The new blog will be a one place for you to learn about and follow technologies such as: Windows Azure AppFabric, Windows Server AppFabric, WCF, WF and other related technologies and capabilities.

Please update your links, email subscriptions and feeds to the new blog and follow us there.

The AppFabric Team.

We are moving to a new Team Blog available on: https://blogs.msdn.com/b/appfabric.

You can read the release announcement on the new blog.

Please update your links, email subscriptions and feeds to the new blog and follow us there.

The AppFabric Team.

Due to upgrades and enhancements we are making to Windows Azure AppFabric LABS environment, scheduled for 5/12/2011, users will have NO access to the AppFabric LABS portal and services during the scheduled maintenance downtime.

When:

 START: May 12, 2011, 10am PST

 [Update]

 END: May 12, 2011, 10pm PST

 Service Bus will be impacted until May 16, 2011, 10am PST

Impact Alert:

AppFabric LABS Service Bus, Access Control and Caching services, and the portal, will be unavailable during this period.
Additional impacts are described below.

Action Required:

Access to portal, Access Control and Caching will be available after the maintenance.
Existing Access Control namespaces will be preserved.

[Update]
Existing Access Control configuration under the namespaces will not be available following the maintenance, to upgrade to parity to the production environment. Users should back up Access Control configuration in order to be able to restore following the maintenance, or transition the application over to the production environment (Access Control is not being charged for billing periods before January 1, 2012).

Existing Caching namespaces and data will not be available following the maintenance, to upgrade to parity to the production environment. Users should back up Caching configuration in order to be able to restore following the maintenance, or transition the application over to the production environment (Caching is not being charged for billing periods before August 1, 2011).

Service Bus will not be available until May 16, 2011, 10am PST.

Furthermore, Service Bus namespaces will be preserved following the maintenance, BUT existing connection points and durable queues will not be preserved.
Users should back up Service Bus configuration in order to be able to restore following the maintenance.

Thanks for working in LABS and providing us valuable feedback.
For any questions or to provide feedback please use our Windows Azure AppFabric CTP Forum.

Once the maintenance is over we will post more details on the blog.

The Windows Azure AppFabric Team.

When:

START: May 12, 2011, 10am PST

END: May 12, 2011, 5pm PST

Service Bus will be impacted until May 16, 2011, 10am PST

Impact Alert:

AppFabric LABS Service Bus, Access Control and Caching services, and the portal, will be unavailable during this period.
Additional impacts are described below.

Action Required:

Access to portal, Access Control and Caching will be available after the maintenance window and all existing accounts/namespaces for these services will be preserved.

However, Service Bus will not be available until May 16, 2011, 10am PST.
Furthermore, Service Bus namespaces will be preserved following the maintenance, BUT existing connection points and durable queues will not be preserved.
Users should back up Service Bus configuration in order to be able to restore following the maintenance.

Thanks for working in LABS and providing us valuable feedback.
For any questions or to provide feedback please use our Windows Azure AppFabric CTP Forum.

Once the maintenance is over we will post more details on the blog.

The Windows Azure AppFabric Team.

These videos and code samples are part of the Windows Azure AppFabric Learning Series available on CodePlex.
We will be adding more resources to the learning series from time-to-time, so be sure to save this link!

The following videos and code samples are currently available:

Just as a reminder, we have a promotion period in which we will not be charging for the Caching service for billing periods prior to August 1st, 2011, so be sure to take advantage of this promotion period to start using the Caching service.

For questions and feedback on the Caching service please visit the Windows Azure Storage Forum.

If you haven’t signed up for Windows Azure AppFabric and would like to start using the Caching service, you can take advantage of our free trial offer. Just click on the image below and get started today!

The Windows Azure AppFabric Team.

Today we are excited to announce that the Caching service has been released as a production service.

The Caching service is a distributed, in-memory, application cache service that accelerates the performance of Windows Azure and SQL Azure applications by allowing you to keep data in-memory and saving you the need to retrieve that data from storage or database.

