Migrating existing web application to Azure

Here is an useful resource to refer when planning for migration including how to select the right target platform between Azure WebSites, Cloud Service ( web & worker role) & VM.

Azure App Service, Cloud Services, and Virtual Machines comparison

Free eBook on Claims based Identity and Access Control

Starts with discussing basics of claims based identity and moves to advanced topics.

Following industry standards are discussed :

• Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML)
• Security Association Management Protocol (SAMP)
  and Internet Security Association
  and Key Management Protocol (ISAKMP)
• WS-Federation
• WS-Federation: Passive Requestor Profile
• WS-Security
• WS-SecureConversation
• WS-Trust

Download the eBook

Whitepaper on exploit mitigation technologies

A new whitepaper has been recently published which discusses about various exploit mitigation technologies and how to use them. Release by Microsoft Security Engineering Center.

A must for every person on software development team. Covers following:

• economics of exploitation – attacker’s return on investment
• Tactics behind exploit mitigation technologies like enforcing variants, creating artificial diversity, leveraging knowledge deficits
• exploit mitigation technologies like
• Stack buffer overrun detection
• Data execution prevention (DEP)
• Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR)
• SAFESEH and Structured Exception Handler Overwrite Protection (SEHOP)
• Heap metadata protection
• Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET)
• For each technology it also mentions following:
• Overview
• How to use
• Proof point
• Performance consideration
• Compatibility considerations
• Availability on various OS/platforms including browser versions

Download the whitepaper from here http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=26788

* Gartner : CIOs Top 10 Business and Technology Priorities in 2010

http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1283413

Top 10 Business Priorities	Ranking	Top 10 Technology Priorities	Ranking
Business process improvement	1	Virtualization	1
Reducing enterprise costs	2	Cloud computing	2
Increasing the use of information/analytics	3	Web 2.0	3
Improving enterprise workforce effectiveness	4	Networking, voice and data communications	4
Attracting and retaining new customers	5	Business Intelligence	5
Managing change initiatives	6	Mobile technologies	6
Creating new products or services (innovation)	7	Data/document management and storage	7
Targeting customers and markets more effectively	8	Service-oriented applications and architecture	8
Consolidating business operations	9	Security technologies	9
Expanding current customer relationships	10	IT management	10

Source: Gartner EXP (January 2010)

The green ones are new entrants to Technology list with respect to 2009.

* Software Architecture : SATURN 2010 announced

Each year, the SEI Architecture Technology User Network (SATURN) Conference brings together experts from around the world to exchange best architecture-centric practices in developing, acquiring, and maintaining software-reliant systems. Architects at all levels meet to share ideas and lessons learned, network, and learn about new and existing technologies.

SATURN 2010 Theme: Architecting for Change

http://www.sei.cmu.edu/saturn/2010/index.cfm

* OpenSearch and SharePoint

OpenSearch is a specification which can be used to publish and consume search results in a standard way and thus enabling federated searches. This helps in multiple servers indexing & storing the content in their own format but still share results with others in standard way.

It helps in search client to server & search server to server collaboration.

Some of the basic features of Search Servers support OpenSearch are following :

• Accept a GET URL query from the client.
• Permit the search terms in the URL.
• Publish results in RSS or ATOM format.

OpenSearch complaint Search Servers publish their query interfaces using OpenSearch Description Document.

A very basic OpenSearch description document looks like following :

SharePoint 2007 & 2010 by default support OpenSearch. The SharePoint search service can be queried using Http Get Url and search results page has a link to get results in RSS format too.

A typical search query url looks like following on SharePoint 2007 which returns results in RSS format:

http://<your_portal>/_layouts/srchrss.aspx?k={searchTerms}

* SharePoint and CMIS – Content Management Interoperability Services

What is CMIS – Content Management Interoperability Services Specification ?

