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• Podcast Show Notes: Conversations in the Cloud

  - by Bob Rhubart

  The centerpiece of every OTN Architect Day event is a panel discussion the gathers all of the session speakers togehter to respond to questions from the audience. I generally try to record these discussions, usually by stiking my iPad on top of one of the PA speakers, with mixed results. Fortunately, the A/V tech at the venue for the Los Angeles event, held on October 25, 2012, had the necessary gear to get a good-quality recording of the panel discussion. So starting this week the OTN ArchBeat Podcast will feature a short series of highlights from those discussions. Listen to Part 1: Dude, What's My Role? Members of the Architect Day panel respond to an audience question about what happens to traditional IT roles in a cloud environment. Listen to Part 2: Migrating Mission-Critical Applications to the Cloud (Nov 21) The panel offers advice and examples in response to an audience question about dealing with mission-critical applications. Listen to Part 3: All Clouds Are Not Equal (Nov 28) The panel responds to a challenging question about cloud strategy with a discussion of enterprise-grade cloud services. Listen to Part 4: Cloud Security and Auditing (Dec 5) The last segment in the series is short discussion in response to an audience question about auditing and security in the cloud. The Panelists (Listed alphabetically) Ashok Aletty, Senior Director of Product Management, Oracle Cloud Application Foundation Dr. James Baty, Vice President, Oracle Global Enterprise Architecture Program Dave Chappelle, Enterprise Architect, Oracle Global Enterprise Architecture Program Jeff Davies, Senior Principal Product Manager, Oracle Corporation Anbu Krishnaswamy, Enterprise Architect, Oracle Global Enterprise Architecture Program Dhanraj Pondicherry, Sales Consulting Manager, Oracle Exadata Perren Walker, Senior Principal Product Manager, Oracle Enterprise Manager Coming Soon Upcoming programs will focus on DevOps and Continuous Integration, and on Oracle's Java Cloud and Developer Cloud services. Stay tuned: RSS

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• IOUG SIG Webcast on October 30th : Performance Tuning your DB Cloud

  - by Anand Akela

  The Oracle Enterprise Manager Special Interest Group (SIG) is a growing body of IOUG members who manage or are interested in all aspects of Oracle Enterprise Manager. This IOUG SIG is managed by volunteers and supported by Oracle Enterprise Manager product managers and developers. The purpose of the SIG is to bring relevant information and education through webcasts, discussions and networking to users interested in learning more about the product, and to share user experiences. On October 30th at 10 AM pacific time, Oracle Enterprise Manager SIG is hosting a webcast on "Performance Tuning your DB Cloud in OEM 12c Cloud Control - 360 Degrees". In this webcast, Tariq Farooq , CEO, BrainSurface and Mike Ault, Oracle  will provide a tutorial on how to monitor and perform performance tuning of the Oracle database cloud environment. You will learn how to leverage Oracle Enterprise Manager for tuning, trouble-shooting & monitoring your Oracle Database Cloud Ecosystem. The session covers lessons learned, tips/tricks, recommendations, best practices, gotchas and a whole lot more on how to effectively use Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control 12c for quick, easy & intuitive performance tuning of your Oracle Database Cloud. Session Objectives:• Leveraging OEM12c Cloud Control for Oracle DB Tuning/Monitoring • Limited Deep-Dive on AWR • Oracle DB Cloud Performance Tuning • Best Practices for DB Cloud Maintenance/Monitoring Register Now ! Stay Connected: Twitter |  Face book |  You Tube |  Linked in |  Google+ |  Newsletter

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• Securing a Cloud-Based Data Center

  - by Orgad Kimchi

  No doubt, with all the media reports about stolen databases and private information, a major concern when committing to a public or private cloud must be preventing unauthorized access of data and applications. In this article, we discuss the security features of Oracle Solaris 11 that provide a bullet-proof cloud environment. As an example, we show how the Oracle Solaris Remote Lab implementation utilizes these features to provide a high level of security for its users. Note: This is the second article in a series on cloud building with Oracle Solaris 11. See Part 1 here.  When we build a cloud, the following aspects related to the security of the data and applications in the cloud become a concern: • Sensitive data must be protected from unauthorized access while residing on storage devices, during transmission between servers and clients, and when it is used by applications. • When a project is completed, all copies of sensitive data must be securely deleted and the original data must be kept permanently secure. • Communications between users and the cloud must be protected to prevent exposure of sensitive information from “man in a middle attacks.” • Limiting the operating system’s exposure protects against malicious attacks and penetration by unauthorized users or automated “bots” and “rootkits” designed to gain privileged access. • Strong authentication and authorization procedures further protect the operating system from tampering. • Denial of Service attacks, whether they are started intentionally by hackers or accidentally by other cloud users, must be quickly detected and deflected, and the service must be restored. In addition to the security features in the operating system, deep auditing provides a trail of actions that can identify violations,issues, and attempts to penetrate the security of the operating system. Combined, these threats and risks reinforce the need for enterprise-grade security solutions that are specifically designed to protect cloud environments. With Oracle Solaris 11, the security of any cloud is ensured. This article explains how.