We provide 6 different cache size options for you to choose from, varying from 128MB to 4GB.

In order for you to be able to start using the service and evaluate your needs we are running a promotion period in which we will not be charging for the service for billing periods prior to August 1, 2011.

If you are signed up to one of the Windows Azure Platform Offers you might be eligible to get the 128MB cache option for free for a certain period of time depending on the specific offer. You can find more details on the Windows Azure Platform Offers page.

The service is billed on a monthly basis, based on the cache size you sign up for. You can also sign up for more than one cache and use these multiple caches in order to get a total cache size that is different or bigger than the standard cache sizes we provide.

You should read the Windows Azure AppFabric FAQ on MSDN in order to understand the pricing details and the advantages you get from the Caching service compared to alternatives.

The prices of the different cache sizes are the following:

· 128 MB cache for $45.00/month

· 256 MB cache for $55.00/month

· 512 MB cache for $75.00/month

· 1 GB cache for $110.00month

· 2 GB cache for $180.00/month

· 4 GB cache for $325.00/month

To learn more about the Caching service please use the following resources:

· Windows Azure AppFabric Caching availability announced!! blog post

· Video: Introduction to the Windows Azure AppFabric Cache

· Video: Windows Azure AppFabric Caching – How to Set-up and Deploy a Simple Cache

· Windows Azure AppFabric FAQ on MSDN

· MSDN Documentation

The service is already available in our production environment at: https://appfabric.azure.com.

For questions on the Caching service please visit the Windows Azure Storage Forum.

Take advantage of our free trial offer to get started with the Caching service and Windows Azure AppFabric. Just click on the image below and get started today!

The Windows Azure AppFabric Team.

Windows Azure platform AppFabric Team

The new version of the Access Control service represents a major step forward from the previous production version, introducing support for web application single sign-on (SSO) scenarios using WS-Federation, federation for SOAP and REST web services using WS-Trust and OAuth, and more. In addition, a new web-based management portal and OData-based management service are now available for configuring and managing the service.

Web Single Sign Scenarios

In web SSO scenarios, out of box support is available for Windows Live ID, Google, Yahoo, Facebook, and custom WS-Federation identity provider such as Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) 2.0. To create the sign-in experience for these identity providers, the service now features a new JSON-based home realm discovery service that allows your web application to get your identity provider configuration from the service and display the correct sign in links.

Access Control automatically handles all protocol transitions between the different identity providers, including Open ID 2.0 for Google and Yahoo, Facebook Graph for Facebook, and WS-Federation for Windows Live ID and custom identity providers. The service then delivers a single SAML 1.1, SAML 2.0, or SWT token to your web application using the WS-Federation protocol once a user has completed the sign in process. The service works with Windows Identity Foundation (WIF), making it easy for your ASP.NET applications to consume SAML tokens issued from it.

For more information on web application scenarios and Access Control, see Web Applications and ACS in the MSDN documentation.

Web Service Scenarios

Access Control supports active federation with web services using the WS-Trust, OAuth WRAP, or OAuth 2.0 protocol.

To access a web service protected by Access Control, a web service client can obtain a bearer token from an identity provider (such as AD FS 2.0), and then exchange that token with the service for a new SAML 1.1, SAML 2.0, or SWT token required to access the protected web service. Alternatively, in the cases where no identity providers are available, the client can authenticate directly with Access Control using a service identity (a credential type configured in in the service) in order to obtain the required token. A service identity credential can be a password, an X.509 certificate, or a 256-bit symmetric signing key (used to validate the signature of a self-signed SWT token presented by the client).

For more information on web service scenarios and Access Control, see Web Services and ACS in the MSDN documentation.

Management

Access Control features a web-based management portal, which makes it easy to configure core web application and web service scenarios for a selected namespace. This includes support for configuring and managing the following components:

• Identity providers
• Relying party applications, which represent your web applications and services
• Rules and rule groups, which define what information is passed from identity providers and clients to your applications
• Certificates and keys for token signing, encryption, and decryption
• Service identities for web service authentication
• Management credentials for accessing the portal and management service

The management portal can be launched by visiting the Service Bus, Access Control, and Caching section of the Windows Azure portal, clicking the Access Control node, selecting a service namespace, and then clicking Manage Access Control Service in the ribbon above.