A Web services interface specification that will enable greater interoperability of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) systems. CMIS uses Web services and Web 2.0 interfaces to enable rich information to be shared across Internet protocols in vendor-neutral formats, among document systems, publishers and repositories, within one enterprise and between companies.

Who all are involved in creating this specification ?

Maintained by OASIS, Microsoft has been driving with several other major vendors (Adobe, IBM, EMC, Alfresco, OpenText, SAP, Oracle).

http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=cmis

What is the current status of specification ?

Version 1.0 is currently open for public review and voting closes on April 30th 2010. After which it will be released soon. Approval press release expected on May 5th.

What is the scope of version 1.0 ?

The initial set of deliverables will be targeted for the following use cases:

• Collaborative Content Applications
• Portals leveraging Content Management repositories
• Mashups
• Searching a Content Repository

The following use cases should be able to be supported by CMIS Domain Model and Bindings, but are not primary drivers:

• Workflow and Business Process Management (BPM)-centric applications utilizing Content
• Archival Applications
• Compound and Virtual Documents
• Electronic and Legal Discovery

What is the support in ECM Products ?

Lot of ECM vendors have already started supporting it including SharePoint 2010.

What is the level of support in SharePoint 2010 ?

At the SharePoint 2010 Summit @ AIIM Expo, Microsoft announced that it with be shipping the CMIS Connector for SharePoint as part of the SharePoint Administrator Toolkit by the end of June 2010. 

* Microsoft Enterprise Library 5.0 Released

Enterprise Library is one free code library which is recommended for every development team who wants to focus on writing business code instead of spending too much time on writing framework code. By using EL you automatically bring lots of best practices and patterns to your application.

P&P team has announced the release of version 5.0.  Though no new block has been added, there are considerable amount of improvements in all blocks. It supports .NET 4.0 and Visual Studio 2010.

Microsoft Enterprise Library 5.0 contains the following application blocks:

• Caching Application Block. Developers can use this application block to incorporate a cache in their applications. Pluggable cache providers and persistent backing stores are supported.
• Cryptography Application Block. Developers can use this application block to incorporate hashing and symmetric encryption in their applications.
• Data Access Application Block. Developers can use this application block to incorporate standard database functionality in their applications, including both synchronous and asynchronous data access and returning data in a range of formats.
• Exception Handling Application Block. Developers and policy makers can use this application block to create a consistent strategy for processing exceptions that occur throughout the architectural layers of enterprise applications.
• Logging Application Block. Developers can use this application block to include logging functionality for a wide range of logging targets in their applications. This release further improves logging performance.
• Policy Injection Application Block. Powered by the Interception mechanism built in Unity, this application block can be used to implement interception policies to streamline the implementation of common features, such as logging, caching, exception handling, and validation, across a system.
• Security Application Block. Developers can use this application block to incorporate authorization and security caching functionality in their applications.
• Unity Application Block. Developers can use this application block as a lightweight and extensible dependency injection container with support for constructor, property, and method call injection, as well as instance and type interception.
• Validation Application Block. Developers can use this application block to create validation rules for business objects that can be used across different layers of their applications.

Microsoft Enterprise Library 5.0 Home Page

* Top Architect Contest – TechEd India 2010

With TechEd, Top Architect Contest is back.

ENTRY PERIOD: The Contest begins at 9:00 AM IST on 13th March 2010 and ends at 11:00 pm IST on 28th March 2010 ("Entry Period"). All entries must be received prior to the close of the Contest Entry Period

Check all the details here : http://www.microsoftteched.in/toparchitect/default.aspx

* Windows Server AppFabric Beta 2 is released

Developers and IT Pros can expect the following benefits from Windows Server AppFabric:

Faster Web Apps Made Easy

Windows Server AppFabric helps developers improve the speed and availability of web applications through distributed in-memory caching and replication technology that works with current ASP.NET applications.

