Microsoft - MCPD / MCTS .NET 4 Windows Azure Developer

The Microsoft MCTS / MCPD .NET 4 Azure course will introduce you to cloud computing. You'll learn about Microsoft's public cloud offering in Windows Azure. You'll explore the cloud operating system, and learn how to write, deploy and monitor .NET applications in Azure. You'll be able to design and develop applications that will be hosted on the Windows Azure platform.

You need to sit this accelerated course if you:

• Want to gain experience of the new features of Windows Azure and SQL Azure
• Are planning how Windows Azure and SQL Azure will affect your applications, and what new features can be used
• Are developing Windows Azure applications, or moving your current applications to the cloud.

When you pass Exam 70-516 on this course, it counts as credit towards these certifications:

• MCTS: .NET Framework 4, Data Access
• MCPD: Windows Developer 4
• MCPD: Web Developer 4

Creating Services

• Create service and operation contracts
• Create data contracts
• Create message contracts
• Implement generic message handling
• Implement RESTful services
• Create and configure a Routing service
• Create and configure a Discovery service

Hosting and Configuring Services

• Create and configure endpoints
• Configure behaviors
• Implement self hosting
• Implement web server hosting

Consuming Services

• Create a service proxy
• Configure client endpoints
• Invoke a service
• Consume RESTful services
• Implement service discovery

Securing Services

• Secure bindings
• Message security
• Authentication
• Authorization
• Impersonation
• Security auditing

Manage the Service Instance Life Cycle

• Service Instances
• Sessions
• Transactions
• Concurrency
• Manage consistency between instances, sessions, transactions and concurrency

Monitoring and Troubleshooting Distributed Systems

• Configure message logging
• Configure diagnostics
• Debug client-service interactions

Modeling data

• Map entities and relationships by using the Entity Data Model
• Map entities and relationships by using LINQ to SQL
• Create and customize entity objects
• Connect a POCO model to the Entity Framework
• Create the database from the Entity Framework model
• Create model-defined functions

Managing Connections and Context

• Configure connection strings and providers
• Create and manage a data connection
• Secure a connection
• Manage the DataContext and ObjectContext
• Implement eager loading
• Caching data
• ADO.NET Data Services

Querying data

• Execute a SQL query
• Create a LINQ query
• Create an Entity SQL (ESQL) query
• Handle special data types
• Query XML data
• Query data using ADO.NET Data Services

Manipulating data

• Create, update, or delete data by using SQL statements
• Create, update, or delete data by using DataContext
• Manage Transactions
• Create disconnected objects

Developing and Deploying Reliable Applications

• Monitor and collect performance data
• Handle exceptions
• Protect data
• Synchronize data
• Deploy ADO.NET components

Cloud Computing

• Define cloud computing.
• Learn the benefits of cloud computing.
• Understand the different types of cloud computing services.
• Explore where computing clouds might exist.
• Hear about potential concerns with cloud computing.
• Learn where cloud computing can and cannot be applied.
• Place Windows Azure in light of general cloud computing.
• Know how Windows Azure compares to other cloud environments.

Windows Azure Architecture

• See a simple Windows Azure application.
• Learn about the Microsoft data centers.
• Explore the hardware, servers and virtualization (the Fabric) that host cloud applications and data.
• Understand the role of the Fabric Controller in managing the Windows Azure cloud.
• Know the general architecture and components of the Windows Azure Platform.
• Understand the tools used to create and deploy Windows Azure services and data stores.
• Understand the different types of roles in Windows Azure (Web, worker, VM).
• Understand the types of storages provided by the Windows Azure Platform (Azure Storage, SQL Azure, etc.)

Windows Azure Web Roles

• Explore the purpose of Windows Azure Web roles.
• Understand how to create Web roles in a cloud service project.
• See how to configure a Web role.
• Learn how to test Web roles run in the Compute Emulator.
• Start exploring the Windows Azure API.
• Examine how to build Web roles with multiple Web sites.

