azure and e-commerce (elasticity focus) application migration scenario

8/3/2019 Azure and E-Commerce (Elasticity Focus) Application Migration Scenario

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Windows Azure Application Proile Guidance

Custom E-Commerce (Elasticity Focus)

Application Migration Scenario

Sean R. Cunningham

President

June 30, 2010


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Logic20/20, Inc. 2010 All Rights Reserved.

Table o Contents

Windows Azure: Migration Analysis, Strategy, and Planning ..........................................................................1

Custom E-Commerce Application Redesign and Migration ...........................................................................2

Motivations or Migration to Windows Azure ....................................................................................................4

Usage Patterns and Business Examples ....................................................................................................4

Other Key Benets and Business Enabling Capabilities .........................................................................5

Migration Business Scenario .................................................................................................................................7

Migration Planning and Considerations ..............................................................................................................8

Technical Considerations ............................................................................................................................8

Business Considerations ..............................................................................................................................8

Migration Topics, Guidance, and Best Practices .....................................................................................9

Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data .............................................................................................................9

Segmenting ....................................................................................................................................................9

Elasticity ........................................................................................................................................................12

Additional Resources ............................................................................................................................................14

Conclusion ..............................................................................................................................................................15


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June 30, 2010 Logic20/20, Inc. 2010 All Rights Reserved 1

With Windows Azure now a reality, organizations are

asking how cloud computing capabilities and servicescan help them. To ully understand, organizations will

want to analyze the current state o their technology

inrastructure and application portolio to assess

where they areas well as where they need to be.

Once organizations identiy which cloud benets

scalability, elasticity, rapid deployment, etc.will

best suit their needs, they will want to adopt an

Windows Azure: Migration Analysis, Strategy, and Planning

evaluation and migration strategy that aligns their

business needs with cloud capabilities.

Once applications are identied as part o an overall

strategy, it will be important to think in terms o

architecture. Applications that t certain architectural

congurations will tend to t similar migration

patterns; thereore, identiying applications that t

a particular migration pattern will make it easier to

evaluate and plan or successul migrations.

To align business needs with cloud capabilities,

organizations should investigate Windows Azure

cloud eatures based on the business goals they

hope to achieve:

To reduce costs, organizations may be able to

migrate applications and data storage assets to

Windows Azure and more cost-eectively pay

or only the computing resources they need.

To bring products to market aster, organizations

may be able to use Windows Azure rapid

deployment capabilities to save time, achieve

agility, and become more responsive.

To achieve eciency and mitigate

consequences o maintaining unused or

underutilized computing assets, organizations

may be able to use Windows Azure to scale up

and scale down to gain greater eciency.

To simpliy IT management and ooad hardware

management burdens, organizations may be

able to leverage Windows Azure to ocus their

on-premises resources on key applications and

services that dierentiate them within their

marketmaking them more competitive.

To address uneven usage demandswhile

retaining a positive customer experience

organizations can use Windows Azure to create

dynamic elasticity to allow their systems to

respond to demand as it occurs.

Analysis Strategy Planning

Identiy

current state

Envision

desired

uture state

Align

Business

needs

with cloud

capabilities

Identiy

applications

Determine

Common

Application

patterns


4/17


Example o e-commerce architecture on premises.

As organizations adopt a cloud strategy and start to

plan migrations, some will start with small, peripheral

applications and will use these experiences to test,

learn, and discover how to best use cloud capabilitiesto suit particular needs. Certain applications will

stand out as excellent migration candidates or

their technical suitability or because o obvious or

compelling business reasons or migrationsuch as

the need or better scalability. Other applications will

be candidates because their migration is likely to be

rapid and uncomplicatedand migration is expected

to deliver early benets.

This paper is one in a series o materials designed to

help identiy specifc application architectural patterns

and technology typesand to help illustrate specifc

considerations and suggested approaches or migrating

applications with the same or similar patterns.

Custom E-Commerce Application Redesign and Migration

Powerul and scalable custom e-commerce applications

are essential or many businesses; however, many

e-commerce businesses deal with computing resource

usage patterns that are challenging to manage, which

makes these applications prime candidates or cloud

migration. While business needs and usage patterns must

be ully analyzed and understood, or some e-commerce

organizations, potential cloud-computing benets are so

compelling that it makes sense to redesign applications as

needed and move them to the cloud.

