With the Visual WebGui Cloud Application Platform developers can now deploy their applications to Windows Azure with the click of a button with no re-writes or new programming skills needed
Gizmox, the developer of Visual WebGui Web & Cloud Platform has announced that it will reveal its application platform atop Windows Azure and its development framework, Visual WebGui web/cloud platforms offers the only push-button .NET desktop legacy application migration path to Windows Azure.
With Visual WebGui enterprises will be able to migrate to Windows Azure, by reusing their existing Windows software code on Windows Azure without re-write or re-engineering. The process is as simple as copying and pasting the Windows code into VWG, selecting Windows Azure run in Visual WebGui SDK, and run said a press release.
"With our unique unrivalled legacy applications migration to Windows Azure, and the ability to run them as responsive as and as rich as desktop's, with proven unhackable security, we have crossed a new threshold," said Navot Peled, CEO of Gizmox,
Among the key benefits highlighted by Visual WebGui, its new cloud application platform will consume 50 per cent CPU and 10 per cent bandwidth compare to other solutions, resulting in additional dramatic cost saving benefits for users. The company is about to release assessment tools that will allow proper cloud planning and managing: pre-deployment calculating of cloud running costs, remote monitoring, tracing and reconfiguring for application optimization and provisioning.
"Visual WebGui presents a great opportunity for Windows Azure customers and enterprises that wish to move to the cloud," said Doug Hauger, general manager of Windows Azure at Microsoft Corp. "With a push-button method, Gizmox has made the process for migrating to Windows Azure easy."
Peled noted, "Visual WebGui offering is no doubt one of the most significance for enterprise cloud applications. We see the enormous interest it arises and we expect to lead enterprises to cloud migration."
With Windows 7, Microsoft has reoriented itself more towards multi-tasking, with special emphasis on speed
Its the much awaited launch in the Windows world; and it looks like the launch of Windows 7 was just a technicality for Microsoft, as it has kept the user interest at a high decibel over the last one year, right from Beta to RC.
So over the last year, Windows 7 was very much alive in the developer community, and even before OS was formally launched globally on October 22, proof points of Windows 7 have started emerging.
What makes Windows 7 pathbreaking is the clutter-free GUI, that is totally different from Microsofts previous OS versions. The OS is more oriented towards multi-taking, and hence users can seamlessly manage multiple tasks, yet navigate without any serious issues.
While in the past, Microsofts operating systems have enforced big hardware changes for it to work effectively; but in the case of Windows 7, Microsoft did not enforce any big Windows 7 configuration, and kept it to the current industry standard. Moreover, any PC running Vista, can run Windows 7.
This is a strategic move by Microsoft, and users with older hardware can also migrate to Windows 7. The OS is available in six versions, ranging from basic to ultimate versions, and also the Windows 7 enterprise edition.
The Key Differentiators While Windows 7 improves upon Vista look and feel in terms of GUI, the impact of the OS will be felt by users upon its stability and speed. Microsoft has embedded a lot of self-healing features, that makes for proactive auto-recovery.
Right from recovering a crashed browser tab to a document file, chances of users losing data is brought down to the minimum. Users will see subtle, but visible changes like for instance, features like Aero Peek, Aero Snap, and Aero Shake allowing them to preview open files; and what it means is that one can see it, without really clicking on that file, from the task bar.
One of the key areas in which Windows 7 scores ahead, compared to Vista or XP is speed. Its lightening fast; and this is the first significant impact any user will see, and surely get impressed. Windows 7 also makes managing the range of networked and peripheral devices, a lot easier.
For instance, attaching removable storage media like flash drives, or connecting a digital camera, etc, happens so fast. Microsoft has clearly given closer attention to these small, but significant aspects that a consumer will like. Meanwhile, discovering devices on a network and installing is also simplified. For instance, adding a network printer is done in minutes.
Clearly Windows 7 is the OS that plugs the pain areas of Microsofts previous OS, in terms of security, bugs, hang issues, etc. Moreover, users who have deployed Windows 7, vouch that the OS is far easier to deploy.
