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Windows AzureCustomer Solution Case Study

3M Launches Web-Based Visual AttentionService to Heighten Design Impact

OverviewCountry or Region: United StatesIndustry: Manufacturing High tech andelectronics

Customer ProfileWith 75,000 employees and operations inmore than 60 countries, 3M develops anextensive range of consumer andindustrial products. Well-known 3Mbrands include Scotch, Post-it, Thinsulate,and Scotch-Brite.

Business Situation3M wanted to make its Visual Attention

Service (VAS) available to customers as aWeb-based application, with highperformance, scalability, and lowinfrastructure and management costs.

Solution3M used the Windows Azure platformto deliver the VAS solution to customers,taking advantage of Microsoft datacenter infrastructure and servicemanagement to keep performance highand costs low.

Benefits Easy, efficient deployment Lower costs, high scalability Excellent customer solution

Windows Azure helps 3M customers take advantageof complex algorithms that encapsulate 30 years ofresearch and get simple, powerful results from theirbrowser, almost instantly.

Terry Collier, Marketing Manager, 3M

A recognized world leader in technology research anddevelopment, 3M wanted to make its decades of expertise in theworkings of the human visual system available as a service tocustomers. Using the Windows Azure platform , 3M created aWeb-based application that gives designers the ability to invokecomplex algorithms to analyze the effectiveness of a design,based on how the human eye will respond. By hosting itsapplication in Microsoft data centers, 3M has made aninnovative service available to a global audience, whileminimizing its investment in hardware infrastructure andongoing administration. The solution, which permitteddevelopers to evaluate frequent iterations of the application,

helped the company speed time-to-market for its service andachieve higher quality results, faster than in a traditionaldevelopment environment.
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SituationFrom well-known brands such as Post-itproducts, Thinsulate insulation, andNexcare first aid, to high-strength bondingtapes, industrial abrasives, and traffic safetysystems, 3M products are ubiquitousaround the world. Founded in 1902, 3M is ascience-based company and has developedthousands of innovative products for abroad range of markets. The company nowoperates in 60 countries and its worldwidesales in 2008 were more than U.S.$25billion.

3M supports more than 40 differenttechnology platforms and has investedyears of scientific research in developingthem. In fact, 7,000 of the companysemployees are dedicated solely to research.One area of research that is used in many3M products such as reflective materialsused in roadway signage, emergency exitmarkings, and display and graphicstechnologies is the understanding of how

the human visual system works. Thecompanys vision scientists, working in itscorporate research labs, study how thehuman brain processes visual informationand have developed complex algorithmsfor predicting what a person will notice in avisual scene.

Bill Smyth, Business Manager at 3M, says,Our job, on the business and marketin gside, is to make the most of thesecapabilities. To this end, Smyth and hiscolleagues identified a use for thesepredictive algorithms. We knew there wasa need to make the process for designingthings that people interact with visuallymore science-based and iterative to bringabout more effective results.

Terry Collier, Marketing Manager at 3M,adds, In our market research, we foundthat designers spend a lot of time creating,honing, and optimizing their images but

they can be challenged by the fact thatthey dont ever truly know how people areseeing a design before its completed.3Ms goal was to provide designers withpredictive measurements about how theircreations from a logo design, to a Website layout, to the placement of anelectronic screen in a hotel lobby wouldbe perceived by their audience. Also, it wascritical that this information be immediatelyavailable. We needed to be able to providedesigners with access to this informationdirectly from their computer desktop,multiple times throughout the designprocess, so they could alter their designs indirect response to the analyses, rather thanengaging in lengthy focus group sessionsthat happen after a design reaches a near-final state of completion, says Collier.

The company developed a prototype of aWeb-based application, called the 3MVisual Attention Service (VAS). The servicemakes it possible for designers to test the

effectiveness of their content using visualattention models, which are based onalgorithms that predict the elements of ascene that a viewer is likely to see and toremember. The prototype, a Web-basedapplication that was hosted on 3M datacenter servers, enabled users to uploadphotographs of a physical environment or agraphic design to the VAS. Theapplications processing engine thenevaluated the image for its visual saliencyand returned a map of the image thatindicated, using markings such as those

seen on a heat map, which areas of theimage were most likely to attract a viewersattention. (Figure 1.)

But 3M wanted the application to workefficiently as part of its customers existingdesign processes. To become a viableoffering, the VAS application had to beavailable to customers in real time, becapable of processing images and

We knew there was aneed to make theprocess for designingthings that peopleinteract with visuallymore science-based anditerative to bring aboutmore effective results.

Bill Smyth, Business Manager, 3M


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returning near-immediate results, of scalingrapidly during peak design times, such as

just prior to holiday advertising deadlines,

and it had to carry a low up-frontinvestment risk fo r 3M. Especially in thecurrent economic environment, we have tobe very careful about how we invest ourcapital, says Smyth. We didnt want toinvest in costly data center infrastructureand capacity that, much of the time, wouldsit idle and unused.

Jim Graham, Technical Manager at 3M,adds, We needed to be able to provide ahigh-performance application to customerseverywhere, without deploying data centers

around the world.

