB stored
  • Storage Transactions @ $0.01 / 10K

SQL Azure:

  • Web Edition – Up to 1GB relational database @ $9.99
  • Business Edition – Up to 10GB relational database @ $99.99

.NET Services:

  • Messages @ $0.15/100K message operations, including Service Bus messages and Access Control tokens

Bandwidth across all three services will be charged at $0.10 in / $0.15 out / GB.

Additionally, the Windows Azure blog outlined an enterprise-class guarantee backed by a service-level agreement that covers service uptime, connectivity, and data availability:

“For compute, we guarantee that when you deploy two or more role instances in different fault and upgrade domains your Internet facing roles will have external connectivity at least 99.95% of the time. Additionally, we will monitor all of your individual role instances and detect within two minutes when a role instance’s process is not running and initiate corrective action. For storage, we guarantee that at least 99.9% of the time we will successfully process correctly formatted requests that we receive to add, update, read and delete data. We also guarantee that your storage accounts will have connectivity to our Internet gateway.”

Today, we also announced that Windows Azure, SQL Azure, and .NET Services will be commercially available at the Professional Developers Conference 2009, which goes on between November 17 and 19, 2009.

SL Exp 3 Launch graphic

Exciting day – Silverlight 3 was launched today, as well as Expression Studio 3!

SL Graphic

With Silverlight version 3, the feature list delivers innovation and benefits to key areas of rich internet applications, including:

 

  • Support for true high definition video
  • Out-of-browser functionality
  • Smooth Streaming
  • Improved line of business support, including data validation and element-to-element databinding
  • Pixel shaders for deeper rendering control
  • More than 90 controls and themes, with source code and unit tests for many of them in the Silverlight Toolkit

To learn more about Silverlight 3 you can go here or get more insight from some of my colleagues blogs:

  • Silverlight team blog
  • Scott Guthrie’s blog
  • Tim Heuer’s blog
  •  

    Expression graphic

    In addition to the availability of Silverlight 3, the release candidate of Expression Blend 3 and SketchFlow were announced today.  In addition, the full family of Expression Studio 3 products will be available within thirty days!

    SketchFlow is a very innovative prototyping tool that comes with Expression Blend.  This dynamic prototyping feature in Microsoft Expression® Blend™ 3, demonstrates the flow, layout, and transitions of an application through interactive “sketches” to convey initial concepts.  And concurrent workflows between design, user experience, and development ensure that the visuals, interaction model, and the underlying architecture of an application can be simultaneously evolved and delivered as a completed project. 

    “Soma” Somasegar, Sr. VP at Microsoft has a real good post on SketchFlow here.  Also, visit Microsoft Expression for more information or click here to download a copy of Microsoft Expression Blend 3 Release Candidate.

    I have written about cloud computing and specifically Azure Services Platform several times in the past.  As we approach the market release of Azure Services Platform (Microsoft’s Windows cloud platform as a service) I thought it might be a good time to step back and write about the business value of cloud computing.

    Why Cloud Computing?

    Cloud computing is the new computing platform shift.  The cloud is really just a metaphor for the Internet and is an abstraction for the complex infrastructure it runs on.  It is a style of computing in which users (and developers) access technology-enabled services from the Internet without the knowledge of, or control over the technology infrastructure that supports these services.  Its built on technology, but it really comes down to a new operational model (more about that below).

    Enterprises are interested in Cloud computing because it comes with several potential benefits.  The Pay-As-You-Use consumption model can now be applied to IT – to both the hardware (IaaS – Infrastructure as a Service) and, perhaps even more interestingly, to the business applications themselves(SaaS – Software as a Service & PaaS – Platform as a Service).  Cloud computing transfers the traditional capital expenditure (CapEx) model common in data centers today to an operational expenditure (OpEx) model.  Cloud Services like Azure Services Platform and Microsoft Online Services allow CIOs and CFOs to control costs more effectively through these cloud computing service offerings.

    Additionally, for business software ISVs (Independent Software Vendor), Cloud computing is a potential new distribution channel for their applications.  Building business software for the cloud allows them to hook into new business models, like subscription, transaction or even ad-based revenue models.  It is clear that the concept of cloud computing is gaining traction and provides unique benefits. The flexibility of an access-anywhere, highly scalable, pay-as-you-go computing model has benefits for both vendors and clients.

    With the Azure Services Platform, businesses are enabled to develop and deploy critical and non-critical applications with a higher performance/price ratio by running them on Microsoft’s platform data centers on a pay–as-you-go basis.  Whether you are building new applications, augmenting / cloud enabling existing systems, or connecting with trading partners, you can take advantage of the Azure Services Platform to do it quickly, inexpensively, and across the Web and a range of connected devices.  For ISVs, they can take advantage of the Azure Services Platform to deliver software as a service without having to maintain data centers or build new capabilities on existing investments in on-premises applications, while leveraging the same Microsoft development tools and technologies they are familiar with.

    CFOs will care about Cloud Computing and Azure Services Platform.

