What’s New in Windows Azure Tour Heading to WI

Last month, new and improved Windows Azure capabilities were announced and made available in a Windows Azure Preview. Following the announcement, many focused and deep technical Windows Azure sessions were presented at TechEd North America, TechEd Europe and I toured Chicago user groups presenting and overview of the new Windows Azure features. Tomorrow night, the “What’s New in Windows Azure” tour will cross the Illinois border and make it’s way into Wisconsin at the Wisconsin .NET Users Group.

If you’d like to know more about the new Windows Azure capabilities announced last month, register and come out tomorrow night to the Wisconsin .NET Users Group.

What’s New in Windows Azure

Windows Azure is continually innovating, getting new features, enhanced functionality, reduced pricing and just constantly getting better. Join Windows Azure MVP, Eric D. Boyd for an evening of getting to know what’s new in Windows Azure, walk through and explore the latest Windows Azure features, and get answers to your Cloud Computing and Windows Azure questions.

When
July 10th, 7pm

Where
SafeNet Consulting
10700 Research Drive
Wauwatosa, WI 53226

Register at http://www.wi-ineta.org.

What’s New in Windows Azure – Chicago Tour

On the evening of June 6th, Microsoft published the Meet Windows Azure Fact Sheet that provided a summary of new and improved Windows Azure capabilities. The following day, the new Windows Azure capabilities were made available at Meet Windows Azure led by Microsoft CVP, Scott Guthrie. And last week, many great Windows Azure technical sessions were delivered at TechEd North America 2012. If you missed all of those amazing opportunities to learn more about What’s New in Windows Azure, and you live in the Chicagoland area, you’re in luck.

Starting tomorrow, I will begin a tour of Chicago User Groups presenting “What’s New in Windows Azure”. In this “What’s New in Windows Azure” tour, I’ll present an overview of the improvements and new Windows Azure capabilities that were just announced. I will visit a number of Chicago groups both in the Western suburbs and in the Downtown Chicago Loop, so if you want to learn more about the new features and capabilities in Windows Azure, RSVP for one of the following Chicagoland events.

Chicago Windows Azure User Group
Wednesday, June 20, 2012 @ 5:30 PM
Microsoft Office – Downers Grove
3025 Highland Pkwy, Suite 300
Downers Grove, IL
http://www.meetup.com/Chicagoazure/events/65587882/

Chicago Cloud Computing Meetup
Wednesday, June 27, 2012 @ 5:30 PM
Pariveda Solutions
550 West Washington Blvd, #410
Chicago, IL
http://www.meetup.com/The-Chicago-Cloud-Computing-Meetup-Group/events/65708372/

Software Development Community
Sunday, July 1, 2012 @ 1:00 PM
Microsoft Store in Oakbrook Center
49 Oak Brook Center
Oak Brook, IL
http://www.meetup.com/SoftDev/events/43412202/

Meet Windows Azure – Unveiling the Latest Platform

You might have heard about Windows Azure, you might even have a FREE Trial or MSDN Windows Azure Subscription, maybe you’re like me and you build apps with Windows Azure every day. But do you really know Windows Azure? Tune-in to the Meet Windows Azure live event and be among the first to get your hands on the preview bits and start building the next great cloud app.

This Thursday, June 7th at 1pm PDT (UTC-7), you’re invited to preview the latest from Windows Azure at a special online event streaming live from San Francisco called Meet Windows Azure. Meet Windows Azure brings together developers, technology leaders, entrepreneurs and social media technologists to talk about how Windows Azure is enabling great consumer experiences and powering a wave of startups and social campaigns.

Scott Guthrie (“the Gu”), Corporate Vice President of the Windows Azure Application Platform will introduce the latest in platform and language support, as well as show the increased flexibility for how you architect, build and deploy applications to the cloud.

You’ll also hear from tech leaders like Twilio co-founder & CEO, Jeff Lawson, about building highly scalable web applications that enable great developer and end-user experiences.

If you have questions about Windows Azure, Windows Azure technical experts including the Windows Azure engineering team and Windows Azure MVP’s will be available both in the event and via a Social Meetup on Twitter organized by Windows Azure MVP Magnus Mårtensson. Join the Twitter Social Meetup on Lanyard and tweet the #MeetAzure hashtag to ask questions and get answers.

Sign up today at MeetWindowsAzure.com and add June 7th at 1pm PDT (UTC-7) to your calendar.

