Level: Intermediate to Advanced

Eric D. Boyd

Founder and CEO

responsiveX

The Windows Azure Platform is a great cloud platform for scalable, on-demand computing power. However, there are scenarios that are not supported by Azure’s web and worker role abstractions. In this session, we will explore the traditional Azure web and worker compute roles and walk through the common challenges encountered when using these. We will explore the architecture and internals of Windows Azure, and then explore VM Role and the scenarios that are enabled having access to the OS. We will walk through the lifecycle of installing, configuring and deploying a VM to Windows Azure and we’ll consider the tradeoffs and alternatives to using VM Role. Finally, we will take a look at what’s new in VM Role and how to get started.

What you will learn:

• The limitations of traditional Web and Worker Roles
• When you should use Windows Azure VM Role
• How to install, configure and deploy a VM to Windows Azure