    Enterprises have grown increasingly comfortable with Pay-As-You-Use methods of consuming business and computer services.  Decisions to go this route are often made (or greatly influenced) by the CFO, not the CIO, and are largely based on cost control and the ability to translate CapEx into OpEx that look better on a balance sheet.

    The ability to pay for services based on usage, and for the provision of those services to be very scalable (‘elastic’) so as to increase and decrease with that usage, ensures minimal waste and redundancy.  Also, the ability to scale in support of new product and service offerings or geographic expansion provides “cash-flow-friendly” ways to increase resource availability.  This ability to commission additional capacity without significant capital outlay is particularly attractive to CFOs and especially in difficult economic conditions where upfront funding is harder to obtain.

    The ability to apply Cloud economics to core enterprise applications provides new ways for CFOs and CIOs to optimize and boost the cost efficiency of IT service delivery.

    Cloud Computing is an Operational Model

    What makes cloud computing cloud computing is the fact that the physical resources used are operated to deliver abstracted IT resources “on-demand,” at scale, and usually in a multi-tenant environment.  It is how you use the technologies involved that matters most.  For the most part, cloud computing uses the same operating systems, management software, middleware, databases, server platforms, network cabling, storage arrays, and so on, that we have become familiar with in enterprise IT.  Sure, Azure Services Platform, Google App Engine, Amazon EC2, and others, have different technologies and IP implemented, but in the end, its not significantly different than what enterprise IT is familiar with.  Its the scale and elasticity, and the pay–as-you-go model that makes the difference.  The combination of on-demand, at scale, in a multi-tenant infrastructure is the reason why cloud computing is disruptive today, rather than just another technology fad!

    Azure Services Platform

    Microsoft’s Azure Services Platform is an internet-scale cloud services platform hosted in Microsoft data centers, which provides an operating system and a set of developer services that can be used individually or together.  Azure’s flexible and interoperable platform can be used to build new applications to run from the cloud or enhance existing applications with cloud-based capabilities.  Azure offers a range of flexibility, control, and is an affordable solution for running Web-scale applications.  The services reduce tedious and expensive infrastructure management and planning and are built with security and reliability in mind, along with the option of a pay-as-you-go model.

    You can learn more here.

    ArchCouncil Patterns Series picIf you missed the “Pragmatic Patterns for Architects” webcasts last week, you can go to the Strategy and Architecture Council (Microsoft Developer & Platform Evangelism U.S. West Region) site and view the slides or view the recordings. 

     You will find all 3 days there:

    Day 1 – Patterns for Moving to the Cloud

    Day 2 – Building Silverlight & WPF Applications with Prism

    Day 3 – Patterns for Parallel Computing

    Live feeds graphic

    One of the brand new features in the new release of Windows Live is the ability to aggregate data from other non-Microsoft websites into your “What’s New” feed – this feature is called “web activities”.  If you want people in your Windows Live network to know what stories you are Digging, what you are writing on Twitter, or what you’ve written on your (none Windows Spaces) blog? If so then you will really like web activities.

    Web activities control which of your online activity gets displayed on your profile (and therefore on your friends’ “What’s New” feed). In essence web activities put you more in control of your Windows Live experience than ever before – you can now customize your profile to be however you want it.

    Included in the launch of this feature and recent Live feeds partners brought online include, Digg, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Pandora, and many more.

    Go to Windows Live today and start adding web activities you want to share with your Live network.

    I have blogged a bit about Internet Explorer 8 (previous posts are here) and some of the really cool features that it comes, making your web discovery and usability experience really great.  Specifically, accelerators and web slices bring a whole new set of IE tools to some great web services.  You can find some accelerator and web slices from popular web services like Bing, LinkedIn, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, and many more here.

    32x32-digg-guy

    One of my favorite accelerators is from Digg.  Digg is an online destination that enables people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web.

    You can download the accelerator here.

    e2c7a4ce-5765-47cc-9f4b-41c92410bc46_gm

    This new Digg Accelerator enables you to quickly Digg, Submit, and find related content from anywhere on the Web.  A great tool!

    Also, coming soon, is a Silverlight version of the accelerator providing a really rich experience for Digg stories.

    “Cloud computing will supersede traditional IT”, “SOA will enable business agility”, “my way or the highway”, etc. We’ve all heard this type of proclamations before, as many look to the “next big things” in technology to exact sweeping changes and solve many issues; truth is, technologies and tools aren’t as instrumental in influencing progress, as the design and discipline in applying them to specific issues. When used appropriately, technologies and tools can be powerful enablers that bring about change.

