It's official, I'm writing an Azure book (isn't everybody?).
The Azure Handbook is in progress and should become available not too long after the Azure 1.0 release. I'm expecting it will be available as both an e-book and a print book.
The Azure Handbook will cover the full Azure platform (Windows Azure, SQL Azure, .NET Services) from both business and technical perspectives.
In the spirit of all good technical books these days, I want lots of feedback
before it's published. There's a book site up at
http://AzureHandbook.com where I'll be posting chapters for feedback as I write them. (And yes, the site is of course hosted in Windows Azure).
I have some specific goals for this book. It's my fourth technical book, and I've certainly learned some lessons from the previous ones that now make me a better writer.
Commitment #1: Shoot for brevity. This book will have lots of good things in it, but it's not going to be any longer than it needs to be. I'll be packaging the content as simply and clearly as possible. Nor will it regurgitate content that is readily available online already such as reference documentation.
Commitment #2: Don't repeat yourself. There was a time when I tried to write books where each chapter could stand completely on its own. This turns out to be a bad idea, as plenty of people will read a book through and resent the repetition. So, no repetition: just a logical progression of material with cross referencing as needed.
Commitment #3: Keep it up to date. As long as the book is active, I'll keep updates on the book site to keep the content current--up until the next major release of Azure.
I'm excited to write this book. I expect the content will flow easily as I'm speaking on Azure, writing on Azure, or developing in Azure just about every day now. I've also been fortunate enough to get experience with early adopters which is a big help in communicating what the experience is and what the best practices are shaping up to be.
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