If you’re looking for a deeper dive into the technical considerations for making a move to the cloud with Windows Azure you should check out these great books from Microsoft patterns & practices.  Click on each title for more information.

A Guide to Claims-based Identity and Access Control

Imagine a world where you don’t have to worry about authentication. Imagine instead that all requests to your application already include the information you need to make access control decisions and to personalize the application for the user. This is the utopia of claims-based identity that this book describes. As you’ll see, claims provide an innovative approach for building applications that authenticate and authorize users.

Moving Applications to the Cloud on the Microsoft Windows Azure Platform

This book focuses on the migration scenario of a fictitious company called Adatum as it modifies its expense tracking and reimbursement system step-by-step so it can be deployed to Windows Azure. Each chapter explores different considerations: authentication and authorization, data access, session management, deployment, development life cycle and cost analysis.

Developing Applications for the Cloud on the Microsoft Windows Azure Platform

This book demonstrates how you can create from scratch a multi-tenant, Software as-a-Service (SaaS) application to run in the cloud by using the latest versions of the Windows Azure tools and the latest features of Windows Azure.

Windows Phone 7 Developer Guide

By combining Windows Phone 7 applications with remote services and applications that run in the cloud (such as those using Windows Azure), developers can create highly scalable, reliable, and powerful applications that extend the functionality beyond the traditional desktop or laptop; and into a truly portable and much more accessible environment.