Windows azure is a platform based on cloud computing released in 2009 ,which comes under complete Microsoft’s cloud offering. Cloud offering is nothing but the bunch of servers which host and run your applications.
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Difference between a cloud offering and a non cloud offering:
In a cloud offering you need not worry about the physical hardware that hosts your service. The public cloud offers you the metered service i.e.. disk storage, computing time, bandwidth etc. can be used as a metered service which means pay-as-you-use-basis.
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Widows azure- A distributed cloud System
Windows azure is a cloud offering, in which you can run application using windows server in a highly scalable manner. windows azure offers you two services
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You can host your web application
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It offers you back end processing service
By hosting your web applications in azure helps you to handle more traffic to your website. The difference between the traditional hosting and cloud hosting service is , in traditional hosting your website resources will be present in a particular server and you cannot increase the computing power as needed whereas in cloud hosting service your resource will spread across many servers and computational power can be added when needed and released when not needed. Your website resources across various servers helps you to handle more incoming traffic than a traditional hosting.
Consider a back end service such as converting a mp3 file to WMA file. When a situation comes like more storage or resource is needed you can expand your computation resource and it will be spread among servers which makes the process easy.
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How windows Azure works:
In traditional operating system the OS is responsible for CPU scheduling, time allocation and space allocation. But in cloud operating system the OS is not responsible for CPU allocation , space etc.. This responsibility has to be abstracted from the OS. Since the CPU and memory are physically separate on thousands of servers.
Here in Windows Azure the responsibility is given to VM’s(virtual machines). Your application will be distributed among the virtual machine in a windows data center.
Consider the hosting of website in Azure. If your website is distributed among several virtual machines it can handle any traffic since the resources are more whereas traditional hosting the resources will be less.
- Windows Azure development:
For developing windows Azure, a SDK is available , which can be downloaded from www.azure.com. The SDK includes the following
- Windows azure development fabric.
- Virtual studio templates for web applications.
- Windows azure storage environment.
- Deployment tools.
- A glimpse of bright new world.
windows azure supports ASP.net, java and ruby applications.
- Advantages of Windows Azure:
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Pay as u grow.
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Reduces operation costs using cloud services.
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Increase business efficiency by adding and subtracting capacity in real time.
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Build and deploy software quickly.
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Standards based compatibility.
