The SQLisHard application runs in Windows Azure and executes queries against sample data that resides in an Azure SQL Database. The site runs as a shared website in Windows Azure Web Sites.
The application is an ASP.Net application, using both MVC and Web API on the server-side with the SquishIt library to manage CSS and JavaScript resources. The client-side uses HTML5 Boilerplate and javascript libraries like jQuery, knockout.js with koExternalTemplateEngine, and modernizr. Behind the scenes, results and errors are collected and logged to cloud logging services, where they can be evaluated, charted, and improved from.
The build and deployment process is automated; a custom build setup in TeamCity watches for code changes, running unit and integration tests (Nunit, Selenium, SpecFlow, Jasmine), and deploying both local test environments and the production environment.
This reduces the friction. I can tweak the interface or add a feature and not have to slow down and copy files somewhere.
This wasn't intended to read like a tech demo, but I enjoy working with each of these technologies and thought I should call them out. I intended to blog more on them when I have time over on LessThanDot.