Solution3M believed that the most effectiveapproach would be to operate the VASapplication from a cloud computingenvironment, in which the solution wouldbe hosted and managed on the Internetand reside in an external partners data

centers. The company evaluated hostedinfrastructure offerings from Microsoft andothers, but, says Graham, 3M has for along time relied on Microsoft tools andtechnologies to support the developmentof our technology. For this reason, 3Mchose the Windows Azure platform fromMicrosoft. Windows Azure is a cloudservices operating system that serves as thedevelopment, service hosting, and servicemanagement environment for the WindowsAzure platform. Windows Azure providesdevelopers with on-demand compute andstorage to host, scale, and manage Webapplications on the internet throughMicrosoft data centers.

From its experience with the CommunityTechnology Preview (CTP) of WindowsAzure, a Microsoft program for earlyadopters to experiment with prereleasetechnology, Grahams team thought thatthe solution was a good fit for 3M. Thesimilarities between Windows Azure and

our current development environment gaveus a huge advantage and made thedecision easy, says Graham. 3M relied onthe Microsoft Visual Studio 2008development system to produce the VASapplication, including Microsoft VisualStudio Team System 2008 Team Suite andMicrosoft Visual Studio Team System 2008Team Foundation Server. It also usedMicrosoft Expression Blend 3 designsoftware and Microsoft SQL Server 2008data management software. We saw thatWindows Azure would work well with our

Visual Studio development environment.We also saw the opportunity to takeadvantage of a new technology platformthat would allow us to deploy in differentcountries, with rapid scaling capabilitiesand no up- front capital investment, saysGraham.

To prepare the VAS application forcommercial release, 3M built a new user

The similarities between

Windows Azure and ourcurrent developmentenvironment gave us ahuge advantage andmade the decision easy.

Jim Graham, Technical Manager, 3M

Figure 1. 3M VAS image mapindicating areas most likelyto attract viewers attention


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interface. The timing coincided with theCTP of Windows Azure, so Grahams teamdeveloped the interface to Windows Azurespecifications. We developed the wholeuser experience, from the ground up, onWindows Azure, says Graham. His teamalso used the Windows Azure developmentfabric, which it used to simulate theWindows Azure environment on localcomputers, making it easy to run and testthe VAS application before deploying it.

VAS incorporates a number of unmanaged,high-performance image-processingsoftware libraries developed by 3M. TheWindows Azure development fabric helpedus perform quick iterations of code,allowing us to overcome many of thehurdles we might not have seen until wehad deployed to a more formal staging orproduction environment, explains Graham. The VAS interface, and the Web site whereusers go to access it, was developed usingMicrosoft ASP.NET 2.0, part of the

Microsoft .NET Framework. Grahams teamused the Microsoft Silverlight browser

plug-in to build controls into theapplication that enable users to edit andmodify images they submit to the VASprocessing engine. The Silverlight-enabledcontrols are embedded into the ASP.NETapplication framework, creating a seamlessexperience for users. Users dont have toswitch between different interfaces toperform certain functions , explainsGraham.

The VAS application relies on the AccessControl Service feature of Windows Azureto authenticate users to the system,providing access to various components ofthe service based on a users credentials.3M used Microsoft SQL Azure, a cloud-based relational database platform that isbuilt on SQL Server technologies, tomanage the images that users upload. SQLAzure also is used to deliver analyticalresults from the image processing engine.SQL Azure, as part of the Windows Azureplatform, provides automated management

capabilities, including built-in dataprotection, self-healing, and disasterrecovery crucial for protecting customersdata. SQL Azure is of great value to 3Mbecause it takes the database managementpiece off our plate, says Graham.

3M uses Windows Azure data storageservices to store image files and analysisgenerated by the engine, and it uses theQueue service feature to provide users withhigh-performance and near-immediateresponse times even when the application

is inundated with high traffic during peakload times.

In short, explains Graham, With AccessControl, we can create a pipeline from theASP.NET-based interface, to the Queueservice, to the VAS engine where theanalysis is performed using the algorithmsour scientists have developed. (Figure 2.)

Figure 2. Diagram of 3M VASdeployed on Windows Azure

SQL Azure is of greatvalue to 3M because ittakes the databasemanagement piece offour plate.

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Currently, VAS helps customers evaluateany number of graphical or photographicimages that they choose to upload to theapplication. In future versions, 3M plans toprovide customers with the ability to createentire databases of test images, enablingusers to experiment with, for example, thecontent of an advertisement in a variety ofdesign scenes or, conversely, a number ofdifferent types of advertising content inone particular scene. 3M plans to release afinal version of the VAS application runningon Windows Azure to customers by mid-November 2009.

BenefitsUsing the Windows Azure platform, 3Mdeveloped a highly innovative Web-basedservice that can dramatically alter andimprove the process for designing imagesand environments that rely on how thehuman visual system responds. By using acloud service, 3M experienced an efficient

deployment and lowered its infrastructurecosts. The highly scalable Web-basedservice will make it possible for 3Mcustomers to optimize designs in responseto scientific analysis, thereby helping tomake the most of their marketing dollars.

