Windows Azure Platform and Windows Phone 7 undoubtedly have gathered the attention of Microsoft, largely because of their success. Windows Phone 7 is doing pretty good in the smartphone market with over more than 90% satisfied customers and Windows Azure has helped Microsoft gain reputation in the Platform.
Microsoft has launched “Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows Phone 7″ which aims at better integrating the Windows Azure Platform and Windows Phone 7. Integrating Windows Azure with Windows Phone 7 is not entirely new. Earlier this functionality could be achieved by having Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) Service which connects both, but it was always a cumbersome task to have multiple projects and then to have the integration possible.
Project Hawaii is also a similar research project by Microsoft Research which aims at better integration of WWAN with Windows Phone 7. It is being carried out, with a view to having a more fast and reliable service, which can be utilized by Windows Phone 7. Their goal is to foster the creation of a set of cloud-enabled mobile applications and associated support services to help us understand the systems and networking infrastructure needed to create the next generation of applications .
To get started with the toolkit you require following:
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional (or higher) or both Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2010 Express and Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone
- Windows Phone Developer Tools (January 2011 Update)
- Silverlight for Windows Phone Toolkit – Feb 2011
- Internet Information Services 7 (IIS7)
- Windows Azure SDK 1.4 (March 2011)
- Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 (March 2011)
This toolkit provides you with two templates:
- Windows Phone 7 Cloud Application
- Windows Phone 7 Empty Cloud Application
To know more about it, visit Windows Azure Toolkit.
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