Windows #Azure Storage Explorers

In the below table, we list each Windows Azure Storage explorer, and then put an “X” in each block if it provides the ability to either enumerate and/or access the data abstraction. The last column indicates if the explorer is free or not.

Windows Azure Storage
Explorer

Block Blob

Page Blob

Tables

Queues

Free

Azure Blob Client

X

Y

Azure Blob Compressor
Enables compressing blobs for upload and download

X

Y

Azure Blob Explorer

X

Y

Azure Storage Explorer

X

X

X

Y

Azure Storage Simple Viewer

X

 

X

X

Y

Cerebrata Cloud Storage Studio

X

X

X

X

Y/N

Cloud Berry Explorer

X

X

Y

Clumsy Leaf Azure Explorer
Visual studio plug-in

X

X

X

X

Y

Factonomy Azure Utility

X

Y

Gladinet Cloud Desktop

X

N

MyAzureStorage.com
A portal to access blobs, tables and queues

X

X

X

X

Y

Space Block

X

Y

Windows Azure Management Tool

X

X

X

X

Y

An old, April post but with some useful information

#Microsoft opens #HTML5 Labs

Welcome to HTML5 Labs

The HTML5 Labs site is the place where Microsoft prototypes early and unstable web standard specifications from standards bodies such as the W3C. Sharing these prototypes helps us have informed discussions with developer communities, and contributes to a better implementation experience with draft specifications.

To find out more about the thinking behind this new HTML5 Labs site, you can read the blog by Dean Hachamovitch, the Corporate Vice President for Internet Explorer and the blog by Jean Paoli, the General Manager for Interoperability Strategy.

The HTML5 Labs are managed by the Microsoft Interoperability Strategy Group.

For lovers of "thin ice"...

Customers FAQ: Today, focus on #Azure

With this post, I would like to list a few links that helps answering several customer requests that I have received recently.

1) AZURE SLAs:

You can find them here. Related to this topic, you may also be interested in

  • reading the terms of use
  • accessing the support portal, from which you can
    • access the Service Dashboard with infomation about the status of the Azure Services in the different datacenters worldwide
      • NB: you can also subscribe to this information in form of an RSS or you can monitor your applications directly with System Center and the Windows Azure Application Monitoring Management Pack which is today available for download as a Release Candidate (more info also here)
    • report an issue you are experiencing with the services

2) AZURE SECURITY:

Please allow me to re-link you to a few posts within this blog:

3) AZURE PATTERNS AND PRACTICES:

4) WHAT'S NEW

(recurring question that fortunately we can always answer differently, considering the amount of innovation regularly brought to Azure...)

5) IaaS, WM ROLE, ???

In the recent past, this was definitely a recurring question. One of the most encountered misunderstanding is that VM role is Microsoft new IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) offer. This is not the case. Here, you can find a nice overview of the Azure Roles, and this blog entry written by Planky nicely explains the VM Role and what it is good for.

If you are in Switzerland and need more specific information, please do not hesitate to contact me under stefano.malle@microsoft.com.

Swiss #TechDays 11 - Save the date today!

Save the date today!

Travel with us along the «Highway to Knowledge»! At one of the most important and biggest Swiss Microsoft technology events in April 2011 (Geneva) and May 2011 (Basel), we will show you fascinating new ways to increase IT innovation and efficiency. TechDays 11 will provide you with exciting information on software development and architecture, uses of IT and managing framework, application and infrastructure technologies.

Book your ticket to TechDays 11 today:

5–6 April 2011, Palexpo Geneva (ICS file for Outlook entry)

2–3 May 2011, Congress Center Basel (ICS file for Outlook entry)

Click on one of the links to enter the date straight into Outlook.

A visit to TechDays 11 pays off! You can look forward to information and demos for Microsoft Cloud Power (Windows Azure, SQL Azure, Office 365), Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0, Silverlight vNext, Office SharePoint 2010, Internet Explorer 9/HTML5, Office 2010, Windows Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2008 R2, Lync Server 2010, Windows 7 and much more.