In addition to the management portal, Access Control now features a redesigned management service that enables all service components to be managed using the OData protocol. For more information on the Access Control management service, see ACS Management Service in the MSDN documentation.

Getting Started

Be sure to check out the following resources for help getting started with Access Control:

• Detailed FAQs
• MSDN Documentation
• CodePlex Site (for code samples)
• Identity Training Kit
• Windows Azure Platform Security Forum

If you have not signed up for Windows Azure AppFabric and would like to start using Access Control, be sure to take advantage of our free trial offer. Just click on the image below and get started today!

The Windows Azure AppFabric Team.

The Caching service is a distributed, in-memory, application cache service that accelerates the performance of Windows Azure and SQL Azure applications by allowing you to keep data in-memory and saving you the need to retrieve that data from storage or database.

Ebbe George Haabendal Brandstrup, CTO and co-founder of Pixel Pandemic, a company developing a unique game engine technology for persistent browser based MMORPGs, which is already using the Caching service as part of their solution is quoted saying that:

“We're very happy with how Azure and the caching service is coming along.
Most often, people use a distributed cache to relieve DB load and they'll accept that data in the cache lags behind with a certain delay. In our case, we use the cache as the complete and current representation of all game and player state in our games. That puts a lot extra requirements on the reliability of the cache. Any failed communication when writing state changes must be detectable and gracefully handled in order to prevent data loss for players and with the Azure caching service we’ve been able to meet those requirements.”

The new version of the Access Control service adds all the great capabilities that provide a Single-Sign-On experience to applications by integrating with standards-based identity providers, including enterprise directories such as Active Directory®, and web identities such as Windows Live ID, Google, Yahoo! and Facebook.

Niels Hartvig, Founder of Umbraco, one of the most deployed Web Content Management Systems on the Microsoft stack, which can be integrated easily with the Access Control service through an extension, is quoted saying:

“We're excited about the very diverse integration scenarios the ACS (Access Control service) extension for Umbraco allows. The ACS Extension for Umbraco is one great example of what is possible with Windows Azure and the Microsoft Web Platform.”

At the PDC’10, we highlighted these two services as Community Technology Previews (CTPs) to get broad customer trial. After several months of listening to customer feedback during this preview period and making customer-requested enhancements, we’re now pleased to release them as production services with full SLAs.

The updated Access Control service is now live, and Caching will be released at the end of April.

Both services will have a promotion period of a few months in which customers can start using them for no charge.

To learn more about these services please use the following resources:

Caching:

• Technical blog post for the release
• Video: Introduction to the Windows Azure AppFabric Cache
• Video: Windows Azure AppFabric Caching – How to Set-up and Deploy a Simple Cache
• Detailed FAQs
• MSDN Magazine article on Caching
• MSDN Documentation

Access Control:

• Technical blog post for the release
• Detailed FAQs
• Vittorio Bertocci’s blog
• Channel 9 video announcing the release
• MSDN Documentation

The Access Control service is already available at our production environment at: https://appfabric.azure.com.

The Caching service is available on our previews environment at: https://portal.appfabriclabs.com/ and will be added to the production environment when released at the end of April. So be sure to login and start using the new capabilities.

If you have any questions, be sure to visit our Windows Azure Platform Forums.

For questions specifically on the Caching service visit the Windows Azure AppFabric CTP Forum.

For questions specifically on the Access Control service visit the Security for the Windows Azure Platform section of the forums.

If you have not signed up for Windows Azure AppFabric yet, and would like to start using these services, be sure to take advantage of our free trial offer. Just click on the image below and get started today!

The Windows Azure AppFabric Team.

