Windows Azure DevCamp–learn to build for the Cloud

If you’re in Sydney, and you are (or would like think of yourself as) a developer, then you might want to devote a day to discovering how the Cloud could make a difference to your projects. I’m losing count of the number of projects I’m hearing about where developers are using the Microsoft Windows Azure cloud services in education projects to allow them to build an application, and deploy to an unlimited amount of users. The reason is obvious – it allows developers to get on with development of applications, without having the hassle of worrying about building a big backend datacentre to run it on. It’s especially important in education, where the job of getting an application setup on somebody’s education network can be painful, whereas deploying an application in the cloud can be straightforward – and something that users (teachers, students) can do themselves.

That might explain one of the reasons why education applications that use the Windows Azure cloud – like ClickView or the Janison Assessment portals – are growing rapidly. (Windows Azure is basically our public cloud, running in global data centres, where you can deploy applications, databases, websites or even complete virtual servers)

To help more people discover the tricks, we’re running a free Windows Azure DevCamp in Sydney on Tuesday 19th June at the University of NSW for developers that want to get under the covers of Azure. And the hosts are three people that really know their stuff:

• Ori Amiga is the Principal Group Program Manager on the Windows Azure team responsible for the Developer Platform efforts, and he’s flying over from Seattle for this session
• Nick Harris is a Technical Evangelist for Windows Azure working on the Windows Azure Toolkit, and he too is hopping on a pan-Pacific flight to be here
• Andrew Coates is a Developer Evangelist with a diverse background in Civil Engineering, Geographic Information Systems, Databases and Software development. Luckily for him, he’s only got to hop in a car, as he’s Sydney based

The agenda for the day is going to help you learn how to:

• Build and quickly deploy web sites to Windows Azure
• Migrate, integrate, and extend existing code and apps with Windows Azure
• Build flexible, multi-tier applications
• Consume Windows Azure services within your apps, such as Windows Azure Storage, SQL Azure, and the Service Bus
• Architect highly scalable and fast applications using cloud services
• Build Web APIs that power mobile devices
• Use the latest Visual Studio tools and SDKs for the cloud

The day runs from 9-5 at the Randwick Campus of UNSW on 19th June, and it’s free. And it’s open to all developers, whether you currently work for a Microsoft partner, or you work in a university, TAFE, school or government department.

Learn more, and register, for the Sydney Windows Azure DevCamp