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Mix 2011: Azure updates

At the MIX 2011 a lot of announcements were made. So it’s my duty to highlight some of the stuff that is coming to us in the near future.

New & Updated Windows Azure Features
  • An update to the Windows Azure SDK that includes a Web Deployment Tool to simplify the migration, management and deployment of IIS Web servers, Web applications and Web sites. This new tool integrates with Visual Studio 2010 and the Web Platform Installer. Get the tools from Download Windows Azure SDK.
  • A community technology preview (CTP) of Windows Azure Traffic Manager, a new service that allows Windows Azure customers to more easily balance application performance across multiple geographies. To get the CTP, see the Windows Azure Traffic Manager section of Windows Azure Virtual Network.
  • A preview of the Windows Azure Content Delivery Network (CDN) for Internet Information Services (IIS) Smooth Streaming capabilities, which allows developers to upload IIS Smooth Streaming-encoded video to a Windows Azure Storage account and deliver that video to Silverlight, iOS and Android Honeycomb clients.
  • Updates to the Windows Azure AppFabric Access Control service, which provides a single-sign-on experience to Windows Azure applications by integrating with enterprise directories and Web identities.
  • Release of the Windows Azure AppFabric Caching service in the next 30 days, which will accelerate the performance of Windows Azure and SQL Azure applications.

I’m especially excited about the Smooth Streaming capabilities because a lot of my customers wanted to host streaming media on Azure. Now we can finally target not only Silverlight but also other devices and platforms like iPhone, iPad and Android.

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