Big update of the Windows Azure AppFabric platform (June CTP) and new SDK version

Microsoft has officially unveiled a new experimental version of the Windows Azure Appfabric cloud service. Windows Azure AppFabric June CTP is an important release and offers a large number of innovations.

An important part of the new version is the ability to develop, deploy, manage and monitor the state of multi-tier applications at all levels: web, business logic, database level, working with each level as a separate logical entity on Windows Azure.
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This release offers the following innovations:

• AppFabric Developer Tools - innovations in Visual Studio, which allow the use of visual designers to build end applications for the Windows Azure platform;
• AppFabric Application Manager is a powerful and at the same time simple way to host and manage multi-tier applications that contain web, average and data levels, through the overall application life cycle, including placement, configuration, monitoring, search and problem solving. The Application Manager includes a full-fledged application management portal, which is based on the REST API, designed to monitor your multi-tier applications and perform management tasks for running applications;
• Composition Model - a set of extensions for the .NET Framework for composing applications on the Windows Azure platform. These extensions are built on the Azure Service Model concepts and add new features for describing and integrating components in an application. AppFabric Developer Tools uses a composite model to create an application manifest, which is used by the AppFabric Application Manager during deployment to determine the structure of the application and its metadata.
• Support for running custom code, WCF, and WF — formal support for running Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) on Windows Azure and composing Communication Foundation (WCF) services, WF, and custom code. In addition to this, the tools for developing, hosting, managing, and monitoring WCF and WF services have been improved.

To work with Windows Azure AppFabric, you need the Windows Azure AppFabrication Development Tools SDK CTP - June Update, which can be downloaded from the following link .

The release of Windows Azure AppFabric June CTP is already available on the portal http://portal.appfabriclabs.com/ . Access to the new features of the experimental version of the platform will be limited by the number of users, so hurry to subscribe to services as early as possible. In order to subscribe to the services presented in this update, it is necessary to do the following steps:

• log in and login to http://portal.appfabriclabs.com/ ;
• select the Applications item in the AppFabric node in the left panel;
• click the Request Namespace button;
• answer a few questions before asking;
• Your request will be sent for confirmation and you will receive a notification about when you can start working with new features.

Details of the issue can be found in the official announcement on the MSDN website. An extended description of all innovations is available in this detailed article .

Other useful resources dedicated to Windows Azure AppFabic and its new features:

• Composing and Managing Applications with Windows Azure AppFabric video, part of the Windows Azure AppFabric Learning Series course available on the CodePlex;
• Reports from TechEd:
  • Introduction to Windows Azure AppFabric Composite Applications
  • A Lap around Windows Azure AppFabric
  • Workflow in Windows Azure AppFabric
• MDSN Documentation
• Windows Azure AppFabric website
• Windows Azure AppFabric Developer page
• Windows Azure AppFabric Overview Whitepaper

In addition, the announcement can be viewed on a special channel AppFabric.tv - Announcing the Windows Azure AppFabric June CTP .