A: Windows Azure is essentially Microsoft's operating system in the cloud. It is a PaaS offering that is starting to play an increasing role in the integration between cloud-based and on-premise solutions and services. The key difference between Azure and the other cloud options is that it does not involve actually hosting your SharePoint infrastructure in a public or private cloud. Rather, you are integrating your existing SharePoint infrastructure with additional capabilities and services offered through Azure to provide a richer experience for your end users. By integrating with Azure, you can potentially offset data costs, create efficient and reusable services, and extend your reach through wider service availability.
Note
As an example, consider the case of Point8020 Limited, a learning content provider that utilized Windows Azure for storing and delivering video content, integrated with SharePoint 2010 to present the content in the form of embedded videos for end user training. The full case study can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?CaseStudyID=4000009235.
Let's look at some of the basic ways Windows Azure can be integrated with and complement SharePoint 2010.
Your organization can reuse existing services or can deploy custom services into the Azure cloud, and then leverage them in the context of your on-premise SharePoint environment. Specific integration points for SharePoint include the following:
- You can store data in Azure and interact with Azure data in a SharePoint list
- Your organization can model data consumed from Azure or build external lists with SQL Azure
- Web Parts can pull services or data from Azure
- Workflows and event receivers can be extended through Azure data and services
- You can integrate Azure data with SharePoint data
Windows Azure provides multiple storage options, and can act as a durable repository for your organization's data. By storing data in Azure, you can benefit from persistent, redundant storage, and integration with the Windows Azure Content Delivery Network. Sample uses include:
- Utilizing BLOB storage for video, audio, and images
- Querying data from cloud-based or on-premise SharePoint environments
- Using Azure to store migrated or mirrored data from your on-premise environment
- Using SQL Azure for relational databases
- Federating Azure data for SharePoint search