While doing all of this blogging on cloud computing lately, it came to my realization that I should probably put together a template/outline for a complete set of posts to cover everything that I'd like to discuss, and to perhaps serve as an outline for a book or at least a series of white papers.  What I've come up with so far is below, and I'll modify this list as I go along refining the topics:

Working title: Building Cloud Applications with .NET, Azure, and Amazon Services

I.                    Introduction

1.       Overview

a.       What is cloud computing?

b.      What problems does cloud computing solve?

c.       Business Benefits of Cloud Computing

d.      Components of a cloud application

                                       i.      Table based storage

                                     ii.      File based storage

                                    iii.      Service bus

                                   iv.      Workflow

                                     v.      Web front ends

                                   vi.      Dynamic processing allocation

                                  vii.      Queue based messaging

                                viii.      Web and worker roles

                                   ix.      Mesh Services

                                     x.      Data services

                                   xi.      Geographic diversity

                                  xii.      Elastic addresses

e.      Where are we going in this book?

2.       Cloud Computing Architectural Patterns

a.       Overview

b.      Example Architectures

                                 i.      Processing Pipelines

                               ii.      Batch Processing Systems

                              iii.      Websites

c.       Characteristics of Cloud Systems

                                 i.      Loosely Coupled

                               ii.      Self scalable

                              iii.      Highly Parallel

                             iv.      Must be reboot and relaunch resilient

                               v.      Distributed storage and computing supporting failover

II.                  Cloud Services: Azure and Amazon

3.       Windows Azure Services

a.       Overview

b.      Comparison to reference architecture

c.       Components of Azure

                                 i.      Internet Service Bus (.NET Services)

                               ii.      Azure web applications

                              iii.      Mesh

                             iv.      SQL Data Services

4.       Amazon Services

a.       General overview

b.      S3

                                 i.      Buckets,

                               ii.      …

c.       EC2

                                 i.      AMI’s

                               ii.      Kernels

                              iii.      Security Groups

d.      SQS

e.      SimpleDB

5.       Comparison of Azure and Amazon Cloud Services

a.       Similarities and Differences

b.      Using the two together

III.                Programming the Cloud with .NET

6.       Web front ends

a.       ASP.Net applications for Azure

b.      ASP.NET on Amazon

7.       The Internet Service Bus: Connecting Desktops and Servers to the Cloud and to each other

a.       Overview of ISB

b.      Connecting to the Cloud to request Services

c.       Integrating with Partners through the ISB

8.       Storing and Retrieving Data in the Cloud

a.       Blob storage: Azure blobs and S3 storage

b.      Table data storage: Azure tables and Amazon SimpleDB

9.       Databases

a.       SQL Data Services

b.      Connecting to your SQL Server

c.       Amazon SimpleDB SQL

10.   Queuing: using Azure and Amazon Queues

11.   Workflow: Orchestrating the Cloud

a.       MS Workflow

b.      Self implemented workflow

12.   Mesh Services: Replicating Data

13.

IV.                Deploying, Operating and Optimizing Cloud Applications

13.   Application Packaging:

a.       Azure packages

b.      Amazon AMI’s

14.   Deployment to the Cloud:

a.       Provisioning Azure applications

b.      Deploying AMI’s at Amazon

15.   Geodiversity

a.       Using Azure Geodiversity

b.      Amazon Availability Zones

c.     Amazon Cloud Front

16.   Data partitioning

a.       Why Partition the Data?

b.      Partitioning Azure Table Data

c.       Similar for Amazon

17.   Monitoring

a.       Logging

b.      Self monitoring in the cloud

c.       Remote cloud monitoring

d.      Talking back to OSS systems

V.                  Closing

18.   Best Practices for Cloud Computing

a.       Storage

b.      Queueing

c.       Table data manipulation

d.      Start multiple instances at once

e.      Plan for failure

19.   Cloud Computing Futures

a.       Automatic Demand Based Allocation

b.      Better Monitoring

c.       Windows Live Services

d.      Advanced Amazon Services

                                 i.      Mechanical Turk

                               ii.      Payment Services

                              iii.      Search