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• Two Cloudy Observations from Oracle OpenWorld

  - by Gene Eun

  Now that the dust has settled from another amazing Oracle OpenWorld, I wanted to reflect back on a couple of key observations I made during the event. First, it was pretty clear that Cloud was again a big deal at this year's conference. It was hard to not notice that Oracle continues to be "all-in" with respect to cloud computing. Just to give you an idea of the emphasis on Cloud, there were over 300 Cloud-related sessions at this year's OpenWorld. If you caught some of the demo booths in the Oracle Red Lounge, then you saw some of the great platform, application, and social services that are now part of Oracle Cloud, as well as numerous demos of private cloud products that Oracle offers. Second, during Thomas Kurian's keynote presentation on Oracle Cloud, he announced the Preview Availability of a new service called Oracle Developer Cloud Service. This new platform service will provide developers with instant access to environments to better manage the application development lifecycle in the cloud. It provides development project teams access to favorite tools like Hudson, Git, Github, wikis, and tasks to help make innovation faster, more collaborative, and more effective. There's also integration with IDEs like Eclipse, NetBeans, and JDeveloper. If you're a developer, it's an awesome addition to Oracle Cloud's platform services! Want more details about Oracle Developer Cloud Service? Click here.

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• Two Cloudy Observations from Oracle OpenWorld

  - by GeneEun

  Now that the dust has settled from another amazing Oracle OpenWorld, I wanted to reflect back on a couple of key observations I made during the event. First, it was pretty clear that Cloud was again a big deal at this year's conference. Yes, the Oracle Database 12c announcement was also huge, but for most it was hard to not notice that Oracle continues to be "all-in" with respect to cloud computing. Just to give you an idea of the emphasis on Cloud, there were over 300 Cloud-related sessions at this year's OpenWorld. If you caught some of the demo booths in the Oracle Red Lounge, then you saw some of the great platform, application, and social services that are now part of Oracle Cloud, as well as numerous demos of private cloud products that Oracle offers. Second, during Thomas Kurian's keynote presentation on Oracle Cloud, he announced the Preview Availability of a new service called Oracle Developer Cloud Service. This new platform service will provide developers with instant access to environments to better manage the application development lifecycle in the cloud. It provides development project teams access to favorite tools like Hudson, Git, Github, wikis, and tasks to help make innovation faster, more collaborative, and more effective. There's also integration with IDEs like Eclipse, NetBeans, and JDeveloper. If you're a developer, it's an awesome addition to Oracle Cloud's platform services! Want more details about Oracle Developer Cloud Service? Click here.

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• Podcast Show Notes: The Role of the Cloud Architect

  - by Bob Rhubart

  Ron Batra James Baty If you want to understand what a cloud architect does, what better way than to talk to people in that role? In this program that’s exactly what we’ll do. Joining me for this conversation are cloud architects Ron Batra and Dr. James Baty. Ron is an Oracle ACE Director and product director for cloud computing at AT&T , and Jim is Vice President of Oracle’s Global Enterprise Architecture Program . This interview was recorded on June 12, 2012. The Conversation Listen to Part 1: How cloud computing is driving the supply-chaining of IT and the democratization of the activity of architecture. Listen to Part 2 (July 12): A discussion of DevOps, cloud computing, and the increasing velocity of IT. Listen to Part 3 (July 19): Why architects need to up their game to thrive and succeed in a cloud-driven world. Coming Soon A conversation about the International SOA, Cloud & Service Technology Symposium with a panel that features Thomas Erl and several Oracle community members who will be presenting at that event.

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• How can I easily create cloud texture maps?

  - by EdwardTeach

  I am making 3d planets in my game; these will be viewed as "globes". Some of them will need cloud layers. I looked at various Blender tutorials for creating "earth", and for their cloud layers they use earth cloud maps from NASA. However I will be creating a fictional universe with many procedurally-generated planets. So I would like to use many variations. I'm hoping there's a way to procedurally generate cloud maps such as the NASA link. I will also need to create gas giants, so I will also need other kinds of cloud texture maps. If that is too difficult, I could fall back to creating several variations of cloud maps. For example, 3 for earth-like, 3 for gas giants, etc. So how do I statically create or programmatically generate such cloud maps?

