Today I’m excited to share that the 
Windows Azure Mobile Services public preview is now available. This preview provides a turnkey backend cloud solution designed to accelerate connected client app development. These services streamline the development process by enabling you to leverage the cloud for common mobile application scenarios such as structured storage, user authentication and push notifications.   If you’re building a 
Windows 8 app and want a fast and easy path to creating backend cloud services, this preview provides the capabilities you need. You to take advantage of the cloud to build and deploy modern apps for 
Windows 8 devices in anticipation of general availability on October 26th. Subsequent preview releases will extend support to iOS, Android, and 
Windows Phone.  Features  The preview makes it fast and easy to create cloud services for 
Windows 8 applications within minutes. Here are the key benefits:       Rapid development: configure a straightforward and secure backend in less than five minutes.     Create modern mobile apps: common 
Windows Azure plus 
Windows 8 scenarios that 
Windows Azure Mobile Services preview will support include:         Automated Service API generation providing CRUD functionality and dynamic schematization on top of Structured Storage         Structured Storage with powerful query support so a 
Windows 8 app can seamlessly connect to a 
Windows Azure SQL database         Integrated Authentication so developers can configure user authentication via 
Windows Live         Push Notifications to bring your 
Windows 8 apps to life with up to date and relevant information             Access structured data: connect to a 
Windows Azure SQL database for simple data management and dynamically created tables. Easy to set and manage permissions.    Pricing  One of the key things that we’ve consistently heard from developers about using 
Windows Azure with mobile applications is the need for a low cost and simple offer. The simplest way to describe the pricing for 
Windows Azure Mobile Services at preview is that it is the same as 
Windows Azure Websites during preview.  What’s FREE?     Run up to 10 Mobile Services for free in a multitenant environment     Free with valid 
Windows Azure Free Trial             1GB SQL Database         Unlimited ingress         165MB/day egress             What do I pay for?     Scaling up to dedicated VMs     Once 
Windows Azure Free Trial expires - SQL Database and egress            Getting Started  To start using Mobile Services, you will need to sign up for a 
Windows Azure free trial, if you have not done so already.  If you already have a 
Windows Azure account, you will need to request to enroll in this preview feature.   Once you’ve enrolled, this getting started tutorial will walk you through building your first 
Windows 8 application using the preview’s services.  The developer center contains more resources to teach you how to:     Validate and authorize access to data using easy scripts that execute securely, on the server     Easily authenticate your users via 
Windows Live     Send toast notifications and update live tiles in just a few lines of code   Our pricing calculator has also been updated for calculate costs for these new mobile services.  Questions? Ask in the 
Windows Azure Forums. Feedback? Send it to 
[email protected].