Editor’s Note: This post comes from Nick Harris, Imagine Cup Windows Azure Challenge Captain.
Windows Azure is a suite of powerful cloud services that can help your app projects in a variety of ways. If your Imagine Cup team is thinking about exploring Windows Azure, the decision just got a lot easier thanks to the Windows Azure Boost!
At our worldwide finals next July in St. Petersburg, our first place winners who include Windows Azure in their project can earn an extra $1,000 or $3,000 for their team!
We actually have two Windows Azure Boosts. Our first boost is for those teams using Windows Azure Cloud Services, Websites, or Virtual Machines. Use any or all of those technologies and your team could win $1,000! Our second Boost is for using Windows Azure Mobile Services. Incorporate that into your project and your team could win $1,000 for it. And best of all, you can go for the double shot: if your team wins both Boosts you’ll get $3,000!
So if you’re submitting a project to the Windows Phone Challenge, for example, consider using Windows Azure Mobile Services in your project. If you’re our top winner in that challenge, your team will earn an extra thousand dollars thanks to the Windows Azure Boost. Add Windows Azure Cloud Services, Websites, or Virtual Machines and your winning team would get the double shot of $3,000!
(This is open to all competitions and challenges except the Windows Azure Challenge, since that would be redundant.)
We’re really looking forward to seeing your great projects in St. Petersburg. And if your project uses Windows Azure, your team could earn the thousand-buck boost or even the double shot for three thousand.
To get you started, here are some links to help you out:
- Access: Complete the Imagine Cup Windows Azure Quiz and we will send you your FREE Azure pass!
- Developer tools?
- If you want to use Visual Studio get it for FREE from DreamSpark.
- Then grab the SDK for your development language and operating system of choice from Windows Azure Downloads
- Tutorials: Jump in and start doing some step-by-step tutorials in the Windows Azure Developer Center <-- you should really bookmark this link. Here a couple of top picks in order of what is probably most relevant for you - pick the ones that are most appropriate for you:
- Windows Azure Mobile Services: Do the Getting Started Tutorial for Windows Azure Mobile Services, checkout the Video tutorials and Code Samples
- Windows Azure Web Sites: Get started with the videos here, build your first ASP .NET MVC web site and checkout some real world samples
- Windows Azure Media Services: Get started with the tutorials and resources in the Windows Azure Media Services dev portal, checkout this video series and this blog
- Windows Azure SQL Database: Checkout these tutorials, I would start with this one – Create and deploy an ASP.NET web site and SQL Database with Visual Studio
- Node.js on Windows Azure: For a whole bunch of tutorials Checkout the node.js developer center
- Windows Azure Storage: Checkout the great step-by-step tutorials here
- Windows Azure Service Bus: Checkout all the great tutorials here and this video series
- Big Data: Get a jump start with this bunch of tutorials
- Help?
- For questions specific to the Imagine Cup competition (e.g passes, challenge rules etc) please use the Imagine Cup Forum
- For technical questions about Windows Azure post in the Windows Azure Forums – we have a dedicated team of engineers answering questions from people all around the world!
Good luck and happy coding! Official rules for the Windows Azure Boost are here.
Nick Harris
Imagine Cup Windows Azure Challenge Captain
@cloudnick