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• Cloud Computing in words of one syllable

  - by harry.foxwell(at)oracle.com

  A colleague of mine challenged me to describe Cloud Computing in words of one syllable so that even his 80-year-old mother-in-law could understand the concept.  Hmmmm...The Cloud lets you do all your work on the Web or on your own net. It lets you set up your own work; no one has to set it up for you.  When you need more disk space, the cloud makes it for you.  When you need more speed, the cloud adds more gear to make your jobs go fast.  You share the cloud with more than just your own work, and you just pay for what you use.  The cloud is not new; this type of work has been done for years; just the word is new.  Now you know what the cloud is.  Or not.

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• New Oracle Cloud support in OEPE

  - by gstachni

  Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse 12c (12.1.1.1.1) includes updated support for development with the Java Cloud Service. Users can now do iterative development against their Java Cloud Service instance in addition to testing against local and remote WebLogic Server installations. Some details of the cloud tools are below: Templates and wizards to create projects and server configurations for Oracle Java Cloud Service Develop applications to run and deploy to the cloud, including Oracle ADF. Check cloud server runtime and deployment logs in new log analyzers Test applications before deployment with integrated whitelist scans. Whitelist tools support as-you-type validation, project build validation, and on demand scans to highlight coding violations. Errors are reported in application source, the Problems view, and a new Whitelist violations view. Access the Oracle Public Cloud administrative consoles directly from within Eclipse.

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• Rackspace Cloud Server DNS Add SPF Records

  - by user625435

  I've setup my new LAMP server on Rackspace Cloud and the Basic A, C and MX DNS setup is no problem. I need to add an SPF record for a project I am migrating over to this new server that allows emails from a 3rd party server and I can't seem to figure out how to do this. There doesn't seem to be an option to add a TXT record in my Rackspace Cloud Server interface and I installed the BIND DNS on my Apache server, but I am not sure how to get that to been seen, etc.

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• Backup the Windows user folder in the cloud?

  - by Benjamin

  As I understand it, Google Drive and Dropbox, the two cloud storage providers I happen to know, can only sync a predefined folder that is created upon installation. I'd be happy to have an automated synchronisation of my folders in the cloud, but I'm not ready to change my habits, and start saving all my documents in the folder imposed by the provider. Is it possible with one of these, or any other you might know, to sync the full Windows user folder instead?

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• Cloud hosting for windows domain controller, possible?

  - by Preet Sangha

  We currently host our own domain controller (small company) locally on dedicated h/w. However to mitigate disaster recovery we're considering the use of virtualisation and cloud hosting. One thought is Virtual primary domain controller hosted in the cloud + a local (secondary) virtualised server running in the office as a cache? Is this possible or should I consider something else? We're happy to pay for the decent hosting and DR but this is really out of my experience.

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• Can I host my web application in Cloud ?

  - by Lakshmanan

  Hi, I have made a small web application created in J2EE which i want to develop as a "business". Can i host it in one of the cloud services ? Please do advice me as well on this issue. Will the cloud service be reliable over a long time ? Thanks in advance

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• Capabilities and pricing of Amazon's cloud computing platform?

  - by inspirednow

  I'm finding it very hard to estimate how much my web application might cost running in Amazon's cloud? My app is similar to stackoverflow.com - asp.net, ajaz, sql database. Can anyone estimate how much it might cost to run stackoverflow in Amazon's cloud?

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• Personal cloud storage options

  - by rhaddan

  I'm looking for some personal cloud storage options. My biggest concern about moving to a hosted storage solution is the long-term viability of the provider. Has anyone used a cloud service that you're crazy about? I'm a Mac user, so I need to have something that will work on the Mac OS and ideally the iPhone as well.

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• Open Different Types of New Google Documents Directly with These 7 New Chrome Apps

  - by Asian Angel

  Every time you want to open a new document of one kind or another in Google Drive you have to go through the whole ‘menu’ and ‘type selection’ process to do so. Now you can open the desired type directly from the New Tab Page using these terrific new Chrome apps from Google! The best part about this new set of apps is the ability to choose only the ones you want and/or need, then be able to start working on those new documents quickly without all the ‘selection’ hassle. How Hackers Can Disguise Malicious Programs With Fake File Extensions Can Dust Actually Damage My Computer? What To Do If You Get a Virus on Your Computer

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• Windows Azure Use Case: Web Applications

