patterns & practices Developer Center

March 2012

Summary

How do you build applications to be scalable and have high availability? Along with developing the applications, you must also have an infrastructure that can support them. You may need to add servers or increase the capacities of existing ones, have redundant hardware, add logic to the application to handle distributed computing, and add logic for failovers. You have to do this even if an application is in high demand for only short periods of time.

The cloud offers a solution to this dilemma. The cloud is made up of interconnected servers located in various data centers. However, you see what appears to be a centralized location that someone else hosts and manages. By shifting the responsibility of maintaining an infrastructure to someone else, you're free to concentrate on what matters most: the application.

Active Releases

• Moving Applications to the Cloud, Third Edition on Microsoft Windows Azure
• Developing Muti-tenant Applications for the Cloud, Third Edition on Microsoft Windows Azure
• Building Hybrid Applications in the Cloud on Microsoft Windows Azure
• Enterprise Library 5.0 Integration Pack for Windows Azure
• CQRS Journey

Community

This guidance, like many patterns & practices deliverables, is associated with a community site. On the Windows Azure Guidance Community, you can post questions, provide feedback, or connect with other users for sharing ideas. Community members can also help Microsoft plan and test future offerings and download additional content such as extensions and training material.