Tag: Events

Follow-Up to Centare Lunch & Learn

Thank you to everyone who attended the Centare Lunch & Learn last week. I hope you left with a good understanding of what cloud computing is and how you can benefit from the cloud. I also hope that the time we spent exploring common cloud application scenarios will help you identify cloud opportunities in your organization.

Cloud Computing takes multiple forms, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). Generally, as you move from the “Traditional Data Center” and IaaS towards PaaS and SaaS, more value and ROI is realized. While the value proposition is usually greater with SaaS over PaaS, often mass-market software products don’t meet your specific needs. When this occurs, you must consider PaaS.

In our discussion of PaaS, we discussed the benefits of PaaS over IaaS and walked through a high-level overview of Windows Azure. The following are some Windows Azure resources that will be helpful as you explore the Windows Azure Platform on your own.

Windows Azure Features Overview
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/features

Windows Azure Case Studies
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/evidence/

Windows Azure TCO Calculator (Link on the right hand side)
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/tco

New Windows Azure Pricing Calculator
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/pricing-calculator/

Windows Azure Service Level Agreement (SLA)
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/sla/

If you would like help assessing and planning your organization’s cloud strategy, feel free to contact me.

If you would like the a copy of the slide deck that I presented, you can get it on my SkyDrive.

Finally, please let me know what other cloud computing topics, either business or technically focused, you would like to learn more about. Your feedback will help guide future presentations and events. Thank you for attending and providing valuable feedback.

Understanding the Value of the Cloud at Miller Park

Cloud Computing is an overhyped buzzword that has been thrown around a lot over the past couple of years. Unfortunately, there is a mix of marketing messages and “the cloud” means different things to different people. If you have heard the hype and would like to better understand what cloud computing is and how leverage the cloud in your organization, this Thursday’s Centare Lunch & Learn is for you.

On Thursday, June 2nd, 2011, I will be presenting “Understanding the Value of the Cloud” at Miller Park. The event begins at 11:30AM at T.G.I. Fridays and will conclude at 1:00PM. This is a FREE event and lunch will be provided by Centare. In this presentation we will consider the future of computing resources and the typical challenges that are addressed by utilizing the cloud. We will dive into the economics and value proposition that drive cloud computing and make massively available computing resources possible. Finally, we will explore common scenarios that you can look for in your organization that make great sense for the cloud.

This event is filling up fast. If you would like to attend, please register by the end of today, May 31st at http://www.centare.com/events/understanding-the-value-of-the-cloud/.

Vote for Sessions You Want to See at PASS Summit 2011

PASS Summit is the world’s largest conference for Microsoft SQL Server professionals. If you use Microsoft SQL Server or Business Intelligence technologies, you should attend PASS Summit. If you consider yourself a database administrator, application developer, BI or IT professional working with SQL Server, the sessions at PASS will be very informative and valuable for you.

PASS Summit 2011 is in Seattle, WA, Oct. 11-14 and the six session tracks are:

  • Application and Database Development
  • BI Architecture, Development and Administration Topics
  • BI Client Reporting and Delivery Topics
  • Enterprise Database Administration and Deployment
  • Professional Development
  • SQL Azure

If you are interested in PASS Summit 2011 and the sessions that will be offered, you can see a list of sessions and even vote on the sessions that you would like to see. All you need to do is:

  1. Visit http://www.sqlpass.org/summit/2011/Speakers/SessionPreferencing.aspx
  2. Login or Create an Account
  3. Browse the sessions
  4. If you want a session at PASS, click the “Click here to Mark Session as Preferred” link

The following are my sessions that you can vote on for PASS Summit 2011. If you would like to quickly get to these sessions, you can select “Eric D. Boyd” from the Speaker dropdown.

BI in the Cloud with SQL Azure Reporting [200]
Session Track: SQL Azure
Why maintain infrastructure for operational reporting, when you can do it in the cloud with SQL Azure Reporting? SQL Azure Reporting provides a set of capabilities that are familiar for developers using SQL Server Reporting Services on-premise. We will begin this session by considering the benefits and scenarios for BI in the cloud. Next, we will walkthrough what you need to get started using SQL Azure Reporting. We will then develop and deploy some reports to SQL Azure Reporting. Unfortunately, SSRS and SQL Azure Reporting do not have complete feature parity. As a result, we will conclude by reviewing the challenges and limitations of using SQL Azure Reporting over SQL Server Reporting Services.