  - by BuckWoody

  This is one in a series of posts on when and where to use a distributed architecture design in your organization's computing needs. You can find the main post here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/buckwoody/archive/2011/01/18/windows-azure-and-sql-azure-use-cases.aspx  Description: Many applications have a requirement to be located outside of the organization’s internal infrastructure control. For instance, the company website for a brick-and-mortar retail company may want to post not only static but interactive content to be available to their external customers, and not want the customers to have access inside the organization’s firewall. There are also cases of pure web applications used for a great many of the internal functions of the business. This allows for remote workers, shared customer/employee workloads and data and other advantages. Some firms choose to host these web servers internally, others choose to contract out the infrastructure to an “ASP” (Application Service Provider) or an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) company. In any case, the design of these applications often resembles the following: In this design, a server (or perhaps more than one) hosts the presentation function (http or https) access to the application, and this same system may hold the computational aspects of the program. Authorization and Access is controlled programmatically, or is more open if this is a customer-facing application. Storage is either placed on the same or other servers, hosted within an RDBMS or NoSQL database, or a combination of the options, all coded into the application. High-Availability within this scenario is often the responsibility of the architects of the application, and by purchasing more hosting resources which must be built, licensed and configured, and manually added as demand requires, although some IaaS providers have a partially automatic method to add nodes for scale-out, if the architecture of the application supports it. Disaster Recovery is the responsibility of the system architect as well. Implementation: In a Windows Azure Platform as a Service (PaaS) environment, many of these architectural considerations are designed into the system. The Azure “Fabric” (not to be confused with the Azure implementation of Application Fabric - more on that in a moment) is designed to provide scalability. Compute resources can be added and removed programmatically based on any number of factors. Balancers at the request-level of the Fabric automatically route http and https requests. The fabric also provides High-Availability for storage and other components. Disaster recovery is a shared responsibility between the facilities (which have the ability to restore in case of catastrophic failure) and your code, which should build in recovery. In a Windows Azure-based web application, you have the ability to separate out the various functions and components. Presentation can be coded for multiple platforms like smart phones, tablets and PC’s, while the computation can be a single entity shared between them. This makes the applications more resilient and more object-oriented, and lends itself to a SOA or Distributed Computing architecture. It is true that you could code up a similar set of functionality in a traditional web-farm, but the difference here is that the components are built into the very design of the architecture. The API’s and DLL’s you call in a Windows Azure code base contains components as first-class citizens. For instance, if you need storage, it is simply called within the application as an object.  Computation has multiple options and the ability to scale linearly. You also gain another component that you would either have to write or bolt-in to a typical web-farm: the Application Fabric. This Windows Azure component provides communication between applications or even to on-premise systems. It provides authorization in either person-based or claims-based perspectives. SQL Azure provides relational storage as another option, and can also be used or accessed from on-premise systems. It should be noted that you can use all or some of these components individually. Resources: Design Strategies for Scalable Active Server Applications - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms972349.aspx  Physical Tiers and Deployment  - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee658120.aspx

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• Windows Azure Use Case: Agility

  - by BuckWoody

  This is one in a series of posts on when and where to use a distributed architecture design in your organization's computing needs. You can find the main post here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/buckwoody/archive/2011/01/18/windows-azure-and-sql-azure-use-cases.aspx  Description: Agility in this context is defined as the ability to quickly develop and deploy an application. In theory, the speed at which your organization can develop and deploy an application on available hardware is identical to what you could deploy in a distributed environment. But in practice, this is not always the case. Having an option to use a distributed environment can be much faster for the deployment and even the development process. Implementation: When an organization designs code, they are essentially becoming a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider to their own organization. To do that, the IT operations team becomes the Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) to the development teams. From there, the software is developed and deployed using an Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) process. A simplified view of an ALM process is as follows: Requirements Analysis Design and Development Implementation Testing Deployment to Production Maintenance In an on-premise environment, this often equates to the following process map: Requirements Business requirements formed by Business Analysts, Developers and Data Professionals. Analysis Feasibility studies, including physical plant, security, manpower and other resources. Request is placed on the work task list if approved. Design and Development Code written according to organization’s chosen methodology, either on-premise or to multiple development teams on and off premise. Implementation Code checked into main branch. Code forked as needed. Testing Code deployed to on-premise Testing servers. If no server capacity available, more resources procured through standard budgeting and ordering processes. Manual and automated functional, load, security, etc. performed. Deployment to Production Server team involved to select platform and environments with available capacity. If no server capacity available, standard budgeting and procurement process followed. If no server capacity available, systems built, configured and put under standard organizational IT control. Systems configured for proper operating systems, patches, security and virus scans. System maintenance, HA/DR, backups and recovery plans configured and put into place. Maintenance Code changes evaluated and altered according to need. In a distributed computing environment like Windows Azure, the process maps a bit differently: Requirements Business requirements formed by Business Analysts, Developers and Data Professionals. Analysis Feasibility studies, including budget, security, manpower and other resources. Request is placed on the work task list if approved. Design and Development Code written according to organization’s chosen methodology, either on-premise or to multiple development teams on and off premise. Implementation Code checked into main branch. Code forked as needed. Testing Code deployed to Azure. Manual and automated functional, load, security, etc. performed. Deployment to Production Code deployed to Azure. Point in time backup and recovery plans configured and put into place.(HA/DR and automated backups already present in Azure fabric) Maintenance Code changes evaluated and altered according to need. This means that several steps can be removed or expedited. It also means that the business function requesting the application can be held directly responsible for the funding of that request, speeding the process further since the IT budgeting process may not be involved in the Azure scenario. An additional benefit is the “Azure Marketplace”, In effect this becomes an app store for Enterprises to select pre-defined code and data applications to mesh or bolt-in to their current code, possibly saving development time. Resources: Whitepaper download- What is ALM?  http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9743693  Whitepaper download - ALM and Business Strategy: http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9743690  LiveMeeting Recording on ALM and Windows Azure (registration required, but free): http://www.microsoft.com/uk/msdn/visualstudio/contact-us.aspx?sbj=Developing with Windows Azure (ALM perspective) - 10:00-11:00 - 19th Jan 2011

