Cloud Data at MIX: SQL Azure, Windows Azure DataMarket, and OData

[This article was contributed by the SQL Azure team.]

Yet another great MIX event happened last week on April 12-14 and it was a fantastic opportunity to have personal conversations with web developers about how they're using Microsoft development tools and the Windows Azure platform.  For me, MIX was also an opportunity to step back and take in all the investment and progress Microsoft is making in the web, cloud, and mobile.

The dozens of conversations I had onsite this year were different than ones in the past and are indicative about the trend towards the pervasiveness of the cloud in the next generation of existing and new applications.  While historically there have been distinct and separate conversations about the web, mobile, and the cloud - these conversations are now closely intermingled with developers creating multi-platform user experiences spanning both device and web, and utilizing the cloud run those applications.

 

Lynn Langit, Senior Developer Evangelist, leading a user group meeting. Lynn has a great blog on developer topics and how to use SQL Azure at https://blogs.msdn.com/b/socaldevgal/ .

A critical factor in architecting a solution for multiple user experiences is utilizing a consistent data tier in the cloud and protocols that can reach them and we talked about that in several sessions at the event, which are now all available online. 

 

David Robinson, SQL Azure Senior Program Manager, preparing for his session at MIX - Powering Data On the Web and Beyond With SQL Azure.

Sessions on SQL Azure, DataMarket, and Windows Azure Platform:

Powering Data On the Web and Beyond With SQL Azure: David Robinson delivered this session on utilizing SQL Azure as the relational data store for web and mobile applications on Windows Phone 7.

Mashing Up Data On the Web and Windows Phone with Windows Azure DataMarket: Max Uritsky demonstrated how to deliver syndicated data to Windows Phone.

What's New In the Windows Azure Platform: James Conard presented an overall update on all of the Azure services.

 

Max Uritsky (center) and Christian Liensberger (right) from the Windows Azure DataMarket team manning the booth. Max delivered a great session on DataMarket available here . Asad Khan (left) presented on DataJS - the new JavaScript libraries for utilizing OData in the browser; his session can be viewed here .

Sessions on OData:

You've heard me mention OData recently as the enabling protocol for querying and updating data on the web.  When describing it to people who are new to it, I describe it as "the language of data on the web".  There are several sessions at MIX worth checking out:

Data In An HTML5 World: Asad Khan presented the new DataJS libraries that enable you to utilize OData with JavaScript and JQuery - making it easy to access SQL Azure or any other cloud data source via JavaScript calls on any browser.

I also encourage you to view these additional OData sessions that were presented at MIX:

OData In Action: Connecting Any Data Source to Any Device

OData Roadmap: Services Powering Next Generation Experiences

Exposing Any Data Source As An OData Service

 

Overall it was a great event.  Were you there?  Tell us your thoughts.

 

Yours truly ...on the left.

-Steve