I did a tutorial on Windows Azure Platform last week. Here is the initial post with my slides. Will post all the code shortly.
VPR03: Windows Azure Platform for Developers: A Complete Look with a Practical Spin
Today, every developer must know how to develop for the Windows Azure Platform. Every company is in the hosting business today, thus they must either provide the infrastructure for global reach, or rent it to reduce up front capital costs, IT management overhead, and the ability to scale on demand. The Windows Azure Platform is Microsoft’s cloud computing initiative supplying an operating system in the cloud—hosted in Microsoft data centers—in addition to data storage and other infrastructure and application services. It provides businesses with on-demand hosting, storage and management features in fashion with utility computing. In this workshop, developers will get a top to bottom view of the platform with a practical look at each of the platform features. We’ll explore Windows Azure, Windows Azure Storage (tables, blobs, queues), look at Windows Azure AppFabric features and also SQL Azure. You’ll learn how to build and deploy applications and services to the cloud with familiar development tools; you’ll learn about storage options offered by Windows Azure Storage and how that compares to SQL Azure; and you’ll learn how to employ features of AppFabric including the Service Bus, Caching and Access Control. This workshop is intended to give developers a jump on Windows Azure with practical guidance and tips for each feature. It will get you up to speed with the platform and then some, while also preparing you for sessions at the conference that dive a little deeper into equally important aspects of the platform with a continued focus on practical guidance.