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• The Windows Azure Software Development Kit (SDK) and the Windows Azure Training Kit (WATK)

  - by BuckWoody

  Windows Azure is a platform that allows you to write software, run software, or use software that we've already written. We provide lots of resources to help you do that - many can be found right here in this blog series. There are two primary resources you can use, and it's important to understand what they are and what they do. The Windows Azure Software Development Kit (SDK) Actually, this isn't one resource. We have SDK's for multiple development environments, such as Visual Studio and also Eclipse, along with SDK's for iOS, Android and other environments. Windows Azure is a "back end", so almost any technology or front end system can use it to solve a problem. The SDK's are primarily for development. In the case of Visual Studio, you'll get a runtime environment for Windows Azure which allows you to develop, test and even run code all locally - you do not have to be connected to Windows Azure at all, until you're ready to deploy. You'll also get a few samples and codeblocks, along with all of the libraries you need to code with Windows Azure in .NET, PHP, Ruby, Java and more. The SDK is updated frequently, so check this location to find the latest for your environment and language - just click the bar that corresponds to what you want: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/downloads/ The Windows Azure Training Kit (WATK) Whether you're writing code, using Windows Azure Virtual Machines (VM's) or working with Hadoop, you can use the WATK to get examples, code, PowerShell scripts, PowerPoint decks, training videos and much more. This should be your second download after the SDK. This is all of the training you need to get started, and even beyond. The WATK is updated frequently - and you can find the latest one here: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/net/other-resources/training-kit/     There are many other resources - again, check the http://windowsazure.com site, the community newsletter (which introduces the latest features), and my blog for more.

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• Windows Azure Use Case: New Development