Area Customers

Merchandise Providers

Inventory Database(s)

Web Services

Business to Business (B2)On-Premises / Internal E-Commerce

Application DataOn-Premises

Application Server / IIS Server

Application,Website,

or other userinterface



Business to Commerce (B2C)


5/17


To illustrate this application pattern, we will look at

a specic e-commerce applications on-premises

architecture, which includes the ollowing elements:

Single Geographic Location This

organization currently maintains a single

geographic location or their on-premises

application hosting, web hosting, databases,

and web services.

Third-Party Integration This organization

also maintains a level o integration with

3rd party merchandise providersincluding

merchandise listings and inventory.

Example o e-commerce architecture in Windows Azure.

Business to Business (B2B) Web Services This

organization also uses Business to Business

(B2B) Web Services connecting to a web

services host.

Next, we will look at this same application and will

explore the motivations or migration to Windows

Azure, the underlying business scenario, planning

and consideration issues, and nally, Migration

Topics, Guidance, and Best Practices.

Windows Azure

Business to Business (B2B)

Inventory Database(s)

Area Customers


Web Services

Application Data

IIS Server






ShardedDatabase(s)


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Motivations or Migration to Windows Azure

Common workload patterns.

Usage Patterns and Business Examples

There are many compelling reasons or organizations

to explore migrating custom e-commerce applications

to Windows Azure, but identiying specic computing

usage patterns can help determine which ones are

likely to achieve the most signicant gains. Four

usage patterns have emerged as strong indicators o

cloud success:

On/O An on/o usage pattern is one

where computing resources are only needed

during set time periods. This occurs with

certain banking and nancial systems where

processing is on a very scheduled, on-o basis.

Rapid Growth A rapid growth usage pattern

is typical or startupsbut also or new product

launch activities or new campaigns within

established businesses when the computing

resources required to support such activities

may increase at a rate that would greatly

outpace hardware acquisitions.

Predictable Variability Predictable variability

usage patterns occur when known actors,

such as seasonal or cyclical demand, put a

strain on computing resources that have been

established or optimized to meet standard

computing needs.

Unpredictable Variability Unpredictable

variability usage patterns occur when computing

demand spikes suddenly without enough

advanced warning to plan or the spike. This

demand can be brought about by a prominent

announcement, a campaign, or an occurrence.

On and Off

Time

Average

InactivityPeriod

UsageCompile

Rapidly Growing

Time

AverageUsageC

ompile

Unpredictability Variable

Time

AverageUsageC

ompile

Predictability Variable

Time

AverageUsageC

ompile


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Integration/Distributed Computing

Businesses that maintain an e-commerce ront

end and need B2B integration can benet rom

Windows Azure services and unctionalities.These businesses can use Windows Azure

eatures to achieve greater reliability,

scalability, and automation to better connect

them with merchandisers, distributors, and

other B2B stakeholders.

Elasticity/Scalability Windows Azure allows

or dynamic elasticity, which is the ability

to add scale programmatically as demand

increases. Dynamic or scheduled elasticity is

an ideal response to some o the uneven usage

patterns discussed previously. (Elasticity is not

possible in an on-premises environment.)

For some organizations, the time and eort

involved in creating programmatic elasticity

may not be warrantedin which case, manual

scalability still provides a dramatic advantage

over the on-premises model. Additionally,

Windows Azure allows or computing costs

to drop when demand drops. E-commerce

organizations are oten subject to demand

uctuations, and the need to scale up is

requently discussed, but organizations can

also experience periods o lower demand.

On premises, costs dont scale down when

demand does; whereas or applications in

Windows Azure, costs can drop right alongside

usageallowing organizations to save or

redirect unds to stay ahead o the curve.

The two patterns we will ocus on or this e-commerce

migration scenario are predictable and unpredictable

variability. These patterns are very common in

e-commerce and apply particularly to businessesthat experience seasonal or other (predictable or

unpredictable) spikes in demand or trac:

Ticket Sales (Must accommodate both

standard and peak usage periods or sporting

events, concerts, plays, speakers, etc.)

