Azure AppFabric Secures and Connects Applications

Windows Azure AppFabric, part of the Windows Azure platform, provides cloud-based services to federate application security systems and connect users and applications across the Internet. Azure AppFabric’s Access Control service can relieve developers from writing custom authentication code and let them instead rely on existing identity providers. Azure AppFabric’s Service Bus relays application communication across organizational boundaries, potentially reducing risky firewall configuration requirements. The services can help connect customer- and partner-facing applications, such as extranets, to on-premises systems and could also benefit applications on external hosting platforms such as Windows Azure.

Azure and the Evolution of Azure AppFabric

The major components of the Windows Azure platform are as follows:

• The Windows Azure service, which hosts applications and stores application data
• The SQL Azure Database, which hosts relational databases using Microsoft’s SQL Server technology