  - by BuckWoody

  This is one in a series of posts on when and where to use a distributed architecture design in your organization's computing needs. You can find the main post here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/buckwoody/archive/2011/01/18/windows-azure-and-sql-azure-use-cases.aspx Description: Computing platforms evolve over time. Originally computers were directed by hardware wiring - that, the “code” was the path of the wiring that directed an electrical signal from one component to another, or in some cases a physical switch controlled the path. From there software was developed, first in a very low machine language, then when compilers were created, computer languages could more closely mimic written statements. These language statements can be compiled into the lower-level machine language still used by computers today. Microprocessors replaced logic circuits, sometimes with fewer instructions (Reduced Instruction Set Computing, RISC) and sometimes with more instructions (Complex Instruction Set Computing, CISC). The reason this history is important is that along each technology advancement, computer code has adapted. Writing software for a RISC architecture is significantly different than developing for a CISC architecture. And moving to a Distributed Architecture like Windows Azure also has specific implementation details that our code must follow. But why make a change? As I’ve described, we need to make the change to our code to follow advances in technology. There’s no point in change for its own sake, but as a new paradigm offers benefits to our users, it’s important for us to leverage those benefits where it makes sense. That’s most often done in new development projects. It’s a far simpler task to take a new project and adapt it to Windows Azure than to try and retrofit older code designed in a previous computing environment. We can still use the same coding languages (.NET, Java, C++) to write code for Windows Azure, but we need to think about the architecture of that code on a new project so that it runs in the most efficient, cost-effective way in a Distributed Architecture. As we receive new requests from the organization for new projects, a distributed architecture paradigm belongs in the decision matrix for the platform target. Implementation: When you are designing new applications for Windows Azure (or any distributed architecture) there are many important details to consider. But at the risk of over-simplification, there are three main concepts to learn and architect within the new code: Stateless Programming - Stateless program is a prime concept within distributed architectures. Rather than each server owning the complete processing cycle, the information from an operation that needs to be retained (the “state”) should be persisted to another location c(like storage) common to all machines involved in the process.  An interesting learning process for Stateless Programming (although not unique to this language type) is to learn Functional Programming. Server-Side Processing - Along with developing using a Stateless Design, the closer you can locate the code processing to the data, the less expensive and faster the code will run. When you control the network layer, this is less important, since you can send vast amounts of data between the server and client, allowing the client to perform processing. In a distributed architecture, you don’t always own the network, so it’s performance is unpredictable. Also, you may not be able to control the platform the user is on (such as a smartphone, PC or tablet), so it’s imperative to deliver only results and graphical elements where possible.  Token-Based Authentication - Also called “Claims-Based Authorization”, this code practice means instead of allowing a user to log on once and then running code in that context, a more granular level of security is used. A “token” or “claim”, often represented as a Certificate, is sent along for a series or even one request. In other words, every call to the code is authenticated against the token, rather than allowing a user free reign within the code call. While this is more work initially, it can bring a greater level of security, and it is far more resilient to disconnections. Resources: See the references of “Nondistributed Deployment” and “Distributed Deployment” at the top of this article for more information with graphics:  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee658120.aspx  Stack Overflow has a good thread on functional programming: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/844536/advantages-of-stateless-programming  Another good discussion on Stack Overflow on server-side processing is here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3064018/client-side-or-server-side-processing Claims Based Authorization is described here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/ee335707.aspx

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• Windows Azure Use Case: New Development

  - by BuckWoody

  This is one in a series of posts on when and where to use a distributed architecture design in your organization's computing needs. You can find the main post here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/buckwoody/archive/2011/01/18/windows-azure-and-sql-azure-use-cases.aspx Description: Computing platforms evolve over time. Originally computers were directed by hardware wiring - that, the “code” was the path of the wiring that directed an electrical signal from one component to another, or in some cases a physical switch controlled the path. From there software was developed, first in a very low machine language, then when compilers were created, computer languages could more closely mimic written statements. These language statements can be compiled into the lower-level machine language still used by computers today. Microprocessors replaced logic circuits, sometimes with fewer instructions (Reduced Instruction Set Computing, RISC) and sometimes with more instructions (Complex Instruction Set Computing, CISC). The reason this history is important is that along each technology advancement, computer code has adapted. Writing software for a RISC architecture is significantly different than developing for a CISC architecture. And moving to a Distributed Architecture like Windows Azure also has specific implementation details that our code must follow. But why make a change? As I’ve described, we need to make the change to our code to follow advances in technology. There’s no point in change for its own sake, but as a new paradigm offers benefits to our users, it’s important for us to leverage those benefits where it makes sense. That’s most often done in new development projects. It’s a far simpler task to take a new project and adapt it to Windows Azure than to try and retrofit older code designed in a previous computing environment. We can still use the same coding languages (.NET, Java, C++) to write code for Windows Azure, but we need to think about the architecture of that code on a new project so that it runs in the most efficient, cost-effective way in a Distributed Architecture. As we receive new requests from the organization for new projects, a distributed architecture paradigm belongs in the decision matrix for the platform target. Implementation: When you are designing new applications for Windows Azure (or any distributed architecture) there are many important details to consider. But at the risk of over-simplification, there are three main concepts to learn and architect within the new code: Stateless Programming - Stateless program is a prime concept within distributed architectures. Rather than each server owning the complete processing cycle, the information from an operation that needs to be retained (the “state”) should be persisted to another location c(like storage) common to all machines involved in the process.  An interesting learning process for Stateless Programming (although not unique to this language type) is to learn Functional Programming. Server-Side Processing - Along with developing using a Stateless Design, the closer you can locate the code processing to the data, the less expensive and faster the code will run. When you control the network layer, this is less important, since you can send vast amounts of data between the server and client, allowing the client to perform processing. In a distributed architecture, you don’t always own the network, so it’s performance is unpredictable. Also, you may not be able to control the platform the user is on (such as a smartphone, PC or tablet), so it’s imperative to deliver only results and graphical elements where possible.  Token-Based Authentication - Also called “Claims-Based Authorization”, this code practice means instead of allowing a user to log on once and then running code in that context, a more granular level of security is used. A “token” or “claim”, often represented as a Certificate, is sent along for a series or even one request. In other words, every call to the code is authenticated against the token, rather than allowing a user free reign within the code call. While this is more work initially, it can bring a greater level of security, and it is far more resilient to disconnections. Resources: See the references of “Nondistributed Deployment” and “Distributed Deployment” at the top of this article for more information with graphics:  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee658120.aspx  Stack Overflow has a good thread on functional programming: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/844536/advantages-of-stateless-programming  Another good discussion on Stack Overflow on server-side processing is here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3064018/client-side-or-server-side-processing Claims Based Authorization is described here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/ee335707.aspx

