Review: Azure in Action

I’ve been reading the Azure in Action book by Chris Hay and Brian H. Prince over the last few weeks.  The authors did a great job introducing the Windows Azure Platform and services.  There is a lot of focus on the core services such as BLOB, Table and Queue services, but they also cover SQL Azure and Windows Azure AppFabric as well (though the later could be a book all to its own, which they also indicate).

There are lots of great examples in the book touching on some really good ideas of using the core services in ways you wouldn’t expect, such as using the BLOB storage to serve as a poor man’s web server.  Even if you are familiar with the basics of Azure you can pick up some interesting ideas from the book.  The authors bring their considerable experience with large scale web deployments and messaging systems to the book with a dash of humor, which is usually sorely missing in technical books.  Azure in Action is like an educational ride at an amusement park:  filled with lots of great information and  humor.

The book is due out later this year, but you can pick up an advance copy through the Manning Early Access Program (MEAP) if you’d like.