Windows Azure and the Information Worker
March 26, 2012 Leave a comment
A while back (QUITE a while back, actually), Microsoft coined the term “Information Worker” .. a quick Bing search reveals:
- Information Worker – SharePoint
- An Information Worker’s View of Microsoft Office’s Evolution from Jeff Raikes.
The short version: an Information Worker (IW) is a non-developer person who works with the information exposed by applications and application activity by users.
That said, how would an IW benefit from Windows Azure? Reminding us all that Microsoft Excel is the tool of choice for those who want to slice-and-dice-data, that said, there are many ways IWs could benefit from information collected by applications and stored in Windows Azure:
- If the content is stored in flat tables via Windows Azure Tables, IWs can consume using Microsoft Excel.
- If the content is stored in a more relational paradigm, IWs can Connect Microsoft Excel to SQL Azure.
- If IWs seek a simple upload and connect strategy to Windows Azure Storage, the Azure Storage Explorer is a good place to start. Once uploaded they can connect via Excel. That said, the project contains a lot of source code as they expand their offering to include more functionality, enabled by developers.
- There are many more (there always are) ways to journey to the cloud.
- I’ll see you there.