Your Journey to the Cloud
What can you do to accelerate your own understanding of the Cloud, what it is and how Microsoft plays its part in that growing ecosystem of providers and platforms?
Well, think of this as a manual of links and suggested reading:
Read the Wikipedia
definition of Cloud Computing. There is no agreed definition but most of them incorporate these ideas and this is as good a description as any. Some will disagree, most will agree. This is a good place to get you started.
- Watch Ray Ozzie’s talk at the 2009 Microsoft Professional Developers Conference describe the 3 screens and a cloud strategy that underpins all of Microsoft’s cloud efforts.
- Watch this video, where the notion of Software + Services or S+S is described.
4. Watch this video which highlights the benefits of Windows Azure.
5. Watch this video which describes the whole Windows Azure platform in less than 5 minutes.
6. Watch this video which describes Windows Azure in less than 5 minutes.
7. Watch this video which describes SQL Azure in less than 5 minutes.
8. Watch this video which describes Windows Azure Application Fabric (App Fab) in less than 5 minutes.
9. Read David Chapell’s Whitepaper on Windows Azure (updated since the 2010 PDC). It’s the first link at this location.
10. Watch this video which gives a peek inside a Microsoft datacentre.
11. Watch this video with Doug Hauger, the commercial General Manager of Windows Azure in which he describes how the Windows Azure business plan was created.
12. Watch this video as Doug Hauger answers a few of the tougher questions around things like pricing and large bills. - In preparation for wriritng your first "Hello World!", sign up for a free Windows Azure account. If you are an MSDN Ultimate/Premium subscriber use this link. Otherwise use this link.
- Watch this video as Manuvir takes you on a lap around WIndows Azure.