Volvo, Vampires and Windows Azure - What do they have in common?

This morning I came across an interesting story on the On Windows site about how Volvo Cars used Microsoft Windows Azure to create an online campaign and game, Lost in Forks, to highlight the inclusion of Volvo automobiles in the Twilight series of books and movies.

If you’re not familiar with the Twilight series you probably don’t have teenage daughters. The series is about vampires living in Forks, Washington, which is a town on the Washington state coast near where I used to camp with my family growing up. The area is beautiful territory that includes the Olympic National Forest and I recommend visiting it if you’re in Washington site seeing sometime.

Regarding the On Windows story, Volvo and Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Lost Boys International (LBi) partnered on the creation of the online campaign and after evaluating other cloud services, chose Windows Azure as their solution based on the flexibility, performance and cost benefits provided by the platform. Other benefits they highlight are the ability to have storage and databases in different regions on different continents across the globe.

There’s a brief video included with the story which talks about the campaign and development of the solution on Windows Azure. They state that they had over a million visits to the site and almost 400,000 people actively playing the game they created and hosted on Windows Azure. It’s a great example how companies are creating and deploying real solutions on Microsoft Windows Azure today. I've also embedded the video below so you can view it directly.

For more information on Windows Azure, check out the Windows Azure site and their blog as well. If you’re interested in information on other Microsoft cloud offerings such as Office 365 or private cloud offerings including Windows Server Hyper-V, check out the Cloud Power site at this link.

Thanks and have a great day – Larry