Bruce Johnson - Windows Azure Mobile Services

CONTENTS

Windows Azure Mobile Services

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John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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Copyright 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

ISBN: 978-1-118-67853-4 (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-118-74991-3 (ebk)

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ACQUISITIONS EDITOR

Mary James

PROJECT EDITOR

Edward Connor

TECHNICAL EDITOR

Wouter van Eck

PRODUCTION EDITOR

Christine Mugnolo

COPY EDITOR

Kim Cofer

EDITORIAL MANAGER

Mary Beth Wakefield

FREELANCE EDITORIAL MANAGER

Rosemarie Graham

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF MARKETING

David Mayhew

MARKETING MANAGER

Ashley Zurcher

VICE PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE GROUP PUBLISHER

Richard Swadley

VICE PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER

Neil Edde

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER

Jim Minatel

PROOFREADER

James Saturnio, Word One New York

COVER DESIGNER

Ryan Sneed

Id like to thank my wife, Ali, and my four children, Curtis, Gillian, Cameron, and Kyle, for their love and support. They patiently put up with my lack of time whenever I tackle a book project, and for that I am truly grateful. And this time around, I have to include Hershey in the dedication. So say my kids... and what they say goes .

Bruce Johnson.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

BRUCE JOHNSON is a partner at ObjectSharp Consulting and a 30-year veteran of the computer industry. The first third of his career was spent doing real work, otherwise known as coding in the UNIX world. But for almost 20 years, he has been working on projects that are at the leading edge of Windows technology, from C++ through Visual Basic to C#, and from thick client applications to websites to services.

As well as having fun with building systems, Bruce has spoken hundreds of times at conferences and user groups throughout North America. He has been a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) for the past three years and he is a co-president of the Metro Toronto .NET User Group. He has written columns and articles for numerous magazines. While the quantity of the posts on his blog ( http://www.objectsharp.com/blogs/bruce ) have decreased recently, the activity on his Twitter account ( http://www.twitter.com/lacanuck ) has shown a corresponding increase. For all of this activity (or, perhaps, in spite of it), Bruce has been privileged to be recognized as a Microsoft MVP for the past six years.

ABOUT THE TECHNICAL EDITOR

WOUTER VAN ECK is a software design and development consultant specializing in cloud integration with a strong focus on the Microsoft platform. In the past five years or so, Wouter has focused on what we now call the cloud as the base for integration work backed by the Microsoft Azure technology. With successful deployments in Canada, the United States, Germany, and Singapore, Wouter has demonstrated true cloud experience.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

THE WRITING OF A BOOK is much more of a collaborative effort than might be apparent to an outsider. I have written a number of books and I can guarantee you that there is no way a single one of those books would have seen the light of day without a great deal of assistance from many other people. There are a surprising number of people involved in the editorial process, and odds are pretty good that if you can understand the content of the book, that my editor, my technical reviewer, and my copy editor are the reason why. My first draft is not something that should be read by anyone, and these people shape the pages so that the result is something that can be read by everyone. That is not an easy task, and I am indebted to them for their assistance.

I would especially like to thank everyone at Wrox who has helped me through this process. In particular, thanks go out to Ed Connor, whose patience and attention to detail is quite impressive. Thanks also go to Wouter van Eck, who did a great job making sure that the technical details of the book were accurate. Finally, thanks to Kim Cofer, who had the unenviable chore of ensuring that I wasnt writing in the passive voice, and fixing it when I stopped writing so well. The efforts of all of these individuals are what make the book possible and, hopefully, a success. Thanks also to Mary James, who was kind enough to allow me to indulge my passion to write.

Lastly, I would like to thank all of my associates at ObjectSharp and the people at Microsoft who, although they might not have realized it, were keeping the writing process going by answering any questions I had.

Bruce Johnson

INTRODUCTION TO THE WINDOWS AZURE BOOK SERIES

It has been fascinating watching the maturation of Windows Azure since its introduction in 2008. When it was announced, Azure was touted as being Microsofts new operating system. And at that level, it has not really lived up to its billing. However, if you consider Azure to be a collection of platforms and tools that allow you to cloud-enable your corporations applications and infrastructure, well, now youre on the right track.