Glossary

affinity group. A named grouping that is in a single data center. It can include all the components associated with an application, such as storage, Microsoft Azure SQL Database instances, and roles.

autoscaling. Automatically scaling an application based on a schedule or on metrics collected from the environment.

Azure. Microsoft's platform for cloud-based computing. It is provided as a service over the Internet using either the PaaS or IaaS approaches. It includes a computing environment, the ability to run virtual machines, Azure storage, and management services.

Azure Cloud Services. Web and worker roles in the Azure environment that enable you to adopt the PaaS approach.

Azure Management Portal. A web-based administrative console for creating and managing your Azure hosted services, including Cloud Services, SQL Database, storage, Virtual Machines, Virtual Networks, and Web Sites.

Azure SQL Database. A relational database management system (RDBMS) in the cloud. Azure SQL Database is independent of the storage that is a part of Azure. It is based on SQL Server and can store structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data.

Azure storage. Consists of blobs, tables, and queues. It is accessible with HTTP/HTTPS requests. It is distinct from Azure SQL Database.

Azure Virtual Machine. Virtual machines in the Azure environment that enable you to adopt the IaaS approach.

Azure Virtual Network. Azure service that enables you to create secure site-to-site connectivity, as well as protected private virtual networks in the cloud.

Azure Web Sites. An Azure service that enables you to quickly and easily deploy web sites that use both client and server side scripting, and a database to the cloud.

claim. A statement about a subject; for example, a name, identity, key, group, permission, or capability made by one subject about itself or another subject. Claims are given one or more values and then packaged in security tokens that are distributed by the issuer.

cloud. A set of interconnected servers located in one or more data centers.

code near. When an application and its associated database(s) are both in the cloud.

code far. When an application is on-premises and its associated database(s) are in the cloud.

compute emulator. The Azure compute emulator enables you to run, test, debug, and fine-tune your application before you deploy it as a hosted service to Azure. See also: storage emulator.

Content Delivery Network (CDN). A system composed of multiple servers that contain copies of data. These servers are located in different geographical areas so that users can access the copy that is closest to them.

Enterprise Library. A collection of reusable software components (application blocks) designed to assist software developers with common enterprise development cross-cutting concerns (such as logging, validation, data access, exception handling, and many others).

horizontal scalability. The ability to add more servers that are copies of existing servers.

hosted service. Spaces where applications are deployed.

idempotent operation. An operation that can be performed multiple times without changing the result. An example is setting a variable.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). A collection of infrastructure services such as storage, computing resources, and network that you can rent from an external partner.

lease. An exclusive write lock on a blob that lasts until the lease expires.

optimistic concurrency. A concurrency control method that assumes that multiple changes to data can complete without affecting each other; therefore, there is no need to lock the data resources. Optimistic concurrency assumes that concurrency violations occur infrequently and simply disallows any updates or deletions that cause a concurrency violation.

Platform as a Service (Paas). A collection of platform services that you can rent from an external partner that enable you to deploy and run your application without the need to manage any infrastructure.

poison message. A message that contains malformed data that causes the queue processor to throw an exception. The result is that the message isn't processed, stays in the queue, and the next attempt to process it once again fails.

Representational State Transfer (REST). An architectural style for retrieving information from websites. A resource is the source of specific information. Each resource is identified by a global identifier, such as a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) in HTTP. The representation is the actual document that conveys the information.

service configuration file. Sets values for the service that can be configured while the hosted service is running. The values you can specify in the service configuration file include the number of instances that you want to deploy for each role, the values for the configuration parameters that you established in the service definition file, and the thumbprints for any SSL certificates associated with the service.

service definition file. Defines the roles that comprise a service, optional local storage resources, configuration settings, and certificates for SSL endpoints.

service package. Packages the role binaries and service definition file for publication to the Azure Cloud Services.

snapshot. A read-only copy of a blob.

Storage Emulator. The Azure storage emulator provides local instances of the blob, queue, and table services that are available in Azure. If you are building an application that uses storage services, you can test locally by using the storage emulator.

transient faults. Error conditions that can occur in a distributed environment and that often disappear when you retry the operation. These are often caused by transient problems with the network.

vertical scalability. The ability to increase a computer's resources, such as memory or CPUs.

web role. An interactive application that runs in the cloud. A web role can be implemented with any technology that works with Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.

Worker role. Performs batch processes and background tasks. Worker roles can make outbound calls and open endpoints for incoming calls. Worker roles typically use queues to communicate with Web roles.

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