I would like to create an app where the user can add and view data. Either adding at a desktop/tablet or phone and reading from either source. I would like the data store to be synced between any of the user's devices.
I'm starting to play with the Trial of Azure, and it looks promising. Probably a solid way to sync data through to cloud between users' devices. Other than syncing between a users devices, I have no need for cloud services currently.
I've seen some apps that do a 'Backup/Restore' model with the user's SkyDrive account. But this seems to be a manual process. I'd like to see it done seamlessly.
I've looked into Sync services, but that would be more like a hub/spoke solution. Again, I don't need a central database.
What are some options? At this point, I would be fine using just Windows 8 patterns/practices.
Because they are separate devices, you will need to have some service layer to do the store/forward for you. With that you have two basic choices, use the end user's own storage (aka SkyDrive) or use your own storage (aka Windows Azure).
SkyDrive is fully supported through the Live SDKs and provides a secure way to allow a user to share store their data, and synchronize it across multiple devices. You get security, and there is no cost for the server side storage on your part. The user owns their storage, not you. The limitation is that you may have issues sharing that same data across other devices or users where SkyDrive (or whatever file sync service you use) is not available.
With a service layer, like Azure, you have a lot more flexibility, but you also will be responsible for maintaining (and paying for) that server side storage / services. Have you looked at "Windows Azure Mobile Services". With your Azure account you get 10 free Azure Mobile Services. You will pay for the SQL data storage on the backend, and that cost will depend on the amount of data you store on the server side. You also need to make sure to architect your application in a way to protect an individual users' data, but it is actually pretty easy to do, well documented, and gives you a lot of options.
Lastly, you may consider what type of data you want to share. SkyDrive is great for "Files". Pics, Songs, Videos, etc. Windows Azure Mobile Services (WAMS) is great for "Data".
Neither model is right or wrong. It just depends on your goals.
Hope that helps you go through the thought process
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I am trying to do something new, something I have never done before. I am looking for advice or point me into right direction how to choose technology. I am trying to build race simulation app that will have thousands of iot devices streaming data into central platform. While I understand that I can use some sort of IOT hub with cloud providers, but what technology do I choose for storing data?
Example is online indoor biking app. There are apps where you can connect your indoor bike online and have simulated race. For my project I am trying to build something similar. Do I use NO SQL db in this scenario? What technology will allow better scale of application like this since it could be millions of devices around the world in "simulated" race. I am not worried about front-end and things like that, but backend, IOT hub, storing data, presenting-real time?
At this point it is important to understand what kind of data your IoT devices will stream, and at what kind of a rate. It will have significant impact on your question.
That it is if it's just location information and some other small data sent lets say once a second, then if you're talking about tens of thousands of devices - this is not a big load of information, and any standard database, like MySQL will be able to deal with it. You will of course need a multi-threaded server(s) capable of handling many requests in parallel.
If your IoT devices will stream HD video, then you're looking at a completely different solution, with a much stronger server, capable of handling allot of streams in parallel, with significant bandwidth requirements from your hosting company, as well as storage space for all the videos. In this case you will store the streams as files (if you'll need them later on), and you won't need any special database either.
In any case, once you'll reach millions of users, you'll be able to scale most modern databases and servers, like MySQL replication capability. For example, take a look how Wikipedia is relying on MySQL: wikipedia - MySQL https://www.mysql.com/why-mysql/case-studies/mysql-cs-wikipedia.html
So I wouldn't be worried regarding the database on this stage, but make sure that the design of my system is in accordance to the the type of data and rate it is streamed.
Hope this gives you a pointer.
I am developing a sensor based mobile application for iOS and Android. The data produced by smart phone sensors will be stored in the cloud. At this point, I am wondering that what I should test about the data transfer and storing. I mean that for example, I should test the scenario as if the connection corrupts while GPS data transfer not finished. I am not looking for the techniques, or testing styles. I am trying to find possible failure points or test scenarios. I hope that I could explain my point.
Below are some of the things worth considering for your app:
Incomplete transfers when connection corrupts (as u mentioned)
Cloud-server size..how much request can it handle at a single instance?
If u are considering cloud solutions, you should also consider the location of your users from where they will be accessing your app. Users and the location of data center will also affect in the response time.
Format of the date to stored. Considering a file size which is fast in i/o will also help optimize the speed of the app.
Asynchronous/Synchronous data transfer
Security measures on the cloud..may be using services like VPC if you are considering AWS
These are some things worth considering.
