A complete architecture review has been conducted in the Azure environment and literally every meaningful service is moved to the Canberra region. The SQL Azure database has been migrated to that region as well as the services supporting the MapCortex Free Edition.
Also, whilst working with Microsoft technologies are really good, due to the costs invovled in .NET based web applications hostings compared to Java/Linux ones - well it is really just a fratcion of the price. Server side environments, support and features for Java applications are pretty much in the range of Windows/.NET environment. Which means that it is likely that a heterogenous system composition will take place in the future. Whilst front-end development focus will still be on Windows Store (and maybe some classic web if there is a meaningful need), the supporting services will all be Java based.
Saying that - we just could not left behind our SQL Azure environment - so that made the regional move too. That offering from Microsoft is pretty solid and it would have been foolish to start migrating all of the data from SQL Server instance to a Cosmos DB just because its less overhead on its management. One thing that made me start trying to integrate Cosmos DB into the forthcoming applications is actually not cloud related. The Java ORM tool didn't seem like going too well with MS SQL (only EclipseLink was tested), which means I will resort to the usual JDBC-base connection management for a while. Microsoft is continuously updating/develoing the SQL Server JDBC driver for Java and it works flawlessly, so at least that is not an issue.
This cannot be said about open source Java ORM tools - and it is not justifiable to start patching them up in order to be able to fulfill their duties. Let's see how that will go anyway.
In short, the new version of the MapCortex application as well as another, new ones will be supported by Java-based systems - still solely based on Azure infrastrucutre and components.
Well, that is it folks!
PS: This site stayed in Sydney as it has limited mission criticalities except a few administrative task such as public licence publishing and occasional blog posts.