Simplified Composite Apps

Developers can simplify the development of composite applications with the pre-built application services in Windows Server AppFabric, used in conjunction with Visual Studio tools and .NET Framework capabilities (ASP.NET, WCF and WF). IT Pros can also simplify the deployment, monitoring, and management of composite applications with configuration and monitoring capabilities that are integrated with familiar tools (PowerShell, IIS Manager, and System Center).

Enterprise Performance and Availability

An enterprise’s most important and demanding applications can achieve elastic scale, performance, availability, and reliability (benefits often associated with the cloud) with the help of Windows Server AppFabric. These and countless other benefits from an unparalleled partner ecosystem utilize familiar skills from the .NET Framework and Windows Server.

Additional Resources:

Microsoft News Center feature story on Windows Server & Windows Azure platform AppFabric:

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2009/nov09/11-17pdcappfabric.mspx

Beta2 Blog Post on Windows Server Blog:

http://blogs.technet.com/windowsserver/

Additional information on Windows Server AppFabric:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/app-main.aspx

Information (including download link) for Windows Azure AppFabric:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/appfabric/

* Custom XML and i4i patent judgment impact

Here are few important links which will help solving some of the confusing around custom xml and i4i patent judgment for all those who are big fan of OpenXML specification and specially ‘Custom XML’ concept.

What’s affected and what’s not ?

http://blogs.technet.com/gray_knowlton/archive/2009/12/23/what-is-custom-xml-and-the-impact-of-the-i4i-judgment-on-word.aspx

Microsoft’s Official Statement

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/dec09/12-22statement.mspx

* Open XML sdk and code snippets

Microsoft recently announced the August 2009 CTP of Open XML SDK 2.0. The improvements have been made in mainly following areas :

Add semantic level validation support

Add markup compatibility/extensibility support

General improvements based on your feedback

You can read more about it here. Download it from here.

Recently Open XML code snippets have also been released. This package of code snippets provides over fifty reusable code samples, in both C# and VB.NET, which accomplish many common tasks involving Excel, PowerPoint, or Word documents.

Read more about snippets and download them.

* Exchange 2010 : Integration with Line of Business applications

All the communication and collaboration products from Microsoft like Exchange, Office Communications Server and SharePoint MOSS provide excellent clients to harness the server capabilities in most effective manner. Like Exchange comes with Outlook, OCS comes with communicator and SharePoint comes with Outlook & Groove integration & SharePoint workspace from SharePoint 2010.

Apart from providing standalone clients they also ship enough programming interfaces so that these server capabilities can also be integrated within Line of Business applications. This helps customers to extract maximum value out of their server investments. Exchange server comes with Web services interface, OCS comes with UCCAPI – unified communications client APIs and now SharePoint 2010 will come with client APIs.

Here are some of the programming interfaces provided by Exchange Server 2010:

• Exchange Web Services Managed API 1.0 sdk : The typed .NET sdk which can be used from .NET applications to access Exchange Web Services.
• Exchange Web Services (EWS) : Allows custom applications to access Exchange mailboxes over Http/SOAP protocol.
• Autodiscover (SOAP) service : Helps in creating custom applications which can autodiscover mailboxes based on client profiles. The communication is over Http/SOAP.
• Autodiscover (POX) service : Same as above but over Http/POX protocol. The recommended way is using the Http/SOAP.
• Exchange 2010 beta Transports Agents sdk : Helps in creating server side agents which can access e-mail messages and their contents while the messages are being transported to users’ mail boxes. Thus helps in extension of Exchange transport behavior.
• Exchange 2010 beta backup & restore sdk : create custom backup, restore and recovery systems.

Exchange Server Developer Center

* What’s new in Visio 2010 ?

