What this book covers
Chapter 1, Developing Cloud Services for Microsoft Azure, shows you the main compute engine of Azure (also known as web/worker roles). This building block uses a specific service model to run web applications as well as any other custom code on stateless virtual machines. This chapter is also a great introduction to Visual Studio integration for those who are not familiar with it.
Chapter 2, Deploying Quickly with Azure Websites, shows you one of the most advanced Platform as a Service in the market, which lets customers/developers deploy an existing web application in minutes. This building block does not require a specific development skill, as it is a lock-in-free environment that provides advanced integrated features regarding the ALM. This chapter is essential for anyone who wants to start a new project or move an existing project to the cloud.
Chapter 3, Getting Storage with Blobs in Azure, shows you how Azure deals with storage of files (also known as Blobs). This building block is about Blobs' features, management, and administration, with food for thought for advanced scenarios. This chapter will be helpful to those who want to access the storage services programmatically.
Chapter 4, Going Relational with the Azure SQL Database, shows you the RDBMS of Microsoft Azure, enabling existing SQL-Server-based solutions to move into the cloud seamlessly. This building block is about SQL database management, monitoring, and development. This chapter is a good read to identify the correct approach to SQL on Microsoft Cloud.
Chapter 5, Going NoSQL with Azure Tables, shows you how to use the original Table service as a data store for unstructured data. This building block can be used to store entities when there is no strict need of a SQL-based, but scalable, service. This chapter is particularly useful while building a scalable data store of arbitrary entities.
Chapter 6, Messaging and Queues with Storage and Service Bus, shows you how to build scalable systems with message-based, disconnected systems. This building block covers the need for communication between heterogeneous systems, using queues of messages. This chapter also covers the relayed messaging feature and cross-platform communication.
Chapter 7, Managing Azure Resources with the Azure Management Libraries, shows you how to remotely manage a big portion of the Azure services, programmatically, through Management Libraries. The building block is the Management API on which Management Libraries rely. This chapter is suited for automation solutions, custom management tools, or even parts of complex multitenant systems where resources must be created/configured/destroyed dynamically.
Chapter 8, Going In-memory with Azure Cache, shows you how to improve an application's performance with in-memory caching. This building block is of primary importance for situations where there's web traffic and the demand is high, providing good service by storing frequently accessed information. This chapter is about caching, so it is extremely important to read it even if you are not adopting it as part of the implementation.