Windows Azure Bootcamp

Because Centric has been working hard in 2009 and 2010 to get our folks spooled up on all the primary cloud platforms, we were asked by Microsoft to sponsor and present several of their two day Windows Azure Boot Camp sessions.

Windows Azure Boot Camp (ABC) is a deep dive class to get you up to speed on developing for Windows Azure. The sessions in Columbus, Cincinnati, Chicago, and Indianapolis will be presented by a Centric Architect with deep real world experience with Azure.  The camp includes a series of labs so you can practice what you just learned.

I was able to attend parts of the Columbus session.  It was a great immersion into all things azure.  Sessions included:

  • Introduction to cloud computer and Azure,
  • Using Web Roles,
  • Blobs: File Storage in the cloud,
  • Tables: Scalable hierarchical storage,
  • Queues: Decoupling your systems,
  • Basic Worker Roles,
  • Advanced Worker Roles,
  • Building a business with Azure,
  • SQL Azure,
  • AppFabric, and
  • Cloud Scenarios.

Attending this camp depended my understanding of cloud computing and how much Microsoft has invested in making their cloud compute utility a reality.  It’s ready to be used for real-world scenarios today.

So how big is cloud computing?  And how many people are actually using cloud compute services?  I was not able find Azure usage statistics.  But I was able to find Amazon EC2 cloud usage statistics for the last 12 months:

  • Cloud infrastructure spending grew 380% – i.e. $$ spent on cloud provider resources, and
  • Average cloud costs per customer grew 140% – i.e. cloud users on average are spending 2.5X more than a year ago.

To see a nice usage graph go to: https://blog.rightscale.com/2009/10/05/amazon-usage-estimates/.

Bottom line, cloud is here.  Start figuring out how it can decrease your IT costs while increasing your quality of service.

I welcome you comments.
Mike Brannan