Feb 16, 2011 10:17 GMT  ·  By

Developers building Cloud projects leveraging Microsoft technologies are undoubtedly confronted with the necessity to resolve a range of scenarios, such as bridging SharePoint with Windows Azure.

Speaking of which, a new free resource available for download from the Redmond company is set up to help devs streamline the integration of SharePoint and Azure into their applications.

The SharePoint and Azure Development Primer is now live on the Microsoft Download Center and available to all developers looking to get started on building apps leveraging the two technologies.

“The February 2011 release of the SharePoint and Azure Development Kit is essentially a developer primer to help you ramp up on different ways to integrate SharePoint and Azure.

“The kit contains four modules that include PowerPoint decks, hands-on labs and source code,” Microsoft explained.

Obviously, the software giant has tailored the resources included in the kit on the areas mentioned above.

Devs will not need to have any prior vast knowledge about building projects for Windows Azure or SharePoint, as the Redmond company is ready to start at a basic level.

In this sense, the four areas of the kit involve “Introduction to Windows Azure Development; Introduction to SharePoint Development; Getting Started with SharePoint and Azure; and WCF, Windows Azure and SharePoint.”

Obviously, in order to take advantage of the SharePoint and Azure Development Primer, devs will need a few things, among which an Azure developer account, in order to access all of Microsoft’s Cloud offerings.

But at the same time, since this kit also involves SharePoint, developers will also need a range of on-premise resources, including a machine running Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows 7, SharePoint Server 2010, Visual Studio 2010, Azure Tools and SDK, Silverlight Tools and SDK, SQL and Server 2008 R2.

“After downloading the primer, run the self-extracting executable to extract all of the files to your local machine. After the content is extracted, the folder containing the primer will be displayed.

“You can then browse through the individual hands-on labs, demos, and presentations,” the software giant notes.

The SharePoint and Azure Development Primer is available for download here.