Windows Azure AppFabric Caching is an explicit, in-memory, distributed caching service that:

• Caches all types of data (CLR objects, rows, XML, binary data etc)
• Provides multi-tenant caching service
• Hosted on Windows Azure
• Safeguards access to data using Windows Azure AppFabric Access Control service
• Highly scalable, 64-bit service

This service is an extension of Windows Server AppFabric Caching to the cloud. Windows Azure AppFabric Caching (similar to Windows Server AppFabric Caching) can be used in multiple scenarios to cache different types of data:

• Cache reference data
  • A version of the authoritative data, refreshed periodically
  • Will mostly need reads of the cache data
  • Product catalog is an example of such data
• Cache activity-oriented data
  • Data generated as part of the application activity, typically logged back to a backend database
  • Will need reads and writes of the cache data
  • Session state, shopping carts are examples of such data
• Cache resource-oriented data
  • Authoritative data, modified by transactions
  • Will need reads and writes
  • Flight Inventory data is an example of such data

Using Windows Azure AppFabric Caching for the above scenarios, developers can very easily build highly performing applications and also make sure that their customers always have access to their session data.

This service is closely integrated with ASP.Net (AppFabric Caching can be used for caching ASP.Net’s SessionState as well as Output data through simple configuration changes). It also uses the AppFabric Access Control service for authentication.

Let us look at the capabilities of this service at a high level:

• Simple Access APIs
  • Using cache can be as simple as this example:

//create DataCacheFactory based on config file

var dcf = new DataCacheFactory();

//get the default cache

var cache = dcf.GetDefaultCache();

//Add an item called "Test" - throws if exists

cache.Add("Test", new Data {TheData = "Test" });

//Put an item called "Test2" - overwrites if exists

cache.Put("Test2", new Data { TheData = "Test2" });

//Get "Test3" - add if not in cache (cache-aside)

var test3 = cache.Get("Test3") as Data;

• Multi-tenant caching service that provides in-memory, distributed caching
• Low latency with the local cache
  • Windows Azure AppFabric Caching will use the memory available on the local machine to cache data as well. This will enable applications to read the data with very low latency. More information on the local cache is here.
• Caches any managed object
  • No object size limit
  • No serialization costs for local caching
• Easily integrates into existing applications using Windows Server AppFabric Caching
  • Same managed interfaces as Windows Server AppFabric Caching
• Secured by Windows Azure Access Control service

Let us look at how users can get a cache and use it in their Windows Azure application:

• Provision a cache
• Windows Azure users can create a new cache namespace by going to the Windows Azure AppFabric Management Portal. The portal for CTP is https://portal.appfabriclabs.com/ and the portal when Caching is released to production will be https://appfabric.azure.com/.
  • Once the provisioning is done and the new cache is in Active state, they can get the cache endpoint and port from the ‘client configuration’ provided in the portal.
• Download the SDK – SDK for the CTP release can be downloaded from https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=184288 and the SDK for the production release will be available here. You can also download the SDK from the portal.
• Build the application using this SDK.
• Use the cache endpoint information in the application’s configuration and deploy the application on Windows Azure.

During provisioning, users can also select the size of the cache they need. There are multiple sizes available for both CTP and production release:

CTP has two size options - 128MB, 256MB

Production release will have more options - 128MB, 256MB , 512MB, 1GB, 2GB and 4GB

Users can upgrade/downgrade between these sizes at any time without incurring any downtime for the application. The usage metrics for the cache in the AppFabric portal can help users track their cache usage and identify the size that is best suited for the application’s needs.

As we discussed in this blog post today, with the close integration with ASP.Net, simple, easy to use APIs and parity with the Windows Server AppFabric Caching, we showed how users can use Windows Azure AppFabric Caching to easily build highly performant Windows Azure and SQL Azure applications.

Learn more about Windows Server AppFabric Caching here.

Learn more about Windows Azure AppFabric Caching here.

Tutorials and hands on labs for Windows Azure AppFabric Caching can be downloaded from here.

More information about Windows Azure can be found here.

Please provide feedback and let us know what you think through our Windows Azure AppFabric CTP Forum.

The Windows Azure AppFabric Caching Team.