Automation is more geared towards Admins for running Windows Workflow-style orchestrations. Used for running complex datacenter jobs.
Scheduler is a generic and robust schedule engine. It can run any workload on schedule and is leveraged by various Azure services.
WebJobs allows running prorams in various languages to do work related to an Azure Website.
.cmd, .bat, .exe (using windows cmd)
.ps1 (using powershell)
.sh (using bash)
.php (using php)
.py (using python)
.js (using node)
Jobs can be run:
- On Demand
- Continuously Running
- Scheduled
It still takes a lot of work to write these programs so the new WebJobs SDK makes this easier. It uses Triggers and Bindings to make the I/O portion of these applications easier.
Still in Preview. Need VS 2013 or 2012 and get it via NuGet. It's also in GitGub if you need to look at the code.
Media File: http://azpodcast.blob.core.windows.net/episodes/Episode30.mp3
Updates and News:
Microsoft announced a global strategic partnership with SalesForce.com to create new solutions that will connect SalesForce.com's CRM apps and platform to Microsoft Office and Windows
Under the terms of the agreement, we will work with salesforce.com on a number of areas:
New interoperability between Salesforce and Office 365 will give customers access to the content they need to collaborate, sell, service and market from virtually anywhere
We are bringing the Salesforce1 app to Windows devices, phones and PCs
Salesforce also renewed its commitment to use SQL Server as the database for ExactTarget and established a new commitment to use Microsoft Azure for ExactTarget Development and Testing.
Microsoft Buys Mobile App Management Platform Capptain – a startup based out of Paris that provides app developers with analytics and the ability to send push notifications based on customer usage patterns. The service is expected to be integrated into Azure.
SAP on Azure
http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/campaigns/sap/
The book on HDInsight by our colleague Buck Woody is released - and Microsoft Press has decided to make it free: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/microsoft_press/archive/2014/05/27/free-ebook-introducing-microsoft-azure-hdinsight.aspx