Online Retailers (Must accommodate both

standard and seasonal usage demands.)

Freight Distributors (Must accommodate orboth standard and peak demand.)

Government and Non-Governmental

Organizations (NGOs) (Must respond to

urgent demands, as in the wake o a disaster

or other crisis.)

Universities (Registration periods create short

but signicant spikes in usage.)

Wireless Providers (Wireless providers must

adjust or seasonal peaks due to holidays and

other events.)

This list is by no means comprehensive, and any

organization that deals with inconsistent usage

patterns may derive benet rom cloud capabilities.

Other Key Benefts and Business

Enabling Capabilities

In addition to helping organizations better respond

to issues with uneven usage patterns, there are a

number o other potential benets or e-commerce

businesses with similar architectural patterns:


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Rapid Deployment The ability to deploy

new applications quickly without being

constrained by long hardware provisioning

timelines allows organizations to respondquickly to changing conditions.

Cost Structure There are several

important things to note about the Windows

Azure cost structure:

Operating Expense Instead o Capital

Expense - Deploying new resources does

not require up-ront capital expenditures.

Pay as You Go - Because organizations

only need to pay or the computing

resources and services they use, they

can ar more accurately align computing

capabilities with actual needs. Additionally,

organizations gain accounting granularity

and transparency.

Optimized or Architecture - The Windows

Azure cost structure actually rewards

good system architecture, and it allows

organizations the ability to tailor theirapplications to achieve greater savings.

In addition to these benets, there are many other

ways in which the Windows Azure cloud platorm and

services can help organizations optimize technology

inrastructure and achieve goals.

Disaster Recovery/Redundancy/Perormance

Single location businesses wishing to expand

capabilities and resources to gain disaster

recovery capacity, greater redundancy,improved perormance and uptime can use

Windows Azure to achieve these results ar

more aordably. Costs or establishing a

secondary data center go ar beyond those

associated with purchasing or leasing the

location and physical assets, and by the time

all required monitoring and customization is

implemented, a new data centers costs will

likely ar exceed the original data centers

costs. Using Windows Azure to expand

these capabilities aordably supports an

organizations need or disaster recovery,

redundancy, and perormance.

Simplifed IT Management Ofoading some

percentage o hardware maintenance allows

organizations to ocus their IT resources and

assets on projects that dierentiate them in

their marketsprojects that add true value

instead o just keeping the lights on.

Database Options Multiple Microsot SQL

Azure databases enable segmenting, scaling,

and added redundancy. (A single database

oten cannot be segmented, scaled, started,

or stopped in a timely manner and without

considerable upront cost and planning.)


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Example o predictable and unpredictable variability in e-commerce system usage.

For this migration scenario, the e-commerce

organization we have been discussing mustcontend with both predictable and unpredictable

variability usage patterns. Their present on-premises

inrastructure can handle current demand with a

capacity buer o between 25-30 percent; however,

they are working to enter into several new contracts

with new merchandise providers, which will create

spikes that their current inrastructure cant handle.

The capital expense o increasing current inrastructure

to meet peak demand brought about by adding new

merchandise contracts is prohibitive. But even i the

initial capital expense were easible, the investment

would not be cost eective because the spikes in

demand would likely be inrequent, and the typical

demand would remain relatively low.

This e-commerce organization is in a very challenging

position: They want to grow and take on newmerchandise contracts, but they need to remain true

to their mission o providing their customers with a

positive purchasing experience. Additionally, they

dont have the capitalnor the sustained revenue

neededto build out and support the necessary

inrastructure on premises.

Only by leveraging cloud capabilities with Windows

Azure can they create elasticity, which will allow

their costs and capabilities to track with customer

demand. Without this capacity, they will be unable

to deliver the high-quality customer experience they

are currently known or and will lose business.

