Tag Archives: windows azure

Meet the ‘Plumbers’ Powering ‘Halo 4’ Infinity Multiplayer

By Guest PostOctober 31, 2012Technology343 industries, armor abilities, bungie, cloud services, commander, dvr, Entertainment, game online, game studio, halo 2, halo 4, halo universe, halo waypoint, infinity multiplayer, jerry hook, luigi, mario, master chief, Microsoft, news center, plymouth rock, s curve, sara palmer, sci fi, social, spartan ops, subterranean it, tamir melamed, vehicles, video game, virtual machines, weapons, windows azure, xbox live

Members of 343 Industries talk to the Microsoft News Center about the infrastructure behind the “Halo 4” Infinity Multiplayer suite and the video game industry’s shift to a world of 24/7 live services.

REDMOND, Wash. — Oct. 31, 2012 — Meet Jerry Hook and Tamir Melamed, the hardest-working plumbers in the video game world not named Mario or Luigi.

Hook and Melamed lead the engineering team laying the subterranean IT structures that will power every pixel of the multiplayer experience in “Halo 4.” Everything fans experience online – stats, screenshots, the simple joy of blasting a friend or stranger to smithereens – depends on the infrastructure they’ve built over the past year and half. That infrastructure is supported by Windows Azure, which provides the team with the affordable scalability they need to keep a game like “Halo 4” running smoothly for fans. (more…)

Pottermore, New Website Based on the Hugely Popular Harry Potter Books, Uses Windows Azure to Scale Up to 1 Billion Page Views in First Two Weeks

By Guest PostJune 6, 2012Technologyazure, brittany talbot, cloud environment, elastic solution, elasticity, Facebook, fran dougherty, harry potter, harry potter fan, j k rowling, julian thomas, Microsoft, paas, pottermore, pottermore website, priscilla, san francisco, Technology, website, windows azure

Windows Azure offered Pottermore the flexibility required to build a massively scalable website in just three months.

REDMOND, Wash. – June 6, 2012 – Eagerly awaiting the launch of Pottermore (www.pottermore.com), the website based on the popular Harry Potter stories, Brittany Talbot and her sister, Priscilla, raced to sign up when the site went live on April 14, 2012.

They weren’t alone. Within hours, thousands of Harry Potter fans were flooding the site and just two weeks after the Pottermore website went live, it received one billion page views, making it one of the most popular sites on the Web. To date, 10 million unique visitors have visited the site, with 25,000 new users signing up every day.

With Harry Potter one of the largest entertainment phenomena of all time, fans of all ages couldn’t wait to experience the world-famous stories, social, and interactive experiences the site offered. “I like being able to go up there and do potions and spells, and walk around where Harry was,” Brittany says. “I read the first book in the first week because I was so excited.” (more…)

‘Visual Studio 11’ Beta and .NET Framework 4.5 Beta Make Software Development Fast, Collaborative and Focused

By Guest PostFebruary 24, 2012Technologyalm, application lifecycle management, asp, beta, c, flagship, html5, iconography, it lifecycle, jason zander, javascript, Microsoft, net framework, new version, s somasegar, user interface graphics, visual basic, visual studio, visual studio 11, windows azure, windows server, workflows

*New version of Microsoft’s flagship development environment simplifies common workflows, reduces user interface complexities and streamlines application lifecycle management, improving collaboration for developers and teams.*

REDMOND, Wash. — Designing software, creating code and then bringing a product to market is an incredibly complex affair — and it’s becoming more complex by the minute as software users demand greater integration between applications, across devices and among services. To help integrate cross-functional teams and help developers accomplish goals more efficiently, Microsoft will release code-named “Visual Studio 11” Beta and .NET Framework 4.5 Beta on Feb. 29.

“Visual Studio 11” is an integrated solution that helps individuals and development teams of any size to be productive and focused, to collaborate seamlessly with colleagues, and to turn their ideas into exceptional and compelling applications. (more…)

Editor’s Picks: Turning Futuristic Visions into Reality

By Guest PostJanuary 3, 2012Technology3d, alzheimer, avatar kinect projects, baker laboratory, breakthroughs at microsoft, cancers, catwalk, crippling diseases, education and technology, futuristic scenarios, kinect for xbox 360, laptop, magic pushes, malaria, microsoft duo breaks, microsoft home, natural user interfaces, new year, protein mystery, salmonella, steve clayton, the printing dress, university of washington, virtual world, windows azure, your living room

*As we begin the New Year, a look at some of the stories of futuristic scenarios brought to life in 2011, plus developments that promise dramatic improvements in the near future.*

REDMOND, Wash. – Jan. 3, 2012 – From revolutionizing the way we interact with computers to developing tools to speed development of cures for crippling diseases, 2011 was a year of forward-thinking breakthroughs at Microsoft. See some of the innovations introduced in 2011 and how Microsoft is working to take new technologies from the lab to the living room. (more…)

LiquidSpace: Mobile-to-Cloud Service Matches Startups to Excess Workspace

By Guest PostOctober 26, 2011Technologyandroid and windows smartphones, consumerization of real estate, daryll mcdade, iPhone, liquidspace, liquidspace app, liquidspace mobile, mark gilbreath, microsoft bizspark, microsoft bizspark one startup, mobile workers, napa valley film festival, nonoffice, outlook, san francisco bay area, tech veteran, web based app, web browsers, windows azure

*Microsoft BizSpark One startup creates real-time workspace market, benefitting property owners and entrepreneurs alike.*

REDMOND, Wash. — Oct. 26, 2011 — On the surface, the concept of Microsoft BizSpark One member LiquidSpace is simple: provide an easy way to match mobile workers with available workspace, in real time. Below the surface and behind the scenes, however, bigger currents are flowing, as the “where” of office work is being re-imagined.

