Showing all posts tagged: 'Cloud'

A 8-post collection

Indexing and searching SQL Server data with Azure Search

Another day and another opportunity to work with an exciting Azure service. This post is all about [Azure Search](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/search/search-what-is-azure-search" target="_blank), a sleeping giant that apparently can do some pretty impressive things that not many of us know about. Azure Search is a managed search service that you can implement to provide search services to your applications. The search service comes with a powerful REST API that allows you to both managed and consume although there are equally powerful SDKs to help you achieve the same. In the end, like …[read more]

The new Azure Management Fluent API has landed

Hello friends. Did you hear the news? Did you read the announcement? There's a new [awesome] Azure Management Fluent API for C#. The [announcement](https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/simpler-azure-management-libraries-for-net/" target="_blank) went out today and as soon as I saw it I knew I had to give it a try! But first, let's see what the team had to say about the release: One C# statement to authenticate. One statement to create a virtual machine. One statement to modify an existing virtual network, etc. No more guessing about what is required vs. optional vs. non-modifiable. And …[read more]

TechMeetup Edinburgh - Getting Started with Microsoft Azure Development

Yesterday I had a great time talking to the TechMeetup user group in Edinburgh. The event was hosted by SkyScanner in their fanky and cool-looking offices and we had a very interesting and enthusiastic audience. The format was slightly different to what I'm used to when speaking to user groups and I will explain now. Firstly, the meetup opened with introductions, something that you don't usually see in larger user groups. Everyone in the room got a chance to introduce themselves and speak briefly about what they do and what they're looking to get out of the session. For me, …[read more]

Azure Key Vault - the new security service from Microsoft

Azure Key Vault is a new(ish) service offered by the Azure team. This Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) feature, now in general availability(GA), allows you to securely manage and protect cryptographic keys and secrets which can be used by cloud-enabled applications and services. There are 2 compelling reasons why someone may choose to use Azure Key Vault: It can be used to encrypt keys and secrets (authorisation keys, storage account keys, data encryption keys, etc) using the keys that are stored within the Azure Key Vault service and are protected by Hardware Security Modules (HMS). Alternatively, the stored keys can be …[read more]

Azure Web Apps - Testing in production

I use Azure Web Apps (formerly Websites) a lot. I run a few production sites, I run test sites and proof of concept projects. The whole process of publishing to Azure has become so easy and so FREE, that I have all but eliminated all other options. You can manage your sites from the portal(GUI), FTP, PowerShell, Visual Studio, Command Line, you name it. Everything can be scripted and everything can be automated so what's not to love about the platform? One important aspect of working with clients on new products or new features is testing. Testing in QA …[read more]

Getting Started With Microsoft Azure - Run your first website for free!

A friend recencly asked me whether he should use Azure for hosting his site and whether it was easy to get started with it. Although I was quick in saying yes, also realised that Azure is still a bit confusing, especially if you're new to the whole "cloud" idea or never used hosting services before. In this post, I will try to debunk some of these fears and show you how easy it is to get started with Azure. We will treat it as an "Azure for Dummies" post and take it really slow in order …[read more]

Working with Azure Blobs through the .NET SDK

Azure is my cloud of choice. Not only because you get free stuff, yes you do, but also because of the flexibility and ease of interacting with it. If you don’t have an Azure account, you can register for free here. One of the features offered by Azure is Storage. There are 3 types of Storage: Blobs: used to store files, images, binary data, or video Drives: which can be mount on VMs etc like an external drive but virtual Tables: scalable structured storage which acts like a database table but with slightly different behaviour and structured. You can …[read more]

Azure - Error deleting VHD: There is currently a lease on the blob and no lease ID was specified in the request.

Working with Azure the last couple of days, I came across an issue where I deleted a VM but I was unable to delete the associated vhd blob. The error received was similar to this: There is currently a lease on the blob and no lease ID was specified in the request While this error is expected if a VHD is still registered as a disk or image in the portal, the problem arises where a lease remains even if the blob is not registered as a disk or image in the azure portal. If you receive one of these …[read more]