Consuming Cloud Data from Multiple Platforms: The Benefits of OData [300]
Session Track: Application and Database Development
The amount of data stored today is growing at a rapid rate. However, data is only valuable if it is accessible and can be consumed by people and systems. OData is an open protocol for sharing data that is positioned to solve this problem. OData uses the standard HTTP protocol using REST principles to make data accessible and has huge industry momentum with rapid adoption growth. In this session, we will explore what OData is all about and how to expose relational and non-relational data as OData using WCF Data Services. We will then walkthrough developing apps to consume the OData feeds from multiple clients including mobile devices. Finally, we will take a look at how you can benefit from using Azure to publish your data and OData services.

One-Stop Data Shop: Overview of Windows Azure Marketplace DataMarket [200]
Session Track: SQL Azure
Whether it is buying clothing, food, or software, consumers like the simplicity of the one-stop shopping experience. Product producers also benefit greatly by being a part of a community marketplace. These rules of commerce apply to data just as much as physical goods and mobile apps. The Windows Azure Marketplace DataMarket is the marketplace for data set distribution in the cloud. In this session we will explore the benefits of the marketplace and the cloud for distributing data. Next, we will review the features and capabilities of Azure DataMarket. We will then walkthrough subscribing to, consuming and paying for data from Azure DataMarket. Finally, we will explore what this means for data publishers and how you can get data into the Azure DataMarket.

Working with Data in Azure: SQL Azure, Azure Storage, Local Storage and AppFabric Caching [200]
Session Track: SQL Azure
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 many Azure data services including SQL Azure, Azure Storage, Local Storage and AppFabric Caching. We will walk through the scenarios that each storage service addresses. Next we will dig into how to use each storage service and how they can complement each other when used together. Finally, we will explore the pricing and economic drivers that encourage one storage service over another when multiple fit into your solution.

If you know me, then you know that I’m a Cloud Computing evangelist and I am excited to see the SQL Azure track at PASS Summit 2011. If you share the same Cloud Computing passion, please vote for the sessions in the SQL Azure track.

Coded UI Presentation from Chicago Code Camp

If you attended my Chicago Code Camp session on Saturday, thank you and I hope you got value from it! I want to take a moment to thank the organizers of this event. Without these community leaders, we wouldn’t have been able to enjoy such a great code camp. Thank you Michael D. Hall, Scott Seely, Jean Seely, Sergio Pereira, Tim Stall and Clark Sell, not just for Chicago Code Camp, but everything that you do for our community.

I also want to thank Angela Dugan. Angela is our Microsoft Developer Tools Evangelist for Illinois, Wisconsin, and Indiana. If you got a book or shirt from my session, please thank Angela, she provided all of those goodies.

If you would like my slide deck, you can get it on my SkyDrive.

One of the questions asked, that I answered with 99% accuracy but wanted to confirm, was “Can I record UI actions with Firefox, or is it just playback?”. It is just playback and you must record using Internet Explorer. For more details, check out this documentation on MSDN. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg269475.aspx

Also, we discussed the VS 2010 and TFS VHD for exploring these tools. Microsoft has provided a VHD for each Microsoft virtualization technology and can be downloaded from the following links.

One of the books that I gave away, “Software Testing with Visual Studio 2010”, is a great little book that has broad coverage of the Visual Studio 2010 testing tools and I highly recommend reading it.

Thank you again. If you have any other questions, feel free to comment or reach out to me.

Speaking about Coded UI Tests at Chicago Code Camp

We are just days away from this year’s Chicago Code Camp and it is shaping up to be an outstanding event. Chicago Code Camp is an entire day of FREE sessions for developers of all walks, including C#, Java, F#, SmallTalk, Clojure and more. If you are a developer in the Chicago-Milwaukee area, you should set aside this Saturday, May 14th to attend Chicago Code Camp.

I will be presenting “Testing the User Interface: Coded UI Tests with Visual Studio 2010” and expect this session to be educational and interactive. In an attempt to make this session as valuable and targeted as possible, I’ve setup a UserVoice forum where you can suggest and vote on the content presented. I’ve seeded the forum with the topics that I have envisioned, but I’m sure there are other great ideas I haven’t considered. If you are planning to attend, please visit http://ericdboyd.uservoice.com to suggest and vote on the topics you would like to see.

There is an amazing lineup of speakers and sessions for Chicago Code Camp 2011, and you can get a complete listing with the schedule at http://chicagocodecamp.com. If you are planning to attend and you haven’t yet registered, please do so at http://chicagocodecamp.eventbrite.com. It is a completely FREE event, but event logistics are a lot easier when you know how many people are attending.

The organizers of this event have spent a great deal of time making this a world-class code camp, so please thank them when you see them. I would like to extend a special thank you to Michael D. Hall, Scott Seely and Clark Sell for all of the work they have done to make this event great.