Easy, Efficient DeploymentThe close connection between WindowsAzure and the 3M Visual Studiodevelopment environment helped thecompany achieve a rapid deployment ofthe VAS ap plication. We were able to wrap

our core technology into Windows Azure inless than eight weeks. It was very fast, saysGraham. The tools and technologies wewere already using, for instance formsauthentication, are fully supported inWindows Azure. And, the Windows Azuredevelopment fabric provided a greatsimulation environment in which we couldsee our work in progress and incorporatefeedback early and often. We rapidly

deployed interim releases to stakeholderswithin the company. The Windows Azuredevelopment fabric has been a significanttime savings.

In addition, once the VAS applicationdevelopment is complete and the service ismade publicly available on Windows Azure,3M will be able to quickly release productupdates and enhancements. We w ill beable to deploy much faster on theMicrosoft technology platform throughWindows Azure than with any other cloudsolution we evaluated, says Graham.

Lower Costs, High ScalabilityWith Windows Azure, 3M capitalizes on apay-as-you-use pricing model to minimizehosting costs and maximize profits. WithWindows Azure, we get a highly scalableenvironment, pay only for the resources weneed, and relieve our IT staff of the systemsmanagement and administrationresponsibilities of supporting a dynamic

infrastructure, says Graham.

3M found SQL Azure to be especiallybeneficial because it can use it to offer theVAS application to a global audience,without the expense of establishing andmaintaining regional data centers. Grahamexplains, With SQL Azure, we can deployinternationally without having to migratecustomer data from one region to another,without having to replicate databases, andwithout all of the service management wewou ld otherwise have to engage in.

Graham compares the time and costsavings that result from the use ofWindows Azure as a cloud servicesplatform to other endeavors at 3M. Wehave full-time staff members who are solelydedicated to managing our hostedsolutions. Were we to host the VASapplication ourselves, we would have toincrease our support staff.

We will be able todeploy much faster onthe Microsoft technologyplatform throughWindows Azure thanwith any other cloudsolution we evaluated.

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Excellent Customer SolutionMost importantly, 3M used Windows Azureto deliver a new technology that couldchange the design process paradigm,especially in areas where success hinges ona viewers response to a scene. WindowsAzure helps 3M customers take advantageof complex algorithms that encapsulate 30years of research and get simple, powerfulresults from their browser, almostinstantly, says Coll ier.

Graham says, We wanted to make it sosimple for our users that they didnt evenhave to step outside of the workflow theyare used to. With the VAS applicationrunning on Windows Azure, users can opena Web browser and analyze any number offiles, straight from their computer. As VASbecomes an integral, natural element of thedesign process for 3M customers, thecompany expects to significantly reducethe time and cost of design iterations while improving the overall impact of the

designs, says Graham.

3M VAS and Windows Azure will help ourcustomers spend their marketing dollarsmore wisely, explains Smyth. In ourresearch, we found that customers valuehaving an analytical, science-basedassessment of their designs. It takes it outof the ego space of subjective evaluationsfrom colleagues or from their own clients.We believe that with the Windows Azure based solution, we can have a significantimpact on the financial aspects of

marketing- based design.

3M VAS and WindowsAzure will help ourcustomers spend theirmarketing dollars morewisely.

Bill Smyth, Business Manager, 3M


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Windows Azure PlatformThe Windows Azure platform provides anexcellent foundation for expanding onlineproduct and service offerings. The maincomponents include: Windows Azure. Windows Azure is

the development, service hosting, andservice management environment forthe Windows Azure platform. WindowsAzure provides developers with on-demand compute and storage to host,

scale, and manage Web applicationson the Internet through Microsoft datacenters. In addition, Windows Azureserves d evelopers connectivity needsthrough the following services. The Service Bus connects

services and applications acrossnetwork boundaries to helpdevelopers build distributedapplications.

The Access Control Service provides federated, claims-basedaccess control for REST Web

services. Microsoft SQL Azure. Microsoft SQLAzure offers the first cloud-basedrelational and self-managed databaseservice built on Microsoft SQL Server2008 technologies.

To learn more about the Windows Azureplatform, visit: www.windowsazure.com

For More InformationFor more information about Microsoftproducts and services, call the MicrosoftSales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the MicrosoftCanada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers in the United States andCanada who are deaf or hard-of-hearingcan reach Microsoft text telephone(TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234.Outside the 50 United States andCanada, please contact your localMicrosoft subsidiary. To accessinformation using the World Wide Web,go to:www.microsoft.com

For more information about the 3MVisual Attention Service, visit the VASWeb site at:www.3m.com/vas

Additional Resources:Download: Windows Azure Platform

Training Kit View: Architecting and Developing forWindows Azure

This case study is for informational purposes only.MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS ORIMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published November 2009

Software and Services Windows Azure Platform Windows Azure Access Control Service Microsoft SQL Azure

Microsoft Server Product Portfolio Microsoft SQL Server 2008

Microsoft Visual Studio Microsoft Visual Studio Team System

2008 Team Foundation Server

Microsoft Visual Team System 2008Team Suite

Microsoft Expression Microsoft Expression Blend 3

Technologies Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 Microsoft .NET Framework Microsoft Silverlight
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