Tag: Windows Azure

Get FREE Windows Phone Goodies During TechWeek

Starting today and running through next Friday, July 29th is TechWeek Chicago. TechWeek is a week of conference, expo and events with over 2,000 entrepreneurs, business leaders, and innovators, 4 days of conference sessions, over 150 international speakers, 4 days of an expo hall with over 100 exhibitors, 35 competing tech startups, and over 30 independent off-site events. TechWeek connects the newest web and mobile technologies to thousands of Chicago business, academic, community, art, and media professionals- all within one week. For more information about TechWeek, check out http://www.techweek.com.

During TechWeek Chicago, Microsoft is hosting “Windows Phone Unleashed @ TechWeek”. This will be an incredible evening getting hands-on with Windows Phone and you will have the opportunity to work with the Windows Phone and Windows Azure experts to help get your app ideas of the ground. More details for this event is below.

There are a limited number of tickets, so RSVP ASAP!
http://windowsphonetechweek.eventbrite.com

Don’t miss this opportunity to get hands on with Windows Phone and the new features coming in Windows Phone “Mango”. Get help developing apps from the Windows Phone experts! This is a “hands-on” Hackathon where you will learn how to build, scale and publish your Windows Phone apps from the Windows Phone and Windows Azure experts. If you are a beginner or even an expert Windows Phone developer, you should not miss this event.

We will have short sessions on how to get started creating apps for the Windows Phone. And sessions on how to make serious $$$ building Windows Phone apps. Bring your laptop and we will provide all of the necessary tools needed to build your apps. This five hour event will bring together experts and developers with the purpose of developing WP7 apps.

Bring your ideas! Present them to your peers and WIN! Top app ideas will be voted on with an opportunity to WIN FREE Marketplace registration and more! We will also show participants who manage to create a Windows Phone app how they can be entered to win a new Windows Phone!

If you are a student, this is an event you can’t afford to miss! We will show you multiple ways to get FREE Unlocked Samsung Focus Windows Phones, FREE Xbox 360 games, FREE Visual Studio 2010 Professional, FREE Windows Phone Marketplace accounts and FREE Gift Cards.

WI .NET UG Recap – Moving Web Apps to the Cloud

Thank you to Scott Isaacs and the WI .NET User Group for inviting me to present last night. And another thank you to everyone who took time out of their busy summer schedule to participate in the local developer community. I had a blast presenting one of my passions, Cloud Computing, PaaS and Windows Azure. I really enjoyed our discussion and interaction last night and would love to continue the dialog if you have further questions or need assistance with moving “To the Cloud”.

I hope you left with a better understanding of the Cloud, PaaS and Windows Azure. Specifically, I hope that you now have a better idea of how to get started migrating an existing application to Windows Azure. We explored some of the items that can be extremely simple to move, like Application Data in SQL Azure, ASP.NET Membership and Diagnostics. We also discussed some of the items that can offer a challenge, both technically and architecturally, such as Claims-based security and Non-relational, NoSQL, data.

The guidance from Patterns & Practices is great when exploring these migration scenarios. You can read the P&P content online at MSDN. And if you prefer a paper book or an eBook, those are available for purchase too. Downloads for Hands-On Labs and source code for the a-Expense application are also available from P&P. The one caveat worth mentioning is that what’s currently published was developed with Visual Studio 2008 SP1, .NET 3.5 and Windows Azure SDK 1.1. It’s still a great resource to check out and there will soon be a Visual Studio 2010, .NET 4 and the Windows Azure SDK 1.4 update. Subscribe to my blog and I will let you know when that update gets released.

The following links are resources that will help you on your Windows Azure journey.

Patterns & Practices – Moving Applications to the Cloud – Online Content
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff728592.aspx

Patterns & Practices – Moving Applications to the Cloud – Code Samples
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=2798

Patterns & Practices – Books
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/practices/hh124092

Windows Azure SDK and Tools
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/sdk/

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

If you would like a copy of the slides from last night, you can download them from 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 check back later next week for more details about a new community launching to provide practical, deep, hands-on experience developing with Windows Azure.

Moving Web Apps to the Cloud at WI .NET User Group

As a developer with years of experience developing web apps using ASP.NET, SQL Server, Windows Server and Active Directory, how do you move to the cloud with Windows Azure? How can you apply your existing skills and experience to developing cloud apps in Windows Azure?

These are common questions that get raised when considering Cloud Computing, PaaS and Windows Azure. Often, developers and technology managers have applications that come to mind when hearing about Windows Azure, but they are existing apps that were designed to run on-premise and not in Windows Azure. Since the apps already exist and it doesn’t make sense to throw them away and start over, Windows Azure seems out of reach.

Next Tuesday, July 12, 2011, at 7PM, I will be presenting on this very topic at the WI .NET User Group. We will take a simple, ASP.NET web app, designed to run in the traditional data center, and walk through the migration to Windows Azure. We’ll discuss the important considerations, practices, architectural differences, challenges, advantages and economic benefits to consider when migrating to Windows Azure.

If you are planning to attend, please take a moment to register for the event. There will be FREE pizza and soda sponsored by Centare. And I will bring some additional cloud giveaways.

One important detail to take note of, we will not be meeting at the normal Direct Supply location, but instead at Northwoods Software. Thanks to Northwood Software for providing the location this month.

Northwoods Software Development, Inc
4600 West Schroeder Drive
Brown Deer, WI 53223
Map & Directions

Talking Cloud at Architect Factory in Boston

As a senior member of a technology team, you can likely relate to the constant pressure to rapidly innovate and deliver new systems. It feels like the executives expect you to instantly produce the latest cutting-edge innovation they just learned about in their most recent business periodical. And you are already overwhelmed with your projects, responsibilities and are likely drowning, trying to drink from the massive fire hose of information. How can you juggle all of this and still provide solid guidance to your business community on increasing effectiveness with technology improvements?

This Thursday, June 9th, I will be helping a group of architects and senior software developers gain a better understanding of cloud computing and the value it can contribute to their organizations. I will be presenting “Understanding the Value of the Cloud” at Architect Factory 3 in Cambridge, MA (Boston) at the Microsoft NERD. Architect Factory is a 1-day conference that is designed to provide architects and senior software developers with a unique opportunity to learn the solutions, tools, techniques and processes of software architecture and services, first hand from leading software architects.

In my session, Understanding the Value of the Cloud, we will reminisce about the major milestones in computing history, look at where we are now, and consider what the future will look like with the introduction of the cloud. Next, we will examine the challenges of the traditional data center and dig into the benefits and value provided by leveraging the cloud. Finally, we will discuss how you can identify opportunities in your organization that are a good fit for the cloud, explore strategies for getting started and identify some items you must consider as architects when moving to the cloud.

My goal is for you to leave this session with a good understanding of what the cloud is all about and inspire thinking about your projects that are ideal for cloud computing. I also want you to be equipped to explain the value of cloud computing to your your business community in terms that resonate with them.

If you are in the Boston area, a senior software developer or architect, and haven’t yet registered for Architect Factory, do so soon! This is a FREE event and the number of remaining tickets are decreasing rapidly. The agenda is posted, the speakers are listed and registration is still open.

If you are considering or currently developing apps on a cloud platform, be sure to check out Bill Wilder’s session, “11 Scalability Concepts Every Architect Should Understand”. Bill’s session will help you understand how to design and build applications to take advantage of the massively scalable characteristics of cloud platforms like Windows Azure.

Lastly, if you like FREE stuff, I will also be giving away some Microsoft Cloud and Windows Azure t-shirts, mugs, keychains and most importantly books.

See you in Boston on Thursday!

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.