We are very pleased to announce the August 2011 release of the Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio 2010. You can download the tools here using the Web Platform Installer.

New in this release:

• Profile applications running in Windows Azure.
• Create ASP.Net MVC3 Web Roles.
• Manage multiple service configurations in one cloud project.
• Improved validation of Windows Azure packages.

With profiling support in the Windows Azure Tools you can easily detect performance bottlenecks in your application while it is running in Windows Azure.

The Tools now support creating MVC3 web roles. The new template includes the new universal ASP.Net providers that support SQL Azure and it will also make sure that MVC assemblies are deployed with your application when you publish to Windows Azure.

If you want to maintain different settings for different deployment environments, the Windows Azure tools now support multiple service configurations in the same Windows Azure Project. This is especially useful for managing different Windows Azure Storage connection strings for local debugging and running in the cloud.

Finally the new tools will help you avoid some of the common problems when you deploy your application to Windows Azure. If you are forgetting to include a local assembly in your package or you publish with a local Azure Storage connection string. The tools will let you know.

Read more about the new features here.

Related to this release:

• The Windows Azure Platform Training Kit has been updated for the new tools. The Windows Azure Platform Training Kit includes a comprehensive set of technical content including hands-on labs, presentations, and demos that are designed to help you learn how to use the Windows Azure platform. You can download it here.