Cloud Services (Web and Worker Roles) announcements

• Link
  New article published: Table Storage vs. SQL Database (formerly SQL Azure)
  SethM-MS Wednesday, July 25, 2012 9:56 PM

  You might find this new MSDN article interesing: it compares two types of structured storage supported by Windows Azure: Windows Azure Table Storage and Windows Azure SQL Database (formerly SQL Azure). The goal of this article is to provide a comparison of the respective technologies so that you can understand the similarities and differences between them. This analysis can help you make a more informed decision about which technology best meets your specific requirements.

  Check it out and please do rate the topic: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj553018.

• Link
  Follow @wapforums on Twitter to stay connected with the Windows Azure Platform MSDN forums
  Jialin Xin Friday, February 18, 2011 7:20 PM

  As posted on the Windows Azure Team Blog:

  The Windows Azure Platform MSDN forums provide free online community support for Windows Azure and SQL Azure developers from Microsoft insiders, MVP's, and like-minded developers. The forums are a great means to get quick answers and support on all things Windows Azure without having to log a support ticket. The Windows Azure Platform forums average more than 360 new posts a month and 99% of the posted questions receive a response within one day.

  To make it easier to stay on top of what's happening on the forums, you can now follow @wapforums on Twitter to keep track of new forum questions and discussions as they're posted. When you're logged into Twitter, you'll be able to see questions as they're asked, get community tips as they're posted and identify discussions that you may want to participate in.

  And be sure to watch for posts from #MSTechTalk for tips and discussions from Microsoft engineering teams and #WAPSupport for posts related to top support questions.

• Link
  Forums for Windows Azure AppFabric CTP & SQL Azure Labs Support
  Brian Aurich Thursday, January 20, 2011 5:51 PM

  The SQL Azure and Windows Azure AppFabric teams have forums setup specifically for support & feedback of their products in CTP and Labs.  These forums should be reserved for conversations only while the product/feature/version is not a production release.  Along with community members providing answers, these forums are supported by the product groups.
  
  You can find these forums with the descriptions of what they cover under the Windows Azure Platform - CTPs, Betas & Labs forum category.
  
  Currently, the Windows Azure Betas & CTPs (XS instances, VM Roles & Windows Azure Connect) are supported under the primary Windows Azure Platform forums .
  
  Thank you,

  Brian Aurich - Windows Azure Community PM

• Link
  Windows Azure Platform FAQs
  Brian Aurich Wednesday, December 01, 2010 9:43 PM

  Frequently Asked Questions for the Windows Azure Platform are available here:

  http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/faq/default.aspx

• Link
  Windows Azure Platform Training Course and Training Kit - Septemeber 2011 refresh released
  Brian Aurich Wednesday, December 01, 2010 7:46 PM

  The Windows Azure Platform Training Course includes a comprehensive set of hands-on labs and videos that are designed to help you quickly learn how to use Windows Azure, SQL Azure, and the Windows Azure AppFabric.

  The Windows Azure Platform Training Course is available here and includes a link to the latest offline training kit.

  Wade Wegner provides information about the September update in his blog here.

Azure Storage announcements

• Link
  Archived Windows Azure Storage Forum Content
  Brad Calder Saturday, March 26, 2011 6:48 PM

  When the forums moved into specialized areas, the original forum content for Windows Azure was left archived at this link:

   

  http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-GB/windowsazure/

   

   

• Link
  Windows Azure Storage Team Blog
  Brad Calder Saturday, March 26, 2011 6:58 AM

  Please see the Windows Azure Storage Team Blog for more information on Windows Azure Storage

   

  http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazurestorage/

   

Azure SQL Database announcements

• Link
  New service update available for SQL Data Sync!
  Shirley Wang [SQL] Thursday, May 28, 2015 2:58 PM

  While it has been 3+ years since we last announced an update to SQL Data Sync service, we have been continuously deploying updates to the backend service to address top customer issues.  We are listening to your feedback, and today we are happy to announce the latest update which includes both service changes and a new SQL Data Sync agent install.  This update includes two main enhancements:

  1. Support for synchronizing tables that have column collations:
  • If the selected sync schema tables do not already exist in your hub or member databases, upon deploying the sync group, SQL Data Sync will automatically create corresponding tables and columns in the empty database with the same collation settings as the select sync schema.
  • If the tables to-be-synced are already created in both hub and member databases, SQL Data Sync requires the primary key columns have the same collation between hub/member databases to successfully deploy the sync group.  There is no collation restriction on the non-primary key columns.
  2. Improvements to performance and resilience:
  • We enhanced batch transfer of serialized changes from source to destination, so you should see faster sync throughput.
  • We improved transient error handling logic when reading from the source or writing to the destination.

  The new version of SQL Data Sync agent in the download center.  Please follow the step-by-step instructions here to install a new Data Sync agent.  If you have an existing agent, you can refer to this MSDN article for detailed upgrade procedures.  A previous version of Data Sync agent will continue to work until it expires on 8/18/2015.

• Link
  Understand Azure SQL Database and SQL Server in Azure VM
  Vinod Ramakrishna Friday, October 03, 2014 6:35 PM

  Microsoft Azure provides you two options when hosting your SQL Server-based data: Azure SQL Database and SQL Server in Azure Virtual Machine. This new article explains how each option fits into the big picture in Microsoft’s Data Platform, and then discusses the common business motivations that might affect your choice. Please take a look at it!

  http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/data-management-azure-sql-database-and-sql-server-iaas/

  ---

  Selcin Turkarslan

Azure Active Directory announcements

• Link
  AADSync is available as a customer technology preview (CTP)
  Markus Vilcinskas Friday, April 18, 2014 7:09 PM

  For more details, click here.

  Cheers,
  Markus

• Link
  Introduction to the Wiki Toolbox
  Markus Vilcinskas Tuesday, February 18, 2014 2:28 AM

  Link

  Cheers,
  Markus

• Link
  Who should use this Windows Azure AD forum?
  Nick Pierson [MSFT] Tuesday, October 23, 2012 11:58 PM

  This Windows Azure Active Directory (Windows Azure AD) TechNet forum is intended to provide community support for IT Professionals who use the Windows Azure AD Portal or that manage and/or troubleshoot identity-related issues with any of the following Microsoft cloud services:

  • Office 365
  • Windows Azure
  • Windows Intune

  Members from the Windows Azure AD team will occasionally monitor this forum to help answer questions. However, participation by identity MVPs and other IT Pro community members is strongly encouraged to provide quick replies to those who need answers.

  If you are a Developer looking for support related to Windows Azure AD, please use the Windows Azure AD MSDN forum instead.

  Thanks!

  Nick Pierson

  Windows Azure AD - Senior Writer

  Looking for Windows Azure AD content but not sure where to start? Check out the new Windows Azure AD Content Map wiki page to find helpful links to Azure AD content that may reside anywhere on the Internet. Please contribute to this page and add links!