Migration Business Scenario

Predictable Variables

Known Sales Trend

Month of July

Sales

1200

1200

1200

1200

1200

1200

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3

Weekly Sales Cycle

Wastedcapacity

Wastedcapacity

Wastedcapacity

Wastedcapacity

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1

1200

LostOpportunity

1200

1200

1200

1200

1200

1200

1200

Sporadic Traffic Demands

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1

Month of July

Predictable Variables

EventSeries

Sporadic Traffic Demands


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Technical Considerations

While there are many aspects o migrating a robust

e-commerce solution to the cloud, we will explore

the ollowing two topics in greater detail:

Segmenting

Elasticity

Business Considerations

Business considerations unrelated to the architectural

structure o an application still need to be reviewed

Example o

e-commerce

application

migration to

Windows Azure.

Migration Planning and Considerations

To achieve elasticity, better B2B integration, and

improved redundancy, this organization has decidedto redesign their computing architecture and deploy

to the cloud using Windows Azure. In preparation,

there are several technical considerations, which

they will need to address in order to ensure a

smooth and successul transition. Additionally, theywill address all pertinent business considerations to

make sure that all business needs, rom security to

perormance, are maintained in the cloud.

in terms o their relevance to the business need

or circumstance. In many situations, concerns

about geopolitical conditions and data security and

sensitivity are primarily the same in Windows Azure as

they would be on premises, and similar best practices

should be ollowed; however, it is important or

organizations to be comprehensive in their approach.

For an introduction to some o the most common cloud

computing business considerations, please reerence

Cloud Optimization Expanding Capabilities, while

Aligning Computing and Business Needs at http://

www.microsot.com/windowsazure/whitepapers/.

ClientInterface

On-Premises Data

AppFabric

Service Bus

Table

Queue

Azure Storage

Web Role

Worker Role

Service Bus


11/17


Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard

(PCI DSS) dictates how organizations must handle

all cardholder inormation. At this time, migration

o PCI data to Windows Azure may not be advisable;

however, there are currently a number o payment

management rms that specialize in managing

these online transactions, eliminating the need or

e-commerce organizations to process these PCI

transactions themselves.

Segmenting

Segmenting databases can be an increasingly complex

eort. The ollowing are some basic principles to

ollow when segmenting databases or perormance,

storage, or other reasons. The ollowing section

provides detailed guidance related to segmenting

based on business department delineation.

Segmentation by Department:

This method separates data by unctional department

within a business, which means that a departments

perormance wont be negatively impacted by other

departments.

One o the primary methods or implementing a

Segmented Data Store by Business Department

is to have a central database. In the code sample

below that retrieves the specic connection per

department, the central store is called centroidal.

The other databases are then named according to

their departments.

In the centroidal databases there resides a table

that stores the connection inormation or each

department database. This way additional connection

inormation can easily be added whenever additional

department database repositories are added.

The ollowing is one method to implement this

segmenting process within an application. The

class architecture below lays out a simple base class

SegmentBase that is inherited by the respective

department classes: Marketing, Engineering, and Sales.

Migration Topics, Guidance and Best Practices

While other steps might need to be taken to insure

a smooth and successul migration, addressing theollowing would be central to the migration example

weve been using.


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The base class implements the constructor which

accepts a SQL connection and description string

parameter. The specic classes that then inherit rom this

base class can provide other methods and propertiesthat are specic to the department or repository as

needed. The base class is shown below.

A good practice is to provide these connection

objects or each department by usage o a actory

method pattern as shown below. The idea is that each

object is returned based on the needed departmentaldomain data. The ollowing shows the actory method

that connects and then returns all o the specic

objects in a list. From there one can derive the

appropriate class and any other logic to choose,

cache, or otherwise manage the connections based

on the specic segment needed.


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Public classSegmentBase{ public SegmentBase(SqlConnection databaseConnection, string description)

{

Connection = databaseConnection;Description = description;}

publicSqlConnection Connection { get ; set ; } public string Description { get ; set ; }

public bool VerifyConnection(){

bool connectionWorks = false; try

{Connection.Open();Connection.Close();connectionWorks = true;

