Welcome to the latest edition of our weekly roundup of the latest community-driven news, content and conversations about cloud computing and Windows Azure.

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce Mark Brown, the Windows Azure community manager.  Starting next week, Mark will be taking over the weekly roundup.  Mark’s focus will be to curate and highlight the most interesting and impactful content directly from members of the global Windows Azure community, as well as the latest info on global events, discussions, and even code!  If you have comments or suggestions for the weekly roundup, or would like to get more involved in a Windows Azure community, drop him a line on twitter @markjbrown

Here is what we pulled together this week based on your feedback:

Articles, Videos and Blog Posts

• Blog: Simple Calculator for Comparing Windows Azure Blob Storage and Amazon S3 Pricing by @gmantri (posted Sep.3)
• Blog: Configuring IIS methods for ASP.NET Web API on Windows Azure Websites and elsewhere by @maartenballiauw (posted Dec. 7)
• Blog: Understanding Windows Identity Foundation (WIF) 4.5 by @mohamadhalabi (posted Dec. 5)
• Blog: Securing access to your Windows Azure Virtual Machines by @sandrinodm (posted Dec. 5)
• Blog: MVP Monday – Connected Apps Made Wicked Easy with Windows Azure Mobile Services by @sseely (posted Dec. 3)
• Blog: HDInsight, Finally by @GFritchey (posted Dec. 3)
• Blog: Engineering for Disaster Recovery in the Cloud (Avoiding Data Loss) by @codingoutloud (posted Dec. 1) 

Upcoming Events and User Group Meetings

North America

• October – June, 2013: Windows Azure Developer Camp – Various (50+ cities)
• December 11: Hands on Hacknight – Charlotte, NC

Europe

• December 10: Windows Azure Camp – Brussels, Belgium
• December 11: Clemens Vasters Unplugged – Azure UG – Zaventem, Belgium

Rest of World/Virtual

• Ongoing:  Windows Azure Virtual Labs – On-demand

Interesting Recent Windows Azure Discussions on Stack Overflow

• Azure – Preparing content for Smooth Streaming – 2 answers, 1 vote
• What’s the recommended way to deploy a Django app on IIS? – 1 answers, 0 votes
• Microsoft Windows Azure Storage vs. Microsoft Windows Azure Storage Client – 1 answer, 5 votes

Have a great weekend!
Craig
@craigkitterman