Azure March 2015 Announcements

Scott Guthrie made some announcements today in an online event.  Some customer success stories were shared by Hogarth, 3M, and Fortis. 

The big announcements were:

· New Azure App Service: https://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/announcing-the-new-azure-app-service

· New Azure Student Offer: https://blogs.msdn.com/b/stevengu/archive/2015/03/23/announcing-microsoft-azure-for-student-developers.aspx (and check out the offer at https://aka.ms/azureforstudents)

Azure App Service is an integrated service that enables you to create web and mobile apps for any platform or device, easily integrate with SaaS solutions (Office 365, Dynamics CRM, Salesforce, Twilio, etc), easily connect with on-premises applications (SAP, Oracle, Siebel, etc), and easily automate businesses processes while meeting stringent security, reliability, and scalability needs.  Azure App Service includes the Web App + Mobile App capabilities that we previously delivered separately (as Azure Websites + Azure Mobile Services).  It also includes powerful new Logic/Workflow App and API App capabilities that we are introducing today for the very first time - along with built-in connectors that make it super easy to build logic workflows that integrate with dozens of popular SaaS and on-premises applications (Office 365, SalesForce, Dynamics, OneDrive, Box, DropBox, Twilio, Twitter, Facebook, Marketo, and more).

Demo

Scott Hanselman did a demo of an end-to-end car dealership example that used web apps, mobile apps, logic apps, and API apps. 

Web app: The customer requests a service appointment on the web. 

Logic app (business process management): It polls customer appointment data from SQL database and brings it into Salesforce using connectors.  Then it uses a Twilio connector to send a text message to confirm the appointment with the customer. 

The service department then uses an app to manage the workflow of assigning work to technicians.  Technician data can be pulled in from Office 365. 

API app: Then Scott creates a new API app to decode a VIN number and publishes it.  He modifies the logic app to give a personalized message to the customer (“Your appointment for your 2012 Toyota Prius is scheduled” rather “Your appointment is scheduled”). 

Mobile app: Finally, the technician might work in an occasionally-connected environment and can use a mobile app. 

For more information on the new Azure App Service and more details on web apps, logic apps, mobile apps, and API apps, please see the official announcement at https://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/announcing-the-new-azure-app-service.