Okay, this is somehow cloud related, but mostly I’m writing about this because Age of Empires was one of the games I spent endless hours playing in college.

Microsoft announced the return of Age of Empires, one of the biggest PC franchises in the world, having sold more than 20 million copies worldwide and essentially defined real-time strategy (RTS) games for the PC, says Dave Luehmann, general manager of Microsoft Games Studios. “This next version will really change the rulebook of how those games are played”.

Age of Empires Online, now in a closed beta release, will be familiar to franchise fans, who can go here and sign up for a chance to join the beta. However, at the game’s core is a new, socially connected experience. The game now invites players to create a living, growing online world that’s shared with friends around the world through Games for Windows LIVE, an online gaming network related to Xbox LIVE. Anyone with a LIVE account can see their friends online and send and receive voice messages, text messages, and game invites. In Age of Empires Online, players can use the service to invite friends for a cooperative quest or a friendly challenge in the local arena, trade goods and weapons, and visit each other’s capital cities. Continue reading…

Microsoft just announced the release of the first version of SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) for MySQL.

Microsoft SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) is a toolkit that dramatically cuts the effort, cost, and risk of migrating from MySQL to SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 R2. SSMA 2008 for MySQL also supports migrating to SQL Azure.

SSMA for MySQL lets you quickly convert MySQL database schemas to SQL Server schemas, upload the resulting schemas into SQL Server, and migrate data from MySQL to SQL Server.

SSMA for MySQL supports migration from MySQL 4.1 and higher to any edition of SQL Server.

The latest SQL Server Migration Assistant is available for free download and preview here. Continue reading…

This SDK includes API libraries and samples for building connected applications with the .NET platform. It spans the entire spectrum of today’s Internet applications – from rich connected applications with advanced connectivity requirements to Web-style applications that use simple protocols such as HTTP to communicate with the broadest possible range of clients.

The new version introduces a fix in the Windows Azure AppFabric SDK for the following Service Bus bug:

Adding a Ws2007HttpRelayBinding endpoint that uses TransportWithMessageCredential security mode to a ServiceHost that also exposes a local MEX endpoint (not visible through the Service Bus) using the mexHttpsBinding, causes the local MEX endpoint to stop working. Invoking the MEX endpoint results in an InvalidOperationException.

You can download the SDK here.

You can try Windows Azure and SQL Azure for a month for free, with the Windows Azure One Month Pass USA. Through this unique offer, US developers can get a one month pass to try out Windows Azure and SQL Azure - without having to submit a credit card.

Limited to US developers, the first 500 to sign up each month will get a full months pass good for the one calendar month. In addition, youll get free phone, chat and email support through the Front Runner for Windows Azure program.

There are a ton of great resources provided on the Windows Azure One Month Pass USA offer page, as well as the full details for this offer, so be sure to check it out and request your subscription today.

The Patterns & Practices team have just released the first part of the Windows Azure Architecture guide.

This book is the first volume in a planned series about the Windows® Azure™ platform and focuses on a migration scenario. It introduces a fictitious company named Adatum which step-by-step modifies its expense tracking and reimbursement system, aExpense, so that it can be deployed to Windows Azure. Each chapter explores different considerations: authentication and authorization, data access, session management, deployment, development life cycle and cost analysis.

You can view the guide here.

As businesses seek to cost-effectively consume IT services, interest is growing in moving computation and storage from on-premise equipment to Internet-based systems, often referred to as “the cloud.”

This new document from Microsoft focuses on the security challenges and recommended approaches to design and develop more secure applications for Microsoft’s Windows Azure platform. Microsoft Security Engineering Center (MSEC) and Microsoft’s Online Services Security & Compliance (OSSC) team have partnered with the Windows Azure team to build on the same security principles and processes that Microsoft has developed through years of experience managing security risks in traditional development and operating environments.

You can download the paper here.

The Windows Azure CDN enhances end user performance and reliability by placing copies of data, at various points in a network, so that they are distributed closer to the user. The Windows Azure CDN today delivers many Microsoft products – such as Windows Update, Zune videos, and Bing Maps - which customers know and use every day. By adding the CDN to Windows Azure capabilities, this large-scale network is available to all Windows Azure customers.

To date, this service has been available at no charge. Today, the pricing was announced for the Windows Azure CDN for all billing periods that begin after June 30, 2010. The following three billing meters and rates will apply for the CDN: Continue reading…

The book by Sriram Krishnan “Programming Windows Azure” is now available on Amazon. Sriram Krishnan is a Program Manager on the Windows Azure team at Microsoft. At Windows Azure, he ran the feature teams which built the service management APIs, geo-capabilities and several back-end infrastructure pieces. He is a prolific speaker and has delivered talks at several conferences including PDC and MIX.

The book’s first half focuses on how to write and host application code on Windows Azure, while the second half explains all of the options you have for storing and accessing data on the platform with high scalability and reliability. Lots of code samples and screenshots are available to help you along the way.

Not everything about Windows Azure is covered in this book, and it is impossible for one book to cover it all. It is a must read however, for any Windows Azure developer. It is one of those must have books.

Steve Marx has a blog post and an example on how to send email in Windows Azure. Sending email directly from Windows Azure presents some challenges, because you don’t have a dedicated IP address, and it’s quite likely that spammers will use Windows Azure to send spam. Once that happens, spam blacklists will quickly flag the IP range of Windows Azure data centers as sources of spam. That means your legitimate email will stop getting through.

The best solution to these challenges is to not send email directly from Windows Azure. Instead, relay all email through a third-party SMTP service with strict anti-spam rules and dedicated IP addresses.

See article here, get code here.

In case you missed it, Microsoft released SQL Azure FAQ, providing an architectural overview of SQL Azure Database, and describing how you can use SQL Azure to augment your existing on-premises data infrastructure or as your complete database solution. Some of the questions answered in the document:

• How do I connect to SQL Azure?
• I am unable to connect to SQL Azure. How can I troubleshoot this problem?
• Where can I find sample connection strings for SQL Azure?
• Are there any hands-on labs or demos available for moving data between on-premise SQL Server and SQL Azure?
• How do I configure SQL Azure Firewall settings?
• How can I grant my Web Role access to SQL Azure?

(more after the jump)
Continue reading…