Developing Windows Azure and Web Services Lab @ 1 Ans 1

Exploring the Windows Azure Management Portal

1. Open Internet Explorer.
2. Type https://manage.wmdowsazure.com in the address bar. and then press the Enter key. The page to sign in to the Windows Azure account is displayed.
3. Enter your email (live account), such as myliveaccount@Iive.com. in the user name text box.
4. Enter the password in the password text box.
5.      Click the Sign in button. The Windows Azure page is displayed

The Windows Azure page contains various options in the navigation pane. These options can be used to avail different types of services provided on the Windows Azure Management Portal.

The commonly-used services of the Windows Azure Management Portal are:
¦ WEB SITES: Offers options for secure and flexible development, deployment, and scaling of Web applications. In addition, it leverages the existing tools to create and deploy cloud applications without the difficulty of managing infrastructure.
¦ VIRTUAL MACHINES: Enables you to deliver on-demand, scalable computing infrastructure to meet the growing business needs. It allows you to create Windows Server and Linux operating systems environments in multiple configurations on top of the Windows Azure foundation.
¦ MOBILE SERVICES: Enables you to create a scalable and secure backend for the Windows. Android, and iOS apps. By using MOBILE SERVICES, you can:

• Store data in cloud by using various Windows Azure cloud storage techniques, such as Windows Azure Structured Query Language (SQL) database, blob storage, and table storage.
database, blob storage, and table storage.
• Authenticate users easily.
• Send push notifications to the apps running on Windows. Android, and iOS devices.

CLOUD SERVICES: Enables you to create liighly-available and substantially-scalable applications and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). This service allows you to focus on the functionality of the application and not on the infrastructure required to run the application.

SQL DATABASES: Is fully managed relational database service that allows you to create and manage Windows Azure SQL database servers.

STORAGE: Allows your applications to access Windows Azure Blob. Table, and Queue services to store data. You need a separate storage account to use Windows Azure storage for your applications.

SQL REPORTING: Enables you to create reports with tables, charts, and maps and deploy the reports on both private and public clouds.

MEDIA SERVICES: Provide a range of inbuilt, ready-to-use. first and third-party components that can be combined to meet specific media distribution requirements. It provides various capabilities, such as upload, storage, encoding, format conversion, content protection, and delivery, which can be used to distribute media to global audience. Therefore. Windows Azure MEDIA SERVICES allow you to easily create, manage, and deliver media across multiple devices.

SERVICE BUS: Provides the messaging channel for connecting the cloud applications to on-premises applications, services, and systems. You can use SERVICE BUS to manage message delivery in the cloud, connect on-premises applications to the cloud, and send push notifications to mobile devices.

ACTIVE DIRECTORY: Provides identity management and access control capabilities for the cloud applications. It provides a cloud-based identity provider that can easily integrate with the on-premises Active Directory (AD) deployments. In addition, it provides full support for third party identity providers.

NETWORKS: Enables you to create a logically isolated network in Windows Azure. Further, it allows you to securely connect this network to on-premises datacenter or to a single client machine using an Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) connection. In addition, it allows you to:
• Easily extend your datacenter using Windows Azure.
• Build distributed applications.
• Debug your applications remotely.

TRAFFIC MANAGER: Allows you to manage incoming traffic across multiple hosted Windows Azure services so that you can ensure high performance and availability of your applications. It enables you to select from three load balancing methods: performance, failover, and round robin. Therefore, by configuring TRAFFIC MANAGER, you can run responsive applications and ensure high availability for your applications.

ADD-ONS: Enables you to quickly discover and purchase application and data services from Microsoft partners. Further, it allows you to manage the services purchased from Windows Azure Store through Windows Azure Management Portal.

MANAGEMENT SERVICES: Enables you to manage the alerts and operations logs for the current subscription.

SETTINGS: Enables you to configure settings related to management certificates, subscriptions, and affinity groups. For example, it allows you to add. edit, or remove subscriptions of a user from the Windows Azure account.