Hardening Azure Applications

Learn what it takes to build large scale, mission critical applications -hardened applications- on the Azure cloud platform.

This 208 page book covers the techniques and engineering principles that every architect and developer needs to know to harden their Azure/.NET applications to ensure maximum reliability and high availability when deployed at scale. While the techniques are implemented in .NET and optimized for Azure, the principles here will also be valuable for users of other cloud-based development platforms.

Applications come in a variety of forms, from simple apps that can be built and deployed in hours to mega-scale apps that need significantly higher engineering rigor and robust organizations to deliver them. How do you build such massively scalable applications to keep pace with traffic demands while always being ‘online’ with five 9's availability?

The authors take you step by step through the process of evaluating and building applications with the appropriate hardness attributes. For example, it is easy to say that an application should be available "all the time", but it is very important to understand what each level of 9 for availability means and the resulting implications on engineering and resources. The book explains the details required for developers and IT Pros to get it right in Azure.

What you’ll learn

• Why it is important to harden Azure/.NET applications and ensure they are always available.
• Characteristics of advanced applications
• Design for failure – how to avoid common mistakes and prevent failure
• Design for scale – prepared to scale up and scale down the application to fully leverage the best of Cloud infrastructure
• Techniques to secure the applications without restricting the business goals of the company
• How to train teams and people to run such hardened services

Who this book is for

Developers creating high reliability Azure applications in .NET plus most other popular environments like Java, PHP, node.JS, Python, Apache, etc.

About the Authors

Suren Machiraju developed an innovative supply-chain solution that integrated online stores with market makers and aggregators, which resulted in the founding of Commercia Corporation in the late 1990s. Within one year, Microsoft had acquired Commercia Corp., providing Suren with the opportunity to lead the B2B Interoperability team within the BizTalk business unit. Over the next six years, Machiraju's team delivered five releases of the BizTalk Server (2000—2006 [R2]). Subsequently, Machiraju led the BizTalk Rangers-Customer Advisory Group, which within two years lit up over twenty of the largest middleware deployments on the .NET stack.

In 2011, Suren collaborated to create the Azure Customer Advisory Team at Microsoft. For five years, Machiraju has led efforts in engaging enterprise customers, startups, and partners for architectural reviews and deployments of cloud/hybrid cloud .NET and OSS applications on the Azure platform. The team pioneered solutions for the most challenging cloud projects producing dozens of successful deployments.

Most recently, in 2014, Suren accepted an appointment as a Technology Business Partner at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he collaborates with leading NGOs and non-profit partners in devising technical solutions for some of the world's most challenging social issues.

Machiraju holds a master's degree in mechanical engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science in Pilani, India. He is a listed author of over 20 patents in business software areas of B2B and Data Interchange Standards, and has authored dozens of MSDN articles and technical blogs on the topics of Azure and .NET. When he's not publishing blogs or presenting works to the larger technical community, he is enjoying time with his family in the beautiful Pacific Northwest and cheering on the Seahawks each Sunday during the season.

Suraj Gaurav started his career in 2000, at the height of dot-com era. He worked in a startup called Asera that was building a revolutionary platform for building B2B applications. In 2002, he moved to Seattle to work for Microsoft. He spent almost 10 years there and worked on various products, including BizTalk server, Commerce platform, and Office 365. He has in-depth experience building enterprise-scale systems, like BizTalk, as well as Internet-scale services, like Office 365. He also built the consumption-based billing platform serving as the commerce engine for Azure.

Gaurav holds a bachelor's degree in computer science from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, India. He is listed as inventor in over 25 patents. When he is not working, he can be found spending time with family and enjoying the beautiful outdoor life of the Pacific Northwest.