Helpful Meet Windows Azure Links:

MEET Windows Azure Blog Relay:

 

In New York Speaking at Visual Studio Live! Next Week

This afternoon, I’m packing my carry-on and first thing tomorrow morning I’m leaving Chicago for Visual Studio Live! New York. One of the unique things about this Visual Studio Live! trip is my wife Shelly will be joining me and we’ll be enjoying some downtime in NY. If you have any ideas on things we should do, or places we should see in NYC, please send me your suggestions.

Visual Studio Live! is one of the best developer conferences with four locations to choose from, Las Vegas, New York, Redmond @ Microsoft HQ and Orlando. VS Live! features code-filled days, networking nights and independent education for .NET developers, software architects and designers. The expert presenters make each session interactive, so you can discuss your particular development roadblocks and come away with actionable solutions.

Visual Studio Live! New York is taking place at the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge, May 14th-17th, 2012 and on Wednesday, May 16th, I’m presenting the following three sessions on Cloud Computing and Windows Azure.

Windows Azure VM Role
May 16th, 2012 @ 1:30 PM
The Windows Azure Platform is a great cloud platform for scalable, on-demand computing power. However, there are scenarios that are not supported by Azure’s web and worker role abstractions. In this session, we will explore the traditional Azure web and worker compute roles and walk through the common challenges encountered when using these. We will explore the architecture and internals of Windows Azure, and then explore VM Role and the scenarios that are enabled having access to the OS. We will walk through the lifecycle of installing, configuring and deploying a VM to Windows Azure and we’ll consider the tradeoffs and alternatives to using VM Role. Finally, we will take a look at what’s new in VM Role and how to get started.

Storage Strategies in Windows Azure
May 16th, 2012 @ 3:00 PM
The Windows Azure Platform provides a plethora of options for data storage and trying to make sense of it all can be overwhelming. In this session, we will explore the Windows Azure data services including SQL Azure, Table and Blob Storage, Local Compute Storage and Caching. We will walk through the scenarios that each data service addresses, and we will dive into how to work with each of them. Lastly, we will explore the factors that encourage using one service over another when multiple fit into your solution and how they can complement each other when used together.

SQL Azure Intro and What’s New
May 16th, 2012 @ 4:30 PM
Windows Azure provides many options for storing data. SQL Azure is Windows Azure’s solution for working with relational data. If you are familiar with SQL Server, SQL Azure will be a natural extension of your knowledge and skills.
In this session, you will get introduced to SQL Azure and learn how to get started. We will explore how to migrate an existing on-premise SQL Server database to SQL Azure. We will then walkthrough how to manage and administer your SQL Azure servers and databases. We will take a look at how to connect and build applications using SQL Azure. Next, we will look at more advanced scenarios using new capabilities like reporting with SQL Azure Reporting, scaling and sharding databases with SQL Azure Federations and synchronizing data with SQL Azure Data Sync for hybrid scenarios and global reach. Finally, we will explore some of the things you should consider when using SQL Azure.

If you are attending Visual Studio Live! New York, I’ll see you next week. If not, and you like education, training and conferences, you should check out Redmond in August and Orlando in December.

The Midwest’s Cloud Conference – CloudDevelop 2012

Those who know me, know that I am passionate about Cloud Computing. I speak at and attend many Cloud conferences, but typically these conferences are on the East or West coast. This summer, Michael Collier, Jared Farris, Brian Prince and myself are launching the Midwest’s premier Cloud Computing conference, CloudDevelop 2012.

CloudDevelop 2012 will be held on Friday, August 3rd in Columbus, OH at The Ohio State University’s Ohio Union. CloudDevelop is a vendor and technology neutral conference with sessions on various cloud technologies and cloud application development. We feel that a mixture of vendors, technologies and topics, will provide a dynamic, informative and engaging conference for all attendees.

Today is the last call for speaker submissions and if you are a subject matter expert or are doing something interesting in the Cloud with Windows Azure, Amazon AWS, Heroku, AppHarbor, Google AppEngine, Rackspace Cloud or other cloud platforms and technologies, submit your sessions today! http://clouddevelop.org/SubmitProposal.html

Conferences like CloudDevelop wouldn’t be possible without the support from generous sponsors. If you are a cloud provider, tool vendor or just someone interested in sponsoring CloudDevelop, there are still some slots available  and you can download the sponsorship prospectus to learn more about the opportunities. http://clouddevelop.org/CloudDevelopProspectus2012.pdf