S Francis Rajan, head of ICT, Bangalore International Airport says, Overall we have found the deployment process for Windows 7 to be faster and smoother, than its previous operating systems. Installation took approximately 40% lesser time than the previous deployment; and we plan to upgrade all our computers to Windows 7 by December 2009.
Early Adopters According to the sources in Microsoft, already there are over 1,000 enterprises across India that have deployed Windows 7, and they have started getting significant cost savings and productivity benefits. These include Infosys, Maruti, Bangalore International Airport, L&T ECC, among others. Mahesh Manchi, CIO, Mahindra Holidays says, Windows 7 increases my notebook performance significantly, and is far more reliable.
Simple tasks, such as the time to boot and hibernate have been cut down significantly. This is brilliant, as the overall user experience has enhanced. We definitely see a reason to upgrade to Windows 7, as it is not too resource hungry as well.
The early adopters will act as proof points for agility of the OS. But if we look at the large enterprise scenario, how much mass migration will happen to Windows 7 from XP or Vista is still debatable right now; and its too early to see clearly the migration roadmap.
If we look at large organizations with PC fleet sizes ranging from 25K and above, in these instances analysts aver that only new purchase decisions would be more aligned towards Windows 7, rather than upgradation.
We take a look at the automatic and custom validation that you can have in data submitted to the server from your Silverlight 3 LoB application
We'll take a look at how you can add validation into the system so that there is both client and server side validation of the data that is sent back before it reaches the database.
The RIA SDK builds upon the LINQ model to deliver data both ways. This means that since the model is built from the database itself, some characteristics of the data schema are already present in the data model. This translates into some automatic validations that come into play by default.
For instance, if you have a field which is defined as a number, the user obviously should not be allowed to enter alphabets into it. Also, if you have defined the length of a particular field to be a particular value, the user should not enter strings longer than that. Luckily, such validations occur automatically in the DataForm control when bound to the DomainDataSource.
The DataForm control has built-in validation error displays that get triggered on the client end automatically when the data entered does not match the data model. The error is displayed in a number of ways:
A validation error summary block appears near the submit buttons that lets the user know of all the fields that caused errors along with the exact error message. Each error can be clicked to take the focus to the exact field.
Each field with an error is highlighted in the form in both the field entry outline as well as the name of the field.
On entering any error field (or by clicking a small arrow that appears on its side), that particular field's error message is shown next to it in a small popup tip.
All validations coming from the data model are very good. However, there is usually a need to add much more detailed level of validation into the model for individual fields that make up the data. The first way is to simply modify the metadata of the model itself.
We delve deeper into the new Taskbar features by writing code that can enhance the thumbnail experience that users shall get for your application
Last month we checked the Windows API Code Pack for .NET ? an open source release from Microsoft that lets you add Windows 7 features into your .NET applications with ease. This month we continue from where we left and add a few more features into the mix. So let's jump right in for the code.
Customizing the thumbnail One of the coolest new features of Windows 7 is the new interactive thumbnails shown for each running application. Not only can you perform an 'Aero Peek' into the window by simply hovering your pointer over a particular thumbnail, but you can also click it to switch, close the window, view tabbed or child windows and more. All these features are available to your application running on Windows 7 for 'free' ? that is, you don't need to add any code to get them. However, there are a number of other features that you can use to make your app look even better by simply adding a few lines of code.
Thumbnail toolbars The first new feature is the ability to add a toolbar on the thumbnail that contains buttons for users to click and have it interact with the main window. You can see an example of this in the new Windows Media Player that adds buttons allowing skipping, pausing and playing of content. To do this yourself you will need to add a little bit of code. So let's try this out by using the Windows Forms application we created last month and continue to build upon it.
Thumbnail Clipping One thing you will notice when you run the above code is that the entire application is shown in the thumbnail, since by default, Windows 7 captures the entire client area of the window for it. However, you might want to show only a (more relevant) part of the window in the thumbnail. In this sample, you might want to only show the image that is shown in the picture box in the thumbnail without all the other trimmings around it. For this, you will need to use a feature called thumbnail clipping. Using this feature, you can decide on a relevant part of your application's main window that you wish to highlight in the thumbnail and get the bounding rectangle for that and display it.
