Just release: Azure User Management Console - AUMC

This week, Matricis just release open source tool to help us managing the Azure Sql Users and Logins.

Since only T-SQL commands are available for Azure SQL in SQL Server management Studio, a friendly interface was missing. The AUMC is simply converting your action into T-SQL commands and execute them in the Azure SQL Database.

You can find the Azure User Management Console on CodePlex at:http://aumc.codeplex.com

Read the complete post on Matricis blog.




~ Frank

Reading Notes #39

Cloud

• Amazon data center size - Interesting post that gives an opportunity to put numbers on the cloud architecture, in this case AWS servers.
• Using Import-Subscription in WAPPSCmdlets 2.2.2 - Explains quickly one of the new features of Azure PowerShell Cmdlets last release: caching the Azure subscription by importing it.
• Windows Azure Security Best Practices – Part 7: Tips, Tools, Coding Best Practices (Bruce Kyle) - Again a lot of really good advices about security with Azure and many good references.

[…]shows a friendly face to customers and still provides the detailed technical information developers will need in his article Rich Custom Error Handling with ASP.NET. […]

[…]Wade Wegner describes the steps he recommends in his post Using ELMAH in Windows Azure with Table Storage. […]
[…]To learn more about ELMAH, see the MSDN article Using HTTP Modules and Handlers to Create Pluggable ASP.NET Components by Scott Mitchell and Atif Aziz.[…]

• Building Hybrid Applications in the Cloud on Windows Azure (Ferglo) - The third book of a series about Windows Azure. A lot good information, scenarios and details about hybrid application.
• Do We Need A Desktop OS Anymore? - A nice reflection about our future.
• Azure Storage and its Various Abstractions (Chris Clayton) - Nice post that explain how to configure and use local storage in an Azure WebRole.
• Versioning SQL Azure Schemas by Using Federations - Wow this is a really good idea. Using Azure SQL federation to maintain different schemas version in a single or multi-tenant scenario.
• The Hidden Risk of a Meltdown in the Cloud - Interesting post that explain why companies should think about moving to the cloud to see if they saw (and understand) all the pros and cons.
• 'Personal Cloud' to Replace PC by 2014, Says Gartner - This nice post talks about the emergence of the "personal cloud" and is progression against PC.
• New Tools for Windows Identify Foundation and ACS (Wade Wegner) - Great show (Cloud cover Show) again this week, with Wake and David that present a lot of nice functionalities of the Windows Identity Foundation (WIF).
• Windows Azure™ and X509 Certificates (Chris Clayton) - A very useful post from Chris that specify all steps you need to do (screenshots and code snippet) in order to setup your X509 certificates.
• My Disappointments with Amazon DynamoDB - DynamoDB is a pretty young product, but still some of the limitations look disappointing. However I think that is this king of database binaries, images and big files shouldn't be in. They should be in storage and the url/path is in the db.
• Leaving Microsoft (Wade Wegner) - Another big evangelist of Windows Azure is leaving Microsoft. Wade is someone to follow.
• Using CSPack and CSRun With a Worker Role (Jason Haley) - Nice post where Jason try to fix a result discrepancy between using Visual Studio or CSPack-CSRun to create a Azure project. But the question remains...
• How Do I Get Started On My Developer Workstation? - Nice tutorial to get started with Windows Azure. Or to setup a new clean VM.
• Beware Fake Clouds - Good post that help to demystify what the cloud is computing and what is not be by hi-lighting the differences.
• Why do I need two Instances in Windows Azure? - This is a really important fact to understand when planning/developing a project with Windows Azure. A clear answer for a good question.
• The Microsoft Private Cloud whitepaper (Nikosan) – A reference to a PDF document that contains a lot a info about all the options you have if you planning to go with Private cloud.
• Best practices for migration to the cloud - Nice post that contain all the link you need in one place to read all the best practice and useful information on migration to the cloud.

Programming

• Improving Launch Performance for Your Desktop Applications (Brandon Bray) - See how the and witch new tools in Visual Studio 11 will improve the launching speed of our application.
• EF Code First Migrations, Update-Database outside of Visual Studio - Nice! This post introduces a great console tool that gives the opportunity to update a database using PowerShell.
• EF Code First Migrations Update-Database Parameters Documentation? - Useful information about all the parameters of the EF Migration tool.

Miscellaneous

• 3 Great Things My Mentors Taught Me - Great thought. Simple and efficient.

