If you deploy 10 instances of a web role. e.g. your website on 10 servers
for scale and availability purposes.
You wouldnt want to put all ten on one rack just in case that rack gets hosed.
You'd want to follow some best practice and maybe host them across two racks.
5 on one rack in location X and 5 on another rack in location Y.
If one server goes down on the rack in location Y you are good, theres 4 others still working and the Azure fabric will bring up the 5th as soon as it can.
If the whole rack goes down, you're still good, the Azure fabric will fire up instances of your website on another rack in another location.

But what if you want to update your site or update the operating system with patches etc...
where do you start upgrading?
you dont want to upgrade all the servers in location X because what if location Y goes down... your customers will start getting web site not available errors.

maybe you start upgrading the 4th and 5th one in each location.
so during the upgrade process youll always have at least 8 servers across both your racks.
if while you are doing this upgrade location Y goes down again... you still have the other 3 servers on in location X to limp along with
until Azure gets location Y up again and then you can continue your upgrade process 2 at a time across both locations.

these strategies are Orthogonal and help you keep those availability numbers high.

You might say to yourself... ohhh no. I can't afford to ever have only 3 servers servicing my clients.
Thats when the elasticity of the cloud comes into play. You could dyanamically upgrade momentarily to enough servers
that will still give you 10 live servers servicing requests even if you lose a rack AND are doing a rolling upgrade.

How much money would you have to spend to address that scenario?
Money for machines you dont need until that moment.
Money for smart systems administrators who can execute that strategy.
Money lost if you get it wrong.
Staying late at working trying to figure out some weird error that happened during the process.

Nahhh man I'd rather go home and have a nice dinner with the wife.

Save yourself some dough and some grey hairs and start learning how to use the cloud today :).

Since All the APIs for Windows Azure storage, queues for communication are all RESTful endpoints.

I thought this might be a good book…

 

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/RESTfulNET/Jon-Flanders/e/9780596519209

 

I don’t have a review, just started reading but……

 

From BN.com…

“Flanders, begins by introducing the basic concepts of REST. Next, the author introduces the WCF channel and programming models. Then, he
introduces you to the WebGetAttribute, which is the mechanism for building resources that return read-only representations. He continues by examining the special considerations for hosting this type of endpoint. Next, the author shows you how to build and consume feeds using the WCF feed programming model. Then, he examines WCF 3.5's ability to return data as XML- or JSON-encoded results, as well as the integration between WCF and
ASP.NET Ajax. The author continues by examining the WCF settings for
enabling security and for creating an endpoint that is highly secure. Next,
he focuses on both stateless and stateful workflow models for implementing
RESTful services. He continues by taking a look at Restful service, SQL
Server Data Services, and decompose it into a WCF service contract that can
invoke the service through the WCF programming model. Finally, the author
looks at a couple of slightly more advanced HTTP features and how to use
them with your RESTful services in WCF.”

Thursday, February 19, 2009 Silverlight Outside The Browser: Live Framework & Mesh Enabled Applications
Subject:	You must register at https://www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=134698 in order to be admitted to the building and attend. Live Framework has arrived to provide a uniform way for programming Live Services. While this in itself is an exciting story it really doesn't end there. Within Live Framework exists the ability to create Mesh Enabled applications that span Web, PC and eventually Mobile Devices (with Silverlight making it all possible). Come to this session to get a great introduction to Live Framework and learn more about Mesh Applications
Speaker:	Dmitry Lyalin, Microsoft Consulting Services Dmitry Lyalin's day-to-day job involves helping customers implement technology solutions using Microsoft frameworks and products. In his spare time Dmitry is a speaker at various technology events with a passion for Cloud computing and Silverlight. For more information see his blog at http://www.lyalin.com/blog.
Date:	Thursday, February 19, 2009
Time:	Reception 6:00 PM , Program 6:15 PM
Location:	Microsoft , 1290 Avenue of the Americas (the AXA building - bet. 51st/52nd Sts.) , 6th floor
Directions:	B/D/F/V to 47th-50th Sts./Rockefeller Ctr 1 to 50th St./Bway N/R/W to 49th St./7th Ave.