Company founder Mark Gilbreath calls his vision the “consumerization of real estate.” The LiquidSpace mobile and Web-based app capitalizes on a number of important trends: the increasing mobility of workers, the real-time quality of today’s work, the economic and environmental drag of empty commercial space, and the availability of location-aware technologies and cloud services infrastructure such as Windows Azure. (more…)

Scientists Unfolding Protein Mystery, Fighting Disease with Windows Azure

By Guest PostJune 14, 2011Technologyalzheimer, baker laboratory, benchmark, cancers, chris sinco, cloud computing, computational biology labs, computing power, david baker, dennis gannon, malaria, marlin eiben, Microsoft, microsoft research extreme computing group, modern diseases, needle, nikolas sgourakis, pankaj arora, protein, salmonella, search for extraterrestrial intelligence, seti, structure and behavior of proteins, university of washington, vacation, windows azure, world class researcher with a world class problem

*Microsoft has partnered with the University of Washington’s Baker Laboratory to help scientists supercharge the computing power of their protein folding research with Windows Azure. Helping scientists get faster results could mean speeding up cures for Alzheimer’s, cancers, salmonella, and malaria.*

REDMOND, Wash. – June 14, 2011 – Cloud computing is helping biologists uncloud one of nature’s biggest mysteries: proteins.

Microsoft has partnered with the University of Washington’s Baker Laboratory, one of the world’s top computational biology labs, to give scientists access to some high-caliber computing power. That, in turn, helps them explore and understand proteins, which could eventually lead to thwarting everything from Alzheimer’s to Malaria, and from cancer to salmonella. (more…)

Study Reveals Microsoft Partner Ecosystem Revenues of $580 Billion in 2010

By Guest PostMarch 24, 2011Technologydarren bibby, global research firm, idc, it marketplace, Microsoft, microsoft cloud, microsoft ecosystem, microsoft partner network, revenues, slalom consulting, tom chew, windows azure

*Leading analyst firm points to opportunities for Microsoft partners both in cloud computing and with current Microsoft products.*

REDMOND, Wash. — March 24, 2011 — Today, global research firm IDC issued a new white paper which estimates that members of the worldwide Microsoft ecosystem generated local revenues for themselves of $580 billion in 2010, up from $537 billion in 2009 and $475 billion in 2007. This demonstrates strong revenue growth when total worldwide IT spending increased less than half a percent, and validates the substantial opportunities and benefits available through the Microsoft Partner Network, the program that equips Microsoft partners with training, resources and support they need to successfully compete in today’s marketplace while allowing customers to easily identify the right partner for their technology needs.

Through the Microsoft Partner Network https://partner.microsoft.com, partners can extend their market reach for greater opportunities and profitability while delivering innovative solutions to help customers achieve their business goals. The IDC study estimates that for every dollar of revenue made by Microsoft Corp. in 2009, local members of the Microsoft ecosystem generated revenues for themselves of $8.70. In an additional study on Microsoft Core Infrastructure Optimization, IDC found that partners that invested in more difficult or a greater number of Microsoft competencies enjoyed 68 percent larger deals and 28 percent more revenue per employee, compared with partners that invested less. (more…)

Cloud Computing: Making Rain From Blue-Sky Thinking

By Guest PostMarch 4, 2011Technologyalgorithms, businessweek, city of miami, cloud computing, cloud portfolio, computer desktop, computing power, economic gains, federal agencies, garbage collection, it management, james osteen, jim graham, Microsoft, microsoft cloud solutions, minnesota 3m, software code, terry collier, tim o’brien, vas, visual attention service, windows azure

*Microsoft cloud solutions help customers cut costs, generate new revenue streams and provide added services to end users*

REDMOND, Wash. — March 3, 2011 — This week’s edition of Businessweek includes a story about the shift taking place in the development and deployment of applications and services by using cloud computing to cut costs, streamline IT management and respond more quickly to changes in end-user demand. Microsoft is cited as one of the companies taking the lead in this area and in moving organizations from their existing operations and services to the cloud and taking advantage of increased efficiency and new opportunities along the way.

To be sure, the economic gains that are possible through cloud computing are significant – one customer saw a reduction in IT management costs by three-quarters, in part from moving to Windows Azure. But cloud computing has the potential to expand beyond the realm of budget line items to that of lines of software code, creating new tools and services that lead to new computing experiences, expanded business opportunities, better services for customers, and, ultimately, new jobs and economic growth. (more…)