As you can see, customizing what your users see in the thumbnail of your application is quite easy. You can really enhance their producitivty in using your application by simply adding a few lines of code. Till next time, have fun.
Google demonstrated Google Chrome OS for the first time on Thursday in Mountain View:
Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we’re already talking to partners about the project, and we’ll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.
Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.
Azure, which provides an online platform for software developers to create their own programs, and space for customers to store data, was rolled out for experimentation a year ago.
Microsoft Corp said on Tuesday it will launch its long-awaited Windows Azure cloud computing system on Jan 1, as it looks to take advantage of the growing interest in internet-based software and services.
Azure, which provides an online platform for software developers to create their own programs, and space for customers to store data, was rolled out for experimentation a year ago.
The service will go fully live at the beginning of next year, Microsoft's chief software architect Ray Ozzie told the company's annual software developers conference on Tuesday.
The first month of the service will be free, and billing will start in February, said Ozzie.
Microsoft is expected to be a big player in the cloud computing market -- broadly the trend toward running software in remote data centers and accessing it over the Internet -- but has lagged behind pioneering rivals such as Amazon.com Inc, which already sells cloud-based storage, and Google Inc, which offers a range of free, online software.
Windows Azure service, set to be launched on Jan. 1, will run customers' applications on its servers and provide capacity through its massive datacenters,
Microsoft Corp's venture into cloud computing will be successful if most people don't even know it is there, the executive in charge of the initiative said on Tuesday. The software company's new Windows Azure service, set to be launched on Jan. 1, will run customers' applications on its servers and provide capacity through its massive datacenters, helping websites stay up through spikes in demand which might otherwise paralyze them.
IBM jumps on cloud computing bandwagon "For consumers, the best result of cloud computing is that they don't notice it," Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's chief software architect, said in an interview at the company's annual developers conference. "Companies that are not in IT -- like retailers and manufacturing companies -- still deal with their customers on the web," said Ozzie. "Azure allows us to do the hard work of figuring out how to build those really high-scale systems that deal with all the consumers, and it lets businesses focus on what they are good at." The Monday after Thanksgiving -- often the busiest Internet shopping day of the year -- is an example of when a company may suddenly need more servers to deal with purchases on its website, but can't afford to maintain those servers all year round.
Confusion mars cloud computing adoption "From a consumer's perspective, when they hit the shopping cart online, they'll be able to complete the transaction," said Ozzie. "They won't lose that shopping cart and they won't have to hit that back button, and wonder 'Did the transaction go through?'" Health scares or disasters could be other times when website operators suddenly need more capacity to deal with demand. "What this cloud computing allows IT departments to do, is to just buy computing as you need it," said Ozzie. "If you have an application that you'd like to run and just try it a little, you only end up paying a little , and if your demand gets greater and greater, then we just turn up the dial and we give you more and more." NEW DIRECTION This new approach -- giving developers a platform to write online applications, and renting out space in datacenters -- sounds like a radical departure for Microsoft, which has relied on selling packaged software for customers to install on their own machines for much of its growth. But Ozzie says the focus on software, not how it is delivered, is the connecting strand. "What made Microsoft what it is today is software," said Ozzie. "I don't think that there's some dramatic shift here in terms of value. Software at its core is what we are." Ozzie, 53, took over the chief software architect role in June 2006, when Chairman Bill Gates stepped back from day-to-day involvement in the company he co-founded. The creator of the Lotus Notes e-mail application, regarded as one of the software industry's pantheon of pioneers, Ozzie has been the central force pushing Microsoft in the direction of cloud computing. His employees understand the need to change, but change itself has not been easy, said Ozzie. "Change management is tough, always, in any industry, when you go from one generation of capabilities to another," said Ozzie. "The great thing about this transformation is that because we all use the web, we all use the Internet at home, people can understand it, pretty much every employee can understand why things are different now." That was not always the case, said Ozzie, who remembers the days when it was not obvious that computing devices would become so central to communication. "Of course there's risk," in the shift to new technology models, said Ozzie, but the change won't be abrupt or wholesale. "Customers are very pragmatic, they figure out the right way to connect the old with the new," he said. "For every given application, a camera, a phone, there's some good combination of software in the device and in the cloud. Making them work together is what we are trying to do."
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