} catch

{

connectionWorks = false;}

return connectionWorks;}

}Public staticList GetSegments(){ var segments = new List();

using (var entities = newcentroidalEntities()){

var connections = from connection in entities.Connections where connection.ConnectionString != string.Empty select connection;

foreach (Connection connection in connections){

SegmentBase segmentConnection = null; var sqlConnection = newSqlConnection(connection.ConnectionString);

switch (connection.Department){

case Engineering:segmentConnection =

new Engineering(sqlConnection, connection.DatabaseName + + connection.Department);

break;case Marketing:

segmentConnection = newMarketing(sqlConnection, connection.DatabaseName + + connection.Department);

break; case Sales:

segmentConnection = newSales(sqlConnection, connection.DatabaseName + + connection.Department);

break;}

segments.Add(segmentConnection);}

}

return segments;}


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Segmentation by Date or Other Parameters:

Segmentation by date or other criteria such as

table, load-balanced unique identier, or customtree index is accomplished in much the same way

as segmentation by department. The particular

segmentation structure will be selected based on the

perormance requirements o the application and the

organization. Whatever the elected criteria, database

segmentation can be an important approach or

gaining application perormance.

Elasticity

Achieving programmatic or dynamic elasticity can be

a substantial undertaking, so or some organizations

the ability to scale up and down manually to meet

expected demand will be more than sucient;

however, or organizations where automating

the scaling process is very important, creating

Possible criteria or system monitoring.

programmatic elasticity can present a tremendous

opportunity or dierentiation and subsequent

competitive advantage. Whenever dynamic elasticity

is the goal, the process will be unique to theorganization and application, and the needs o the

business should be clearly understood in order to

help guide the development eorts.

To achieve elasticity in response to either predictable

or unpredictable variability, monitoring is the key to

unctional scaling movement in either direction. Even

during up or down movement, monitoring at various

levels o the Windows Azure Platorm should be used

to assure reasonable instance scaling increases or

decreases. This precise monitoring can help to set the

schedule, or in the case o unpredictable variability, it

can indicate when and in which direction the scaling

should occur.

Windows Azure Monitoring

Web Analytics

Throughput

Compute Utilization

Storage Utilization

Active Connection

Time Based

General Monitoring

Social Media

Product Release

Signifcant events


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Windows Azure Monitoring

Within Windows Azure, it is possible to monitor metrics

such as throughput, website analytics, and computeutilization. These key indicators will dictate directional

movement to attain ecient elasticity. Additionally,

the extent o monitoring will dictate the accuracy

o elastic control, trending, and management over

time. So extending monitoring capabilities to as many

levels as is reasonable will only enhance the systems

accuracy in scaling up or down.

General Monitoring

Other indicators can also be monitored programmatically

or manually to acilitate specic scale movement or

cloud applications. These indicators include social

media, which can provide a change in social response

to an ad campaign, alteration o site interactions, or

other elements that could aect the need to scale

up or down. These other indicators are not always

evident during the development or migration

phase but could be discovered during the ongoing

operation o the cloud application. Even thoughthese other indicators are peripheral to Windows

Azure monitoring, these general indicators are oten

just as important.

The ollowing table shows how system demand

might be monitored and how instances can

programmatically be added or subtracted when

usage thresholds move rom low to med to high and

to very high and back. The monitoring time periods,

demand thresholds, and load categorizations

would all be determined based on the needs o the

application and o the organization, and depending

on the application design, the instances added might

be Web Roles or Worker Roles.

Instance Scale

Time Demand Peak Load Category Instances Scale

1/1/10 - 07:00 400-450 Low 2

1/1/10 - 08:00 500-525 Med 3 +

1/1/10 - 09:00 525-550 Med 3

1/1/10 - 10:00 1100-1250 High 4 +

1/1/10 - 11:00 600-700 High 4

1/1/10 - 12:00 500-525 Med 3 _

1/1/10 - 13:00 525-550 Med 3

1/1/10 - 14:00 1100-1250 High 4 +

1/1/10 - 15:00 1200-2000 Very High 6 +

1/1/10 - 16:00 1200-2000 Very High 6

1/1/10 - 17:00 525-550 Med 3 _

1/1/10 - 18:00 400-425 Low 2 _


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06:00

Time

Instances

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

07: 00 0 8: 00 0 9: 00 1 0: 00 1 1: 00 1 2: 00 1 3: 00 1 4: 00 1 5: 00 16 :0 0 17: 00 1 8: 00 1 9: 00

23

43

4

5

Demand

Instances Demand Instances Scale

For more inormation about creating dynamic

elasticity and to view code samples, please reerence

the ollowing MSDN resources: http://code.msdn.

microsot.com/azurescale/Release/ProjectReleases.

aspx?ReleaseId=4167

Additional Resources

Microsot SQL Server and Microsot SQL Azure

Compatibility: For inormation about Microsot

SQL Server and Microsot SQL Azure compatibility,

please visit http://msdn.microsot.com/en-us/library/

394115(v=MSDN.10).aspx.

