I attended some talks this weekend at the SoCal Code Camp. Since I've been exploring cloud computing lately, the David Pallmann talk on Azure Design Patterns was of particular interest.
The Azure Design Patterns site gives an overview of the Azure services ("Core"), but it was the composite applications that combine these core functions that provided the most insight regarding potential cloud applications.
- Hosted Web Application
- Hosted Web Application with Background Worker Processes
- Hosted Web Service
- Hosted Web Service with Background Worker Processes
- Grid Computing Application
- Cloud-Extended Enterprise Application
- Multi-Enterprise Business Application (MEBA)
For example the Hosted Web Service with Background Workers is depicted like this:
Dave spent a majority of the talk on Azure core services. The differences and similarities between Azure and Amazon Web Services and Google App Engine were easy to identify.
The Azure core services are interesting, but I would have liked a more thorough investigation of these application patterns and their implementation details. There was just too much material to cover in a 1.5 hour talk.
It's easy to see how many of these application patterns could be implemented in either AWS or GAE. Understanding a pattern's pros and cons in the context of any of the available cloud computing solutions is critical when you're considering an architecture.
I haven't been able to find similar design documentation by AWS or GAE. They only cover their core service APIs and provide white papers on how specific applications are constructed.
Kudos to Dave for the great talk and putting together these useful descriptions and code samples.
UPDATE (11/25/09): Cloud Computing Patterns