    To address this, and trying to be a bit more green, our team is hosting a series of live webcasts at noon PST on June 9th – 11th, 2009, which will focus on guidance and patterns for some of today’s hottest topics. Just another excuse to have lunch at your desk (if your time zone is nearby)! :)

    Patterns for Moving to the Cloud – June 9
    Larry Clarkin & Wade Wegner

    Everything that you read these days seems to suggest that you should be moving to the cloud. But where do you start? Which applications and services should be moving to the cloud? How do you build the bridge between on-premises and the cloud? And more importantly, what should you be looking out for along the way? In this session, learn architectural patterns and factors for moving to the cloud. Based on real-world projects, the session explores building block services, patterns for exposing applications, and challenges involving identity, data federation, and management. This session provides the tools and knowledge to determine whether cloud computing is right for you, and where to start.

     

    Building Silverlight & WPF Applications with Prism – June 10

    David Hill

    Prism provides guidance, via design patterns, to help you build robust, flexible and modular Silverlight and WPF applications. These patterns support unit testing, separation of concerns, loose coupling and the ability to share application logic between Silverlight and WPF applications. Prism includes source code for the library itself, extensive documentation, and a sample application that shows how the patterns work together in a real-world application. It also includes a Visual Studio add-in to help you easily share code between WPF and Silverlight. This session provides an overview of Prism, and shows how you can use Prism to design and build composite Silverlight applications.

    Patterns for Parallel Computing – June 11

    David Chou
    With recent advances in cloud computing, service-oriented architectures, distributed computing, server virtualization, multi-core processors, etc., we are now seeing parallel computing techniques being implemented across the spectrum, and towards mainstream applications such as internet-scale web applications, massive data processing, graphics rendering, etc. But the myriad of choices also present a number of questions on when and how to utilize parallel computing. This session explores the architectural patterns and trade-offs between different forms of parallel computing, approaches for utilizing them to improve application performance and optimize use of existing infrastructure, and how concurrency can be applied towards day-to-day enterprise information processing needs.

    For more details and registration, please visit http://blogs.msdn.com/sac/pages/council-2009q2.aspx

    Bizspark2 logs

    Yesterday, marked 6 months since the launch of this fantastic program and with it came a great achievement – 12,000 startups!

    Microsoft BizSpark is a great DEAL!  It is a program designed to help accelerate the success of early stage startups by providing key resources – software, support, and visibility. 

    All you need to know to qualify (if you are a startup):

    • Privately held software development startups in business for less than 3 years that are generating annual revenue under USD $1 million can join.
    • Connect with a BizSpark Network Partner or a Microsoft BizSpark Champ to get your BizSpark enrollment code.  Or email me at John.Stame@microsoft.com if you are not sure who to contact.
    • Enrollment is free, however, at exit of the program, you just pay a USD $100 program offering fee.

    Learn more here.

    new CloudApp(), a US based developer challenge, was launched today.  Its focus is to promote applications running on the Azure Services Platform.  This contest will have three categories of winners for applications running on the Azure Services Platform:

    • best .NET application,
    • top PHP application, and,
    • community winner

    The winning submissions will:

    • Be featured on www.azure.com as well as at major Microsoft events
    • Be featured in a video interview on Channel 9 with the application author
    • Winners will be announced at Structure 09
    • Receive cash ($):
      • .NET Applications Category winner: $5,000 Visa gift card
      • PHP Applications Category winner: $5,000 Visa gift card
      • Community winner: $2,500 Visa gift card
    Contest dates?
  • Monday, May 4: Contest Open
  • Thursday, June 18: Submission deadline
  • Friday, June 19: Community voting starts
  • Thursday, June 25: .NET & PHP category winners announced at Structure 09
  • Monday, June 29: Community voting ends
  • Tuesday, June 30: Community winner announced
    How do I get started?
    1. Join BizSpark if you’re a startup or an entrepreneur, to get access to tools for development and test
    2. Register to join the contest
    3. Sign up for the Azure Services
    4. Download the SDKs and Tools
  • For more information see newCloudApp().com.

    Bizspark2 logs

    Starting a company to build software and/or web services, requires innovation, technology, business services, risk management, in addition to a lot of coffee and hours!  BizSpark, lowers some of the friction and costs associated with building an early stage company.

    Microsoft® BizSpark™ is an innovative new global program, uniting startups with entrepreneurial and technology resources, designed to help accelerate the success of early stage startups by providing key resources in their early innovation stage:

    • Software. Receive access to current full-featured Microsoft development tools, platform technologies, and production licenses of server products for immediate use in developing and bringing to market innovative and interoperable solutions. There is no upfront cost to enroll.
    • Support. Get connected to Network Partners around the world — incubators, investors, advisors, government agencies and hosters — that are equally involved and vested in software-fueled innovation and entrepreneurship who will provide a wide range of support resources.
    • Visibility. Achieve global visibility to an audience of potential investors, clients and partners.

    To join:

    1. To qualify – privately held software development startups in business for less than 3 years and generating annual revenue under USD $1 million can join.
    2. Connect with a BizSpark Network Partner or a Microsoft BizSpark Champ to get your BizSpark enrollment code.
    3. Enrollment is free, just pay a USD $100  program offering fee at program exit.

    Find out more at the StartupZone!  

    Follow on BizSpark on Twitter!!

    BizSpark on Facebook!!!

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