Thanks :)
When using Azure Web Sites (WAWS) general opinion seems to be that uploaded content such as photo's or files should be stored in Azure Storage Blobs and not in the WAWS File System.
Clearly using Azure Storage is a great idea if you have a lot of data and need scale and redundancy however for small or simple sites it seems to add another layer of complexity and also means you can't easily use things like ImageResizer without purchasing the Azure compatible licence etc.
So given that products like WordPress from the Azure Gallery uses "/site/wwwroot/wp-content/uploads/" to store all uploaded files on WAWS is there anything wrong with using the WAWS file system for storage or are there other considerations to take into account when using Azure WAWS?
The major drawback to using the WAWS storage is that your data is now intermingled with the application. By saving all of your plugins/images/blobs externally in a database or blob storage, you retain the flexibility to redeploy your application to a new region/datacenter by just pushing your code to the new website and changing connection strings.
If your plugins/images are stored on disk in WAWS, then you need to make sure that you are backing it up appropriately. If anything happens, you need to restore the site along with all of the data that had been uploaded.
Azure Web Sites is using Azure storage as a file storage so essentially the level of complexity you're talking about is abstracted.
Another great benefit that comes with this approach is if you scale your web site to multiple instances all of them will work with exact same file content.
Of course if you want to use pure Azure Storage features like snapshots or sharing specific content to specific users this is not available as is. But for the web site purposes is quite good.
Hope that helps
I want to make an application in windows 8 metro style. THis will be my first application. learning the concepts of Windows-8. I want to make a simple application where user can store some note. I want the applicaiton to use roaming data storage so that the notes are available over the cloud and on other devices of the user. But according to msdn http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/windows/apps/Hh464917 roaming data is only available for 30 days(if app is not accesed), and local storage data cannot be accessed on other devices.
My question is if I use roaming data storage and for some reason user dnt open the app for 30 days(though very unlikely but just in case), all his notes will be gone from all devices, right? if thats the case what should I use to prevent this situation. Can I save data to both storage types?
Thanks
For that cases, an Azure backend is recomended, Mobile Services to be exact. Those are free, as far as I know (with usage limitations).
And yes, you can store the notes in both storages, then check if the note is stored in the Roaming Data, if it's not, restore it from local storage.
In an electric company where I was hired temporarily, we have to implement an upgrade of the billing and payments system ( the current system is a dbaseIII system). The company's programmer and I have decided to use VB.Net and MySQL.
The company served several towns and have billing and payments centers in selected towns. Every billing period, the meter readers would read the readings for every electric meters and then write the readings in the sheet. Every 5 pm, an employee from the centers would collect the sheets and then travel to the main center where the readings are encoded.
The billings are printed in the main center, and then distributed to the branches.
During discussions with General Manager and heads of the company, the two of us are tasked to take advantage of the internet because those towns where the centers are located have internet connectivity, and for those none, we can use the mobile internet.
The new system will allow users to enter the readings, and then send the data to the main server in the main branch. They also have the ability to download and print the billings.
Our problem now is what type of system we have to implement. Should it be web based or a desktop application that will connect to our database server through vpn.
If this is a fixed price project, and the client will accept either web or desktop, go with desktop over VPN. You'll save A TON of time, and have something that is more responsive (from a user perspective).
However, if you think the client will eventually need to use the product on mobile devices or the web, you're shooting yourself in the foot by going winforms.
Having had some experience with using a thick client through VPN, I'd say go with some kind of web app.
If done wrong, a thick client can become really painful to use through a VPN because of data churning. A web app concentrates all of that on the server, which makes it much better from that point of view.
Other benefits:
no deployment hassle
no direct access to the database from the user machine.
Evidently it also depends on your skills, and on how much time/budget you have...
I do not know the situation of the client... but what about giving them the best of both worlds? Considering it sounds like you will be programming on a windows based system, and have deployment access to windows server based hardware, why not either build a Silverlight application, or build a WPF application that's hosted in an IE window? That could give you the best of both worlds?
I think that the answer depends on the type / frequency of database queries you need to make. Querying a DB from a thick client through VPN can be SLOOOOOWWWWWW. In a web app, the application logic runs close to the DB, maybe even on the same machine, so DB queries are fast. The downside is that UI can be slower. But it is probably easier to design a responsive web-based UI than make VPN fast.
what instrument your bill collector will use ?
1>Laptop with Mobile InetConnection
2>Or specialized hand held tool that read the bill and send to Service center ?
1> If it is Laptop then you can create website where only authorized person can loggin and then he can insert a database. You can use HTTPs for better security.