Preface

Both of us have a passion for cloud computing and Windows Azure, and in this book we’d like to share with you what we’ve learned from working with the technology. We want to show you how to get the most out of Azure and how to best use the cloud.

Writing a book is a far more complex project than either of us expected, involving a lot of people, a lot of collaboration, and plenty of late nights hunched over a keyboard. We did it because we wanted to help you understand what happens inside Azure, how it works, and how you can leverage it as you work with your applications. We wanted to show you not only how to run your complete system in the cloud, but all the other ways you can leverage the cloud, specifically by using hybrid applications and distributed applications.

As we worked with all sorts of developers in our day jobs, we knew they could easily learn how to use the cloud, but they were all scared. We hadn’t seen people so afraid of a new technology that could help so much since web services came onto the scene years ago. We knew if developers would take a minute to play with Azure just a little bit, it would become less scary and more approachable. Ultimately, we wanted this book to answer the question, “What can Azure do, and why do I care?” We hope we’ve succeeded.