A few weeks ago, I co-authored an article (with my colleague Rama Ramani ) about how the Screen Actors Guild Awards website migrated its Drupal deployment from LAMP to Windows Azure: Azure Real World: Migrating a Drupal Site from LAMP to Windows Azure...

I saw a Tweet on Monday that nicely summed up the start to my week: The only thing worse than a Monday is a Monday after #DrupalCon . I’m not sure I’ve quoted it exactly , but I’m sure I’ve captured the sentiment. My Monday wasn’t...

I find that every conference I attend is a humbling experience. There are just so many knowledgeable people that I’m constantly reminded of how much I don’t know. The pre-conference training at DrupalCon Denver was no exception (and the real...

Last month, the Interoperability team at Microsoft highlighted work done to move the Screen Actors Guild Awards Drupal website from a Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP (LAMP) environment to the Windows Azure platform: SAG Awards Drupal Website Moves to Windows Azure...

Microsoft will be at DrupalCon Denver next week, and I have the good fortune of being one of the Microsoft representatives that will be attending. The program looks great – it’s packed with great speakers and sessions, and there are lots of...

Last week, Microsoft held a virtual conference to announce the availability of SQL Server 2012. The conference included a number of events (speakers, videos, training activities, etc.) that focused on the new functionality available in this release ....

This is a short post to shareexciting news: Jooma! 2.5, which shipped earlier this week, now has support for SQL Server! Of course, this release contains lots more goodies, but the addition of a database abstraction layer that supports multiple databases...

The first beta release of the SQL Server ODBC Driver for Linux is available for download! As announced in October , the “Multiplatform Team” (a.k.a. the “MPlat Team”) has released a preview version of a driver that will provide...

In this morning’s keynote address at the Professional Association of SQL Server (PASS) Summit 2011 , Quentin Clark (Corporate Vice President at Microsoft) announced that a preview of the Microsoft SQL Server ODBC Driver for Linux will soon be widely...

Last week I had the good fortune of hearing Rasmus Lerdorf speak at the Seattle PHP Meetup . His talks was excellent – it was sprinkled with history, personal stories, tips, best practices, and insights into what he’s thinking about for the...

A Community Technology Preview (a beta release) of v3.0 of the SQL Server Drivers for PHP was released today (see the announcement on the team blog ). You can download it here: Download v3.0 of the SQL Server Drivers for PHP . In this release, there are...

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you have probably noticed I haven’t been publishing much lately. That is not to say, however, that I haven’t been writing . I have. I’ve been working with a colleague ( Larry Franks ) to start...

At last month’s SQL Server JumpIn! Camp , one of the SQL Server features that generated some excitement among the participants was SQL Server’s ability to return result sets as XML. I felt a bit foolish for not having investigated this feature...

I came across lots of good links this week, but I have to say that I’m most excited about the first two (yes, I know, long overdue). Lot’s of other good reading too…everything from tips for running PHP in Windows Azure to the top 10...

Jonathan Guerin , the Program Manager for the SQL Server Driver for PHP, just posted a request for feature feedback on the team blog . I want to make sure that his request gets in front of lots of eyes, so I’m re-posting his request here (below...

On the heels of today’s announcement at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference of the availability of SQL Server code name “Denali” CTP3 , the SQL Server Migration Assistant Team announced the release of the SQL Server Migration...

A few weeks ago I wrote a post that showed how to improve the performance of PHP applications on Windows by using the IIS output caching module. Using the output caching module can have significant positive impact on application performance since pages...

I wish I could attribute my recent lapse in reading to enjoying more time outside in a beautiful, sunny Seattle summer. But alas, summer hasn’t really arrived yet, and work hasn’t slowed down (the pace seems to have picked up, actually). So...

As I arrived yesterday for day 4 (the last day) of the SQL Server JumpIn! Camp , one participant said to me,“I’m starting to feel worn down.” I think that was the general sentiment of everyone that was there…and with good reason...

I recently had a chance to catch up via e-mail with Ben Waine , winner of the 2011 PHP on Azure contest . The announcement of his victory was actually made at the Dutch PHP Conference in May, but we’ve both been extremely busy since then, so exchanging...

Next week, Microsoft will host its second SQL Server JumpIn! Camp , and I’m very excited to be a participant (take a look at the list (below) of PHP applications and frameworks that will be represented and you will understand why!). I was fortunate...

In this article, I’ll show you how to improve the performance of PHP applications on Windows/IIS by covering the What, When, and How of using the IIS Output Caching module. As background reading (or for the condensed version of my post), I suggest...

For me, the highlight in this week’s list are the first two. Both the SQLSRV and PDO_SQLSRV drivers are now in PECL. For some, that may not be a big deal, but it’s something I’ve been pushing for a long time. I see it as one more (small...

Based on my reading list this week, you can infer that I was either very busy with other work or that I was goofing off more than I should have. Since my manager may be reading this, I’ll go with “very busy”. Highlights include Ben Waine...

June 7, 2012 update: The Microsoft Windows Azure team has released a new Windows Azure SDK for PHP . This release is part of an effort to keep PHP client libraries up to date with new Windows Azure features and to make PHP a first-class citizen in Windows...