2. Make sure you RTFM and enable the hardware virtualisation in your BIOS or it just won’t work.

3. Make sure you download all automatic updates as Windows Server 2008 shipped without Hyper-V. It has to be downloaded as an update. Remember to turn auto updates on too.

4. If you want more than 4 virtual machines, you need Windows Server 2008 Data Centre edition.

5. Dell Poweredge 5110 take ages to boot up, and the installation of Windows Server 2008 needs many restarts. Hyper-V itself takes an age itself to install. Get a good book as you are going to be doing lots of sitting around.

On the up side, Hyper-V is a fantastic technology and I have managed to re-purpose a high spec server into 5 high spec VPSs making us thrifty in these hard economic times, and greener and friendlier to the planet by opting for virtualisation.

Language Support:
Straight out of the gate Azure allows you to leverage the power of C# and VB, and there is no reason why the other .Net savvy languages can’t join the party too. Look forward to IronPython, F# and Iron Ruby being a consideration in the not too distant future. Meanwhile GAE only gives Python as an option and further language support is not on the roadmap. .Net services is being designed from the ground up as language agnostic with Java & Ruby SDKs being readily available http://jdotnetservices.com/ http://www.dotnetservicesruby.com/
Result: SUPER BODY SLAM BY AZURE!!

Application Types
Azure offers two different kinds of application model; Web Roles and Worker Roles. Both can be utilised in your Azure applications. Web roles are your typical request/response HTTP paradigm similar to GAE’s request based model. More interesting is the Worker role that adds processing and logic that does not need to be triggered via a web request. Think Windows Service and you are on the right track. This gives you the ability to run background tasks and opens up a whole raft of application possibilities that GAE just cant offer right now. Looking at the roadmap, it’s not going to arrive any time soon either. There’s no chance of chron-like capability or long running processes with GAE.
Result: CHOKE HOLD BY AZURE!

Scalability
Microsoft Azure is as yet unproven in this area but there are plenty of indicators around the web that GAE would not hold up against traffic of a serious or sustained nature. Concerns with CPU and storage limitations, caching, database immutability plus one way in and out ( via the Google API ). App Engine’s 1MB file limit would seriously hinder the kind of audio-heavy enterprise applications we write at Qire. Of course we will have to wait and see how Azure stacks up in this regard, so it’s pretty impossible to compare both technologies at this time.
Result: Break!

Storage
Azure offers a few different storage options including Table Storage that leverages the killer ADO.NET Data Services Framework to get the job done. Add to this the more familiar SQL Data Services platform and you have more than enough flexibility to achieve all you need. GAE follows the ‘one big table’ approach and there is nothing wrong with that but the range of storage options provided by Azure gives it more of an edge.
Result: Knockout!

It’s plain to me that the Microsoft offering is way more advanced than anything else out there, an opinion that is echoed on many GAE forums and messageboards too.

Via Steve Clayton:

Monday, October 27 3:30pm – 5:30pm
Click here to watch the 300k stream live

Tuesday, October 28 3:30pm – 5:30pm
 Click here to watch the 300k stream live

Some of the less tech-savvy pundits on the web ( I love Ted Dziuba’s classy reply too! ) are saying it’s the beginning of the end for Windows and that Chrome represents a move towards Google dominating the OS space in the same manner they dominate the search space. You only have to look at problems Vista itself has with drivers and hardware compatibility, god knows how a browser will cope.

There’s no doubt, the OS will end up in the cloud sooner or later. If it’s Google owned, that remains to be seen. Microsoft’s domination in enterprise is going to take unfathomable effort on behalf of Google to try and make inroads as the project is essentially open source.

On another note though, as a long time JavaScript jockey, I’m looking forward to giving the new system a thorough going over. Multi-process JavaScript sounds simply fantastic! Have a look at the little overview that has been released.

Edit: It’s out and it’s very very good. A really intuative browsing experience but nothing approaching an OS….yet. Also, as you may have guessed – no Silverlight support !

Now that the main objectives have been met, we have a little time to add a few nice bells and whistles to add that little sprinkling of fairy dust that makes good software better. So what could be nicer than cracking open Silverlight 2 and knocking together some cool data visualisation tools.

The first is a big client network monitor display that is going to deployed on a enormous plasma screen stuck to the wall to give the whole company visibility of any issues that our A-List clients have while using the application. We can pre-empt any problems and offer a greater level of service by offering clients help before they even ask for it. Pretty snazzy. Check the video below ( starring Katy, who is captured here between moments of moaning about the cold and making a brew. Plus you get a quick tour of my desktop art gallery.

Silverlight 2 Client Network Monitor from jon on Vimeo.

The second little control is a call visualisation control that will be embedded in Qore to show call details and narrative in a much more interactive fashion. I’ll edit and post the video later as Vimeo is playing up right now.

So that’s it, a little demonstration of what we are making in Silverlight 2; controls to help our clients and improve business processes, hopefully giving you the idea is useful for more than just trivial applications.

You will have excellent offline and organisational skills too, as they will be needed while working for the world’s most innovative voice application software provider here in sunny Liverpool. Your research skills will help us to move into any target market we wish, by providing us with sales collateral and insight; plus your keen eye for design and the written word will keep us ahead of the pack by understanding the visual language a bleeding edge cloud based telecom provider needs to speak.

Interested? Use the contact form or send us your CV and we will be in touch.

Well the latest news is that Mosso appear to have been listening to users and revised the strategy yet again, to a metric that will be based on the concept of ‘compute cycles’. Pricing and the amount of cycles you get in your package has not been released yet but obviously users are keen to see if Mosso still provides the value for money that was originally apparent.

The fact is that with new technology models, new pricing models must follow: it remains to be seen if new pricing models build successful sustainable businesses.

Only time will tell if it will work out for me, given the new 3M request policy.

So anyway, the point being, if you see anything broken on the site, leave a comment or drop me a line. Thanks!