~ Frank

Reading Notes #38

Cloud

• Amazon data center size - Interesting post that gives an opportunity to puts numbers on the cloud architecture, in this case AWS servers.
• How I work with Live Mesh, SkyDrive, and Office Live Workspace (Buck Woody) - Good post that explain one setup you can use to get your files synchronize and available on many device.
• 4 Azure milestones Microsoft must hit — and soon (Barb Darrow) - Interesting post that point out 4 milestones that Microsoft Azure should reach ASAP to stay in the cloud race.
• Can we pronounce “The Cloud” hype over yet? - Nice post that raise some objection that the cloud is for everything. Some people seem to still think this way, but its true cloud is not the answer to all situations.
• Learn The Cloud, Make A Difference, @home with Windows Azure - Great initiative! A good way to learn Winnows Azure and an easy way to get free Azure account for 3 months!
• How to Share a Local Drive when Remoting into Windows Azure Instance (Jason Haley) - Nice quick tips that is very useful when debugging.
• Multiple Sites in Single Role Running Local (Jason Haley) - This post is a time saver, if you plan to put more than one web site in the same web role... read this.
• Optimizing apps for cloud (Tim O'Brien) - Great post that explain few principles of cloud architecture to be able of building a more structured application.
• Why So Many Azure Storage Transactions? - Nice advice! Good think that since last release, when you are busting your limits they just deactivate the web application instead of giving a big bill.
• Windows Azure Security Best Practices - Part 2: What Azure Provides Out-of-the-Box (Bruce Kyle) - Amazing post that describes perfectly the architecture of Windows Azure and the security in it. It also explains what we should do to keep a good security level. This is the second post of the series a third one is already out... more to come.
• Windows Azure Security Best Practices – Part 3: Identifying Your Security Frame (Bruce Kyle) - Part 3 a is bout pattern in the ms document.
• Windows Azure Security Best Practices – Part 5: Claims-Based Identity, Single Sign On (Bruce Kyle) - A lot of information about windows Identity Foundation (WIF).
• Windows Azure Security Best Practices – Part 6: How Azure Services Extends Your App Security (Bruce Kyle) - Great post that talk about the strength of Windows Azure Active Directory, Azure Connect and Service Bus. The 3 options that you have to extend your security on Azure.
• Big Data and the case for IT relevancy - This post explain why big data will not "kills" IT jobs but in fact probably it will actually create more.
• HTML5 + Cloud = Personal Cloud (David Pallmann) - Nice post (the fourth of a series) explain the cloud is personal and why HTML5 could be a better tools to present this personal cloud.
• Windows Azure PowerShell Cmdlets (v2.2.2) (Michael WashamMS) - Present the new features of the last release of Windows Azure PowerShell. A lot of great new functionalities, but before downloading it be aware of some breaking changes.
• How to Download Windows Azure Blob Containers - We often found code sample to upload files to the cloud but here it is to download. This is well done demo to replicate the structure of an Azure Blob Container on premise.
• What Size VM Should I Go With? - Point a article here this question is answered by 2 authors well presented in this article.
  

  […]questions Joel & Stephen attempt to answer in the article. […]

• Book Review: Just for fun (Jan Van Ryswyck) - That look like a book that will easily find a place in my to read list.

Programming

• C# Reflection Performance And Ruby (Tim Kellogg) - Interesting test to compare the speed of different methods to access a property.
• 5 Tools to to Run a Small Business in the Cloud - 5 online very useful tools are presented in this post.
• EF Code First - Tips and Tricks - Nice tips. I never thought of putting extra safeguard code in this section... but I like it, so i will.

Miscellaneous

• Agile Adoption Success Factors – Nice quick post about why Agile adoption pass or fail base on a survey result.
• Touch, Not the Mouse - Nice editorial from MSDN Mag that kind of contest that popular idea of touch is for everything.
• You’re Working Too Hard to Make an Impact (Study Hacks) - This short post illustrate we should prefer be valuable than busy.
• A geek with a hat » The one book that gets me offline - Editorial about people reading habit today, and a nice book suggestion... can you resist?

Reading Notes #37

Cloud

• Enableing gzip compression with Windows Azure CDN through Web Role (Avkash Chauhan) - Because compression is not supported by default here a nice tips about how to implement it.
• Working with SSL certificates on Azure and IIS7 (Iain) - Nice post where few "gotchas" are explained with their workaround/solution.
• Cloud Comments .net - Discuss about the new price drop of AWS and the lack of tools to help to calculate the cost, or to compare it with the usual on premise solution.
• Doing a Multi-Cloud Deployment of an ASP.NET Web Application (James Urquhart) - Great article that deploy a simple Asp.Net application in three different cloud environments: Azure, AWS, Iron Foundry then compare the effort.
• Announcing Reduced Pricing on Windows Azure Storage and Compute (Steven Martin) - A fantastic news! we can now have a instance 24/7 with a database for less than 20$.
• Moving SQL Azure Servers Between Subscriptions (R Syam Kumar) - It's now eaiser than ever to move a database between different Azure subscription. that all possible to a new feature that been add:Server Move in the database section. be aware that price may be different in each subscription.
• My Experience as a Developer at Startup Weekend (Saturday and Sunday) (Jason Haley) - Nice post about true experience at start-up weekend.
• Logging best practices - Good post to re-align our logging practice. What to log, or what to not.
• Using Cloud9 IDE to Deploy to Windows Azure - As usual nice show. this week is a lot about Node.js.

