Windows Azure Proof-of-Concept

After a three-day introductory workshop about the Windows Azure Platform organized by Microsoft at the end of 2010, last week I attended a Windows Azure Proof-of-Concept event at the Microsoft Innovation Center - ISMB here in Turin. It consisted of a two-day instructor-led workshop (speaker, Roberto Brunetti from DevLeap) aimed to create a complete solution from scratch with the purpose to highlight the nature and benefits of the Windows Azure platform.

Some companies participated at the event and proposed a couple of ideas/architectures which have been merged in a single, layered, multi-platform application with the help of Roberto:

• a web site, hosted on Windows Azure (WebRole)
  • back-end based on Windows Azure Storage and/or a web service
• a web service hosted on Windows Azure
  • back-end based on Windows Azure Storage
  • active collaboration with a WorkerRole service
• a web service hosted on an on-premise IIS server
  • back-end based on Windows Azure Storage and/or a web service
  • active collaboration with a WorkerRole service on Windows Azure
• a desktop / embedded client application, which works with cloud data and features
  • directly on Windows Azure (Storage / Queue / SQLAzure) and/or via a web service
• n-tier architecture (data access, business logic, UI, services)
• unit testing

Software architecture has been deeply analyzed (even tough it was a two-day workshop only) and the solution has been designed following the best practices and guidelines. The key concept was that adopting a good n-tier, modular, loosely-coupled and testable architecture, it is relatively easy to extend system functionalities or handle new technologies/platforms following the natural IT evolution.

Really interesting. If you have a chance to follow such kind of events, don’t miss them!