Microsot SQL Azure Migration Wizard: To access the

Microsot SQL Azure Migration Wizard, please visit

http://sqlazuremw.codeplex.com/.

Dynamic Elasticity: For more inormation about

creating dynamic elasticity and to view code samples,

please reerence the ollowing MSDN resources:

http://code.msdn.microsot.com/azurescale/

Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=4167.

Business Considerations Whitepaper: To better

understand business considerations related to

Windows Azure migrations, please review Cloud

Optimization Expanding Capabilities, while Aligning

Computing and Business Needs - A ramework or

making business decisions about cloud computing at

http://www.microsot.com/windowsazure/whitepapers/.

Additional Whitepapers: To read additional whitepapers

on Windows Azure, please visit http://www.microsot.

com/windowsazure/whitepapers/.

Windows Azure Products and Pricing: For more

inormation about Windows Azure Products and

Pricing, please visit http://www.microsot.com/

windowsazure/pricing/.

Example o possible daily system monitoring and scaling.
http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/azurescale/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=4167http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/azurescale/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=4167http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/azurescale/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=4167http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff394115(v=MSDN.10).aspxhttp://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff394115(v=MSDN.10).aspxhttp://sqlazuremw.codeplex.com/http://ttp//code.msdn.microsoft.com/azurescale/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=4167http://ttp//code.msdn.microsoft.com/azurescale/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=4167http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/whitepapers/http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/whitepapers/http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/whitepapers/http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/pricing/http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/pricing/http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/pricing/http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/pricing/http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/whitepapers/http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/whitepapers/http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/whitepapers/http://ttp//code.msdn.microsoft.com/azurescale/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=4167http://ttp//code.msdn.microsoft.com/azurescale/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=4167http://sqlazuremw.codeplex.com/http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff394115(v=MSDN.10).aspxhttp://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff394115(v=MSDN.10).aspxhttp://code.msdn.microsoft.com/azurescale/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=4167http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/azurescale/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=4167http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/azurescale/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=4167


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Conclusion

As organizations think about migrating applications

to Windows Azure, it is critical that they understand

the problems they are trying to solveboth rom a

business and rom a technology standpoint. A well-

conceived application with a clean, solid architecture

can expand capabilities and reduce costs dramatically

when migrated to Windows Azure; whereas a poorly

designed application will be no more ecient in the

cloud than it will be on premises. All o the key elements

o strong application design apply in the cloudbut i

anythingthey are even more important.

In this example, the e-commerce business we

described would gain tremendous benet rom

migrating to Windows Azure and enabling elastic

scaling capabilities. Having an e-commerce system

that can grow and shrink with demandallowing the

organization to pay or additional resources only when

they need themwould enable rapid growth without

sacricing customer experiences or protability. By

understanding the business conditions they need to

respond to, this organization can use Windows Azure

to gain a competitive advantage.

For developers, Windows Azure provides an exciting

new opportunity to add value within an organization.

By understanding both organizational goals and

pain points, developers can now leverage cloud

capabilitiesalong with their existing skillsetto

respond to organizational needs with viable, cost-

eective solutions.

And while not all migrations will be simple, cloud

computing with Windows Azure presents tremendous

opportunity. For many organizations, learning to

design or modiy applications to take advantageo the range o new options available to them with

Windows Azure provides a unique opportunity to

move ahead and create the dierentiation they need

to stand out within their industry. Organizations

that see the great opportunity that Windows Azure

aords will want to make Windows Azure cloud

computing education within their organization a

priority and will want to support their development

teams eorts to use the Windows Azure Platorm

and services creatively to answer their organizations

most pressing business needs.

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