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:

 

Pitch, Hack and Have Fun with Windows 8

Does an evening of brilliant Windows 8 app ideas from other local developers sound like a good time? What about spending the following day with fellow developers making these ideas a reality? If this sounds like fun, A Date with 8 on Thursday, May 17th and Friday, May 18th is an event you shouldn’t miss.

App Pitch Contest
Thursday evening, bring your ideas! Present them to your peers and WIN! Tell everyone about the awesome app you’re planning to build, ask for ideas, ask for help and leverage the community and on-site experts. Top app ideas will be voted on with an opportunity to WIN!

Hackathon
Friday, starting at 8am, it’s time to build. Spend the day building your app and be ready to present it by the end of the day. You might just…Be What’s Next.

Come join us Thursday and Friday and Be What’s Next with Windows 8.
Register for A Date With 8 @ http://ADateWith8.eventbrite.com

College of Lake County
19351 West Washington Street
Grayslake, IL 60030

Thursday, May 17th @ 7:00 PM
Friday, May 18th @ 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM

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.

Get Social and Win a Pass to That Conference

On Wednesday afternoon, my company launched a fun giveaway for the tech conference lover. At 7 PM CST next Tuesday, 5/15, responsiveX will give one lucky winner a $350 That Conference pass. That Conference is “Summer Camp for Geeks” in the Wisconsin Dells, August 13th-15th. At That Conference, campers will spend 3 days with over 1,000 fellow campers in 125 sessions geeking out on everything Mobile, Web and Cloud. That Conference is taking place at one of the largest waterparks in the Midwest. So when your head starts to overheat from the flood of great sessions and speakers, you can jump in a pool and cool off.

The good news is, if you’re the lucky winner of the responsiveX That Conference givewaway, you won’t have to fight the digital crowd on Wednesday morning at 8:13 AM CST to get registered before That Conference sells out.

Winning is easy. To get entered, all you have to do is:

  1. Follow @responsiveX
  2. Tweet about #ThatConference and the @responsiveX giveaway before Tuesday, May 15th at 3:00 PM CST.
  3. Encourage others to follow and tweet.

For the giveaway to be on, @responsiveX needs to reach 500 twitter followers, facebook.com/responsiveX needs to reach 500 Likes, or the responsiveX newsletter needs to reach 500 subscribers.

For more info and details on how to enter, check out the contest page at http://responsivex.com/win-a-that-conference-pass/.

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