Local Storage

• Examine Windows Azure local storage.
• See how local storage differs from normal server file systems.
• Learn how to configure local storage.
• Understand the limitations of local storage and where/when to use it.
• Explore the API to access local storage.
• Learn about Windows Azure Drive (formerly X-Drive).

Windows Azure Administration

• Explore the various Windows Azure subscription administrators.
• Understand Windows Azure OS Families and Guest OS Versions.
• See how to Remote Desktop to a Windows Azure virtual machine.
• Learn how to define a startup task for a role.

Windows Azure Storage and Queues

• Understand the purpose of Windows Azure Storage.
• Learn how to create a Windows Azure Storage account.
• Explore Windows Azure Storage costs.
• Understand the Storage Emulator, how to use it, and how it is different from Windows Azure Storage.
• See how to access Windows Azure Storage using both the REST API and the Storage Client Library.
• Examine Windows Azure Storage Queues.
• Learn how to get messages in and out of Windows Azure Queues.

Blob Storage

• Understand the rationale for using blob storage.Learn about the different types of blobs: block and page blobs.
• Examine blob storage containers and how they are used to organize and control access to blobs.
• Explore how to access blob storage with both the Storage Client and REST API.

Table Storage

• Explore Windows Azure Storage’s structural data service.
• Understand the reason for table storage.
• Examine the differences between table storage and traditional relational databases (as exhibited by SQL Azure).
• Learn how to access table storage with both the Storage Client and REST API.
• Understand entities as they relate to table storage.
• Examine how to save and retrieve entities in table storage.

Worker Roles

• Explore the purpose of Windows Azure worker roles.
• Understand how to create worker roles in a cloud service project.
• See how to configure a worker role.
• Learn how to test worker roles run in the Compute Emulator.
• Learn how to use Windows Azure Storage queues and messages to communicate with worker roles.
• Explore how to setup worker role endpoints.
• Learn how to communicate with worker role internal and input endpoints.

SQL Azure Introduction

• Learn what SQL Azure is and why you want to use it.
• Understand SQL Azure in comparison to SQL Server and Windows Azure table storage.
• Learn how to provision a SQL Azure server and databases.
• Examine costs associated with SQL Azure.
• See how to use familiar tools and APIs to work in SQL Azure.
• Explore how to create and manage database objects in SQL Azure.
• Know how to limit SQL Azure access.
• Understand options for performing database backups.
• See how to migrate data to SQL Azure.

Diagnostics

• Learn how to accomplish debugging and logging in Windows Azure.
• Examine Windows Azure Diagnostic Service.
• Understand the role of the Diagnostic Agent process in the diagnostic service.
• Learn how to configure the diagnostic service.
• See how to transfer diagnostic data to Windows Azure Storage.

You'll sit the following exams:

• Exam 70-513 - TS: Windows Communication Foundation Development with Microsoft .NET Framework 4
• Exam 70-516 - TS: Accessing Data with Microsoft .NET Framework 4
• Exam 70-583 - PRO: Designing and Developing Windows Azure Applications Using Microsoft .NET Framework 4

Microsoft Official Curriculum

• MOC 10265A: Developing Data Access Solutions with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010
• MOC 10263A: Developing Windows Communication Foundation Solutions with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010
• MOC 50466B: Windows Azure Solutions with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010

You must have:

• A solid understanding of the .NET Framework
• Six months' experience in Visual Studio 2010
• One to two years' experience developing application components that interact with a variety of data sources
• A thorough understanding of relational database concepts
• One to two years' experience using a relational database management system
• Fundamental Knowledge of .NET programming languages and object-oriented programming (C# or VB.NET)
• One year's experience developing web applications
• Experience in creating data-driven web applications
• Reasonable understanding of Web technologies (HTTP/HTTPS, HTML, CSS, JavaScript)

The following is recommended, but we'll also cover the subjects on the course:

• One year's experience developing .NET services
• Three years' experience developing ASP.NET technologies