Dot Net Deewane

Windows Azure BLOB storage service can be used to store and retrieve Binary Large Objects (BLOBs), or what are more commonly known as files. In this introduction to the Windows Azure BLOB Storage service we will cover the difference between the types of BLOBs you can store, how to get files into and out of the service, how you can add metadata to your files and more. There are many reasons why you should consider using BLOB storage. Perhaps you want to share files with clients, or off-load some of the static content from your web servers to reduce the load on them. However, if you are using Azure’s Platform as a Service (PaaS), also known as Cloud Services, you’ll most likely be very interested in BLOB storage because it provides persistent data storage. With Cloud Services you get dedicated virtual machines to run your code on without having to worry about managing those virtual machines. Unlike the hard drives found in Windows Azure Virtual Machines (the Infrastructure as a Servi...

Windows Azure Tables are a non-relational, key-value-pair, storage system suitable for storing massive amounts of unstructured data.  Whereas relational stores such as SQL Server, with highly normalized designs, are optimized for storing data so that queries are easy to produce, the non-relational stores like Table Storage are optimized for simple retrieval and fast inserts.  This article will cover the very basics of Windows Azure Table storage and provide you with resources and suggested topics to continue your learning. Some people, when first learning about the Windows Azure platform, find it hard to understand the purpose of the Table Storage feature.  This is especially true of those who are familiar with developing applications using highly relational data.  To get a good understanding of how a Key-Value Pair system differs from a traditional relational database you can read Buck Woody’s article on the topic in his continuing series:...