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• Pay in the future should make you think in the present

  - by BuckWoody

  Distributed Computing - and more importantly “-as-a-Service” models of computing have a different cost model. This is something that sounds obvious on the surface but it’s often forgotten during the design and coding phase of a project. In on-premises computing, we’re used to purchasing a server and all of the hardware infrastructure and software licenses needed not only for one project, but several. This is an up-front or “sunk” cost that we consume by running code the organization needs to perform its function. Using a direct connection over wires you’ve already paid for, we don’t often have to think about bandwidth, hits on the data store or the amount of compute we use - we just know more is better. In a pay-as-you-go model, however, each of these architecture decisions has a potential cost impact. The amount of data you store, the number of times you access it, and the amount you send back all come with a charge. The offset is that you don’t buy anything at all up-front, so that sunk cost is freed up. And financial professionals know that money now is worth more than money later. Saving that up-front cost allows you to invest it in other things. It’s not just that you’re using things that now cost money - it’s that the design itself in distributed computing has a cost impact. That can be a really good thing, such as when you dynamically add capacity for paying customers. If you can tie back the cost of a series of clicks to what a user will pay to do so, you can set a profit margin that is easy to track. Here’s a case in point: Assume you are using a large instance in Windows Azure to compute some data that you retrieve from a SQL Azure database. If you don’t monitor the path of the application, you may not know what you are really using. Since you’re paying by the size of the instance, it’s best to maximize it all the time. Recently I evaluated just this situation, and found that downsizing the instance and adding another one where needed, adding a caching function to the application, moving part of the data into Windows Azure tables not only increased the speed of the application, but reduced the cost and more closely tied the cost to the profit. The key is this: from the very outset - the design - make sure you include metrics to measure for the cost/performance (sometimes these are the same) for your application. Windows Azure opens up awesome new ways of doing things, so make sure you study distributed systems architecture before you try and force in the application design you have on premises into your new application structure.

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• Why do I need two Instances in Windows Azure?

  - by BuckWoody

  Windows Azure as a Platform as a Service (PaaS) means that there are various components you can use in it to solve a problem: Compute “Roles” - Computers running an OS and optionally IIS - you can have more than one "Instance" of a given Role Storage - Blobs, Tables and Queues for Storage Other Services - Things like the Service Bus, Azure Connection Services, SQL Azure and Caching It’s important to understand that some of these services are Stateless and others maintain State. Stateless means (at least in this case) that a system might disappear from one physical location and appear elsewhere. You can think of this as a cashier at the front of a store. If you’re in line, a cashier might take his break, and another person might replace him. As long as the order proceeds, you as the customer aren’t really affected except for the few seconds it takes to change them out. The cashier function in this example is stateless. The Compute Role Instances in Windows Azure are Stateless. To upgrade hardware, because of a fault or many other reasons, a Compute Role's Instance might stop on one physical server, and another will pick it up. This is done through the controlling fabric that Windows Azure uses to manage the systems. It’s important to note that storage in Azure does maintain State. Your data will not simply disappear - it is maintained - in fact, it’s maintained three times in a single datacenter and all those copies are replicated to another for safety. Going back to our example, storage is similar to the cash register itself. Even though a cashier leaves, the record of your payment is maintained. So if a Compute Role Instance can disappear and re-appear, the things running on that first Instance would stop working. If you wrote your code in a Stateless way, then another Role Instance simply re-starts that transaction and keeps working, just like the other cashier in the example. But if you only have one Instance of a Role, then when the Role Instance is re-started, or when you need to upgrade your own code, you can face downtime, since there’s only one. That means you should deploy at least two of each Role Instance not only for scale to handle load, but so that the first “cashier” has someone to replace them when they disappear. It’s not just a good idea - to gain the Service Level Agreement (SLA) for our uptime in Azure it’s a requirement. We point this out right in the Management Portal when you deploy the application: (Click to enlarge) When you deploy a Role Instance you can also set the “Upgrade Domain”. Placing Roles on separate Upgrade Domains means that you have a continuous service whenever you upgrade (more on upgrades in another post) - the process looks like this for two Roles. This example covers the scenario for upgrade, so you have four roles total - One Web and one Worker running the "older" code, and one of each running the new code. In all those Roles you want at least two instances, and this example shows that you're covered for High Availability and upgrade paths: The take-away is this - always plan for forward-facing Roles to have at least two copies. For Worker Roles that do background processing, there are ways to architect around this number, but it does affect the SLA if you have only one.