Programming

• How I work with Live Mesh, SkyDrive, and Office Live Workspace (Buck Woody) - Good post that explains one setup you can use to get your files synchronized and available on many device.
• How to access NuGet when NuGet.org is down (or you're on a plane) (Scott Hanselman) - Nice one... be sure to take note of this because when the network will be down... it will be too late.
• 10 web development concepts designers should know - Nice tips that apply more for designers but developers should found some of them really useful.

  [..] Beanstalk also have a brilliant guide to version control for those who are using it for the first time.[..]

• Maarten Balliauw {blog} (maartenba) - Nice short post on how you could "improve" your works with MyGet using less feeds.
• 3 Simple Things to Make Your jQuery Code Awesome (Joseph Zimmerman) - Great tips that will take only 5 minutes to read/ learn and that will save a lot of time and memories at runtime.
• Visual Studio Magazine (Eric Vogel) - This nice article explains clearly the strategy pattern by refactoring a simple scenario.

Miscellaneous

• Castle Death! A Dead Simple RPG for Kids and Parents, Part 2 (Chatty DM) - Part 2 of a series about Dad and son playing RPG.
• Castle Death! A Dead Simple RPG for Kids and Parents, Part 3 (Chatty DM) - Part 3 of a simple RPG game to be the best dad ever!
• Why I really love SCRUM - Nice post to learn more about Agile Scrum, the idea of icebox and pivot tracker, a nice tool.
• Dark Matter Developers (Scott Hanselman) - Nice post where some analogies between Dark Matter and some developer is made. Funny and true.

Frank

Reading Notes #36

Cloud

• Microsoft Private Cloud Part 1 - Nice first post of a series comparing Azure with private cloud. This one is more about being prepare to the real comparison and define what is private cloud.
• Windows Azure Storage and Concurrent Access (Larry Franks) - Known a to read/write in Azure Storage is not enough when doing multi-instance. Learn how-to manage this situation in this post.
• Cloud Needs Application Architects To Understand IaaS - Great post explaining how Amazon build the great platform they are and why it work.
• Come for the PaaS Functional Model, stay for the Cloud Operational Model - A really complete post about all those "things" that cloud provider are talking about and how it should be see by customer.
• Uploading Big Files in Windows Azure Blob Storage using PutListBlock - A really great tutorial to upload files in Azure Blob Storage. Two technics are presented with the code, pros and cons for each of them.
• Cloud computing and the “me versus you” problem - An interesting discussion about different cloud's structures and the pros and cons of each. Also a nice idea of what could be the future.
• SignalR powered by Service Bus (clemensv) - Nice post about using the SignalIR with Azure Service Bus, with all the reference you need to get started.
• If you're using Node.js, you're doing life wrong - A really specific opinion about Node.js. if thinking about picking this server... then should read that.
• Is uptime the wrong metric for cloud service-level agreements? - Really interesting thoughts about what more important for cloud SLA, elasticity or reliability?
• Full Version of AdventureWorks database for SQL Azure and and SQL Azure Federations - Now available the classic AventureWorks database for Azure SQL and Azure Federation. More advanced version is coming soon.
• Everything you need to know about Windows Azure Blob Storage including permissions, signatures, concurrency, … - Amazing post that contain really EVERYTHING on Azure blob storage. It's documented, well explain and complete.

  The only reason you would not be interested in the Windows Azure storage platform would be if you’re called Chuck Norris …

• A few things you should know about EC2 - Quick post about some less know EC2 facts.
• Azure deployment stuck Preparing node (ASP.NET Debugging) - Nice to know this tips can save a lot of time.
• Exploring Cloud Architecture - Nice article that present different cloud architecture to follow your cost/efficiency strategies.
• BizTalk in the Cloud, One Step Closer Part 1 (Jean-Paul Smit) - Great post (first part of series of two) that present the new interface of schemas and mapping in the new CTP release of Azure Service bus EAI and compare them to the BizTalk ones.
• BizTalk in the Cloud, One Step Closer Part 2 (Jean-Paul Smit) - A really great post that continue to pass all the functionalities of the new (still in CTP) Azure Service Bus EAI and making the correlation with the BizTalk equivalence.

Programming

• Mercurial vs Git: Why Mercurial? - Great posts series about source control. Because source control is so important, knowing why to pick git or mercurial is really important.
• WebAPI and Ninject (Shawn Wildermuth) - Nice trick with Ninject...as the author said easy when you know how to.
• JavaScript for C# developers: currying - Nice trick with Javascript to avoid copy/pasting code... looking forward to to the next part.
• PowerGUI 3.2 Released! – Everything is in the title... And it's a good news.
• Differences Between jQuery .bind() vs .live() vs .delegate() vs .on() (Elijah Manor) - Give a simple but very clear description, pros and cons of JQuery .bind, .live, .delegate and the new .on.

Miscellaneous

• The myth of the eight-hour sleep (Stephanie Hegarty) - Nice article talking about sleep and pattern.
• Castle Death! A Dead Simple RPG for Kids and Parents, Part 1 (critical-hits.com) - Another great dad's time with the great Chatty DM.

~ Frank