Windows Azure Mobile Services for building mobile apps

Article
08/29/2012

Welcome to the Windows Azure Mobile Services public preview. Windows Azure Mobile Services is a turnkey backend solution to accelerate your connected client app development for common application scenarios such as structured storage, user authentication and push notifications all within minutes. I wanted to share some key information and resources for mobile services so that you can start to include it in your curriculum and academic activities for the coming year.

Introducing Windows Azure Mobile Services

The Windows Azure Mobile Services preview aims to make it incredibly for developers to create turnkey backend cloud service for Windows 8 applications in minutes. If there is nothing else you do please spend 10 minutes watching the Introduction to Windows Azure Mobile Services by Scott Guthrie

To summarize you can use Windows Azure Mobile Services to:

· Create a simple and secure backend service to handle common tasks and free yourself to focus on the front end that your users value.

· Incorporate structured storage, user authentication and push notification scenarios into your app in minutes.

· This first public preview is designed specifically for Windows 8. Future updates will include support for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone.

More information is also available on Scotts blog Announcing Windows Azure Mobile Services

Pricing - FREE

One of the key things that we’ve consistently heard from developers and you about using Windows Azure with mobile applications is the need for a low cost and simple offer. The simplest way to describe the pricing for Windows Azure Mobile Services at preview is that it is the same as Windows Azure Websites during preview.

What’s FREE?

· Run up to 10 Mobile Services for free in a multitenant environment

· Free with valid Windows Azure Free Trial

o 1GB SQL Database

o Unlimited ingress

o 165MB/day egress

What do I pay for?

· Scaling up to dedicated VMs

· Once Windows Azure Free Trial expires - SQL Database and egress

For more Pricing information please see the pricing calculator

WindowsAzure.com

Today academics and students developer can get started with the Mobile Services preview from WindowsAzure.com via Windows Azure for Educators trials which has been updated to include dedicated pages for mobile developers to highlight Mobile Services and link out to tutorials and resources that will help developers get started. The tutorials and resources are provided that support the three key Windows 8 + Windows Azure application scenarios Data, Auth and Push Notifications. In addition to this the pricing calculator has also been updated for mobile services.

Windows 8 Camps in a Box

The Windows 8 Camp In a Box resource that includes presentations, hands-on-labs and samples that is used by both the Windows 8 Developer community.

Windows Azure Training Kit

Check out the Windows Azure developer Windows Azure Training Kit.

· Presentation: New Building Connected Windows 8 Apps with Windows Azure Mobile Services with accompanying demo scripts

· Hands On Lab : New Getting Started with Windows Azure Mobile Services

Channel 9 Online Media

The following popular Channel 9 shows are available with more coming shortly

·Announcing Windows Azure Mobile Services by Scott Guthrie