From February, you will be able to view the detailed agenda and registration form for TechDays 11 at www.techdays.ch. If you have any questions, please contact us at chnetcom@microsoft.com.

We wish you a wonderful holiday season and a happy New Year, and look forward to an exciting and successful 2011 with you!

Merry Christmas
and a happy New Year!

Your TechDays 11 Team Switzerland

Windows Phone 7 Guides for IT Professionals (#wp7 #itpro)

Windows Phone 7 brings together the information, applications, tools, and services needed to help your workforce accomplish what they most want to do, easier and faster. At home or on the go, people can use powerful solutions such as Microsoft Office Mobile and Microsoft SharePoint Server to stay up-to-date with colleagues and business associates. Microsoft Outlook Mobile also delivers easy access to email messages and calendars so people can respond quickly and efficiently. And with the intuitive user interface of Windows Phone 7, people can work more efficiently using gestures like tapping and pinching to select content and navigate on their phone. If you are an IT professional and your business users are asking for Windows Phone 7, this is a good place to start investigating what it takes to integrate and support the phone in your organization. This series of articles explores a variety of topics important to you—from providing how-to guidance on integrating technologies that businesses already use while helping to support corporate security and management requirements, to providing insights into how Windows Phone 7 helps to create compelling applications for phone, web, and PC by using powerful and familiar development tools. Windows Phone 7 is a different kind of phone designed to bring together what people care about most – easier and faster.Files in this Download:The links in this section correspond to separate files available in this download. Download the files most appropriate for you.

Bing Changes to Bird’s eye and 3D Maps - Bing Maps Blog - Site Blogs - Bing Community

Update @ 3:30pm (11/2): Because there’s been confusion on this announcement, we want to make clear that this announcement was around the end of life of the 3D Map control. 3D Maps is not based on Silverlight and this announcement has nothing to do with our commitment to Silverlight. We continue to invest in Silverlight functionality, which delivers the richest possible experience for our users - specifically through our map apps that run in the browser on the PC and the Silverlight map control for Windows Phone 7 applications.

A bit old but still helpful to remove some of the misunderstandings around Bing committment to Silverlight.

NEW Windows #Azure Platform Training Kit (December Update): Ready for download

Overview


The Windows Azure Platform Training Kit includes a comprehensive set of technical content including hands-on labs, presentations, and demos that are designed to help you learn how to use the Windows Azure platform including: Windows Azure, SQL Azure and the Windows Azure AppFabric.

The December update provides new and updated hands-on labs, demo scripts, and presentations for the Windows Azure November 2010 enhancements and the Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio 1.3. These new hands-on labs demonstrate how to use new Windows Azure features such as Virtual Machine Role, Elevated Privileges, Full IIS, and more. This release also includes hands-on labs that were updated in late October and November 2010 to demonstrate some of the new Windows Azure AppFabric services that were announced at the Professional Developers Conference (http://microsoftpdc.com) including the Windows Azure AppFabric Access Control Service, Caching Service, and the Service Bus.

Some of the specific changes with the December update of the training kit include:

  • [Updated] All demos were updated to the Azure SDK 1.3
  • [New demo script] Deploying and Managing SQL Azure Databases with Visual Studio 2010 Data-tier Applications
  • [New presentation] Identity and Access Control in the Cloud
  • [New presentation] Introduction to SQL Azure Reporting
  • [New presentation] Advanced SQL Azure
  • [New presentation] Windows Azure Marketplace DataMarket
  • [New presentation] Managing, Debugging, and Monitoring Windows Azure
  • [New presentation] Building Low Latency Web Applications
  • [New presentation] Windows Azure AppFabric Service Bus
  • [New presentation] Windows Azure Connect
  • [New presentation] Moving Applications to the Cloud with VM Role

Release: December Update
Version: 2.2

Have fun!