The Azure Services Platform is a cloud-computing technology from Microsoft. It is composed of four core components--Windows Azure, .NET Services, SQL Services, and Live Services--each with a unique role in the functioning of your cloud service. It is the goal of this book to show you how to use these components, both separately and together, to build flawless cloud services.

At its heart, Windows Azure Platform is a down-to-earth, code-centric book. This book aims to show you precisely how the components are employed and to demonstrate the techniques and best practices you need to know to use them to best effect. That said, author Tejaswi Redkar regularly takes time out to provide a thorough overview of the architectural concepts that underpin Windows Azure. Without this understanding, you will find it hard to use the platform to its full potential.

By the time you've read this book, you will be comfortable building high-quality end-to-end Azure services of your own.