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• Using the @ in SQL Azure Connections

  - by BuckWoody

  The other day I was working with a client on an application they were changing to a hybrid architecture – some data on-premise and other data in SQL Azure and Windows Azure Blob storage. I had them make a couple of corrections - the first was that all communications to SQL Azure need to be encrypted. It’s a simple addition to the connection string, depending on the library you use. Which brought up another interesting point. They had been using something that looked like this, using the .NET provider: Server=tcp:[serverName].database.windows.net;Database=myDataBase; User ID=LoginName;Password=myPassword; Trusted_Connection=False;Encrypt=True; This includes most of the formatting needed for SQL Azure. It specifies TCP as the transport mechanism, the database name is included, Trusted_Connection is off, and encryption is on. But it needed one more change: Server=tcp:[serverName].database.windows.net;Database=myDataBase; User ID=[LoginName]@[serverName];Password=myPassword; Trusted_Connection=False;Encrypt=True; Notice the difference? It’s the User ID parameter. It includes the @ symbol and the name of the server – not the whole DNS name, just the server name itself. The developers were a bit surprised, since it had been working with the first format that just used the user name. Why did both work, and why is one better than the other? It has to do with the connection library you use. For most libraries, the user name is enough. But for some libraries (subject to change so I don’t list them here) the server name parameter isn’t sent in the way the load balancer understands, so you need to include the server name right in the login, so the system can parse it correctly. Keep in mind, the string limit for that is 128 characters – so take the @ symbol and the server name into consideration for user names. The user connection info is detailed here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee336268.aspx Upshot? Include the @servername on your connection string just to be safe. And plan for that extra space…  

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• Creating a Corporate Data Hub

  - by BuckWoody

  The Windows Azure Marketplace has a rich assortment of data and software offerings for you to use – a type of Software as a Service (SaaS) for IT workers, not necessarily for end-users. Among those offerings is the “Data Hub” – a  codename for a project that ironically actually does what the codename says. In many of our organizations, we have multiple data quality issues. Finding data is one problem, but finding it just once is often a bigger problem. Lots of departments and even individuals have stored the same data more than once, and in some cases, made changes to one of the copies. It’s difficult to know which location or version of the data is authoritative. Then there’s the problem of accessing the data. It’s fairly straightforward to publish a database, share or other location internally to store the data. But then you have to figure out who owns it, how it is controlled, and pass out the various connection strings to those who want to use it. And then you need to figure out how to let folks access the internal data externally – bringing up all kinds of security issues. Finally, in many cases our user community wants us to combine data from the internally sources with external data, bringing up the security, strings, and exploration features up all over again. Enter the Data Hub. This is an online offering, where you assign an administrator and data stewards. You import the data into the service, and it’s available to you - and only you and your organization if you wish. The basic steps for this service are to set up the portal for your company, assign administrators and permissions, and then you assign data areas and import data into them. From there you make them discoverable, and then you have multiple options that you or your users can access that data. You’re then able, if you wish, to combine that data with other data in one location. So how does all that work? What about security? Is it really that easy? And can you really move the data definition off to the Subject Matter Experts (SME’s) that know the particular data stack better than the IT team does? Well, nothing good is easy – but using the Data Hub is actually pretty simple. I’ll give you a link in a moment where you can sign up and try this yourself. Once you sign up, you assign an administrator. From there you’ll create data areas, and then use a simple interface to bring the data in. All of this is done in a portal interface – nothing to install, configure, update or manage. After the data is entered in, and you’ve assigned meta-data to describe it, your users have multiple options to access it. They can simply use the portal – which actually has powerful visualizations you can use on any platform, even mobile phones or tablets.     Your users can also hit the data with Excel – which gives them ultimate flexibility for display, all while using an authoritative, single reference for the data. Since the service is online, they can do this wherever they are – given the proper authentication and permissions. You can also hit the service with simple API calls, like this one from C#: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh921924  You can make HTTP calls instead of code, and the data can even be exposed as an OData Feed. As you can see, there are a lot of options. You can check out the offering here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlazurelabs/labs/data-hub.aspx and you can read the documentation here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh921938

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