Windows Azure Prerequisites

Common Prerequisites

Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio 1.2 (June 2010)
Windows Azure SDK provides developers APIs, tools, documentation and samples needed to develop applications for internet scale on Windows Azure. Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio extend Visual Studio to enable the creation, building, debugging, running and packaging of scalable services on Windows Azure.
Windows Azure platform AppFabric SDK V1.0 - July Update
The Windows Azure platform AppFabric SDK SDK includes APIs, libraries, samples, and documentation for building connected applications with the .NET platform.

Microsoft SQL Server Express 2008 (or later)
SQL Server Express is a free edition of SQL Server that is an ideal data platform for learning and building desktop and small server applications, and for redistribution by ISVs.
SQL Server Management Studio 2008 R2 Express Edition
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Management Studio Express (SSMSE) is an integrated environment for accessing, configuring, managing, administering, and developing all components of SQL Server Express.

Microsoft Windows Identity Foundation Runtime
Windows Identity Foundation (WIF) is a new extension to the Microsoft .NET Framework that makes it easy for developers to enable advanced identity capabilities in the .NET Framework applications. Based on interoperable, standard protocols, Windows Identity Foundation and the claims-based identity model can be used to enable single sign on, personalization, federation, strong authentication, identity delegation, and other identity capabilities in ASP.NET and Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) applications that run on-premises or in the cloud.
Microsoft Windows Identity Foundation SDK
The Windows Identity Foundation SDK provides templates for use with Visual Studio and code samples.