• Office Fluent Interface including Ribbon which was available for Word, Excel & PowerPoint

 

 

• Live Preview : another feature already available to other Office products

• Auto size, align & adjust

• Containers

• Data graphics legends

• Paste copied shapes with greater control
• Paste shapes in the same location as the original page
• Right-click to paste at the pointer location
• Status bar navigation tools

• Visio Services: Ability to host Visio diagrams in SharePoint and thus does not require clients to have Visio installed.
• Process Management Tools:
• Create complex processes and sub processes.
• Validate process diagrams against rules
• Integrate & host with MOSS workflows & SharePoint designer
• New Diagram Types:
• Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) diagrams
• Six Sigma diagrams
• Wireframes

* Generating Microsoft Office Documents with the Open XML SDK

Check out my latest article published on devx.com.

It’s about how to us Open XML sdk to generate Microsoft Office documents without VSTO or automation. Article is accompanied by code.

http://www.devx.com/dotnet/Article/42221

* TechEd India 2009 announced : May 13 - 15

* Silverlight 3 : The next generation Client Apps are here

We have developed Windows Apps & Web Apps, Thick Clients & Thin Clients.

How about developing just ‘Apps’ or ‘Clients’ ?

Today Microsoft released the first preview of Silverlight 3 which allows to create clients which can run within or outside browser depending on end user’s choice.

The new out of browser experience in Silverlight 3 enables users to place their favorite Silverlight applications directly onto their PC and Mac, with links on the desktop and start menu—all without the need to download an additional runtime or browser plug-in. Further, the new experience enables Silverlight applications to work whether the computer is connected to the Internet or not—a radical improvement to the traditional Web experience.

catch all of it on http://www.silverlight.net

* MIX you should not miss

Some of the most exciting sessions :

What's New in Microsoft Silverlight 3

Hear about some of the new experience-oriented Silverlight 3 features, and see how to build applications for Silverlight 3 using Microsoft Expression Blend and Microsoft Visual Studio.

Building Microsoft Silverlight Applications with Eclipse

Come learn about plug-in support in Silverlight 2, and how to build a typical Silverlight-based application using the Silverlight tools for Eclipse.

Integrating Microsoft Expression Blend with Adobe Creative Suite

Explore how Expression Blend integrates with the design tools from Adobe's Creative Suite. Learn how to use content from Photoshop and Illustrator to efficiently create Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Microsoft Silverlight-based applications, and see a range of useful tips and tricks from one of the core Expression Blend team members.

Mesh-Enabled Web Applications

Come learn how to extend your existing Web applications and get them to live and breathe within Live Mesh. See how Mesh-enabled Web applications can be accessed from anywhere through a Web browser as well as run locally (and offline) on a user's desktop. Also see how Web applications can take full advantage of value-add Mesh services such as a dedicated sandbox, online and offline synchronized storage, automatic application updates, identity, application catalogue, social computing, and more.

Microsoft Expression Web: No Platform Left Behind

Come learn how to use Expression Web to build resilient standards-based sites for use across a wide range of browsers and platforms. Hear about the current version of Expression Web and also some sneak peeks at future work that will make creating great sites even easier for designers. With a focus on workflow, you will also see how well Expression Web integrates with ASP.NET and PHP.

The Future of Microsoft Expression Blend

Hear about the future plans for Expression Blend. See how Expression Blend improves the productivity of visual designers, providing better access to data and enhanced tools for interactivity. Learn how designers can be deeply engaged and remain in control of the creative decisions while enjoying improved collaboration with developers throughout the project lifecycle.

* What’s New in Windows 7

The public beta of Windows 7 is out and everyone seems to be excited about it.

It not only improves upon the Vista but also adds lots of cool UI enhancements.

It also introduces lot of new platforms like Direct3D10, Direct2D, Windows Scenic and Sensor & Location Platform.

Catch all of it here .. New in Windows 7

* Silverlight : Cross domain access guidelines

RIA (Rich Internet Applications) client runtimes like Silverlight and Flash does not allow any code to access cross domain sites unless the target sites specifically grant access. This is done to avoid issues like Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attacks.

If you are involved in developing apps on Silverlight runtime, it helps to understand the runtime behavior for cross domain access both during development and deployment.

You can read my latest article on this:

Network Access from Silverlight and Cross Domain Access Guidelines