A few years back I was the technical owner for SQL Server 2005 readiness in the UK with Independent Software Vendors. One of the things we did at the time was put together a detailed catalogue of UK developed applications that worked great with SQL Server 2005. My marketing buddy at the time was Ian...

My former role was working with ISVs. ISVs get their own site, http://www.isvinnovation.com/ which contains some great online webcasts. If you are a developer and you are new to Azure Services Platform ,then there are five great Webcasts to take a look at. Part: 1 Azure Services for Developers: Fundamentals...

You may recall that my previous role was working with Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to help them explore and adopt the latest technologies from Microsoft. In that role I introduced something called a Technology Roadmap Review . Many years on and we have a more public offering for UK ISVs ...

At the end of June I run workshops with 2 ISVs both looking to completely re-develop their applications. One is entirely VB6, the other a combination of VB6 with C++. The beauty of "starting from scratch" with a one to two year development plan is you can take a hard look at the latest technologies...

As I get ready to transition role, I find myself increasingly thinking "what happened in the last 12 months that would be useful to take into the next 12 months". One of the great bits about my current role is I spend a lot of time 1:1 in day long, two day long, three day long engagements talking...

Whoops - nearly forgot this one. We released Beta 2 of the HPC pack earlier this month. I am a fan of HPC - even if I have no dev skills in it :-) Head over to the connect site (and sign up if necessary) to gain access to the download.

I have mixed emotions about the Enterprise Library. When I was last doing development (a few years back) I concluded it was: Big. Which meant it took a lot of time and effort to understand and benefit from it. Inconsistent. The library was a "collection" of code samples and approaches with...

The following need a little air time - enjoy! A lot of partners have shown interest in CRM Live (Which is really called Dynamics CRM Online - which isn't quite as catchy). You can try it out free for 30 days at http://offers.crmlive.com/thirtyday I know a lot of smaller partners subscribe to the Actions...

Something we have been looking at recently is taking an approach we use frequently with our managed ISVs and make it more broadly available - with a twist. I am speaking of technology reviews - half day 1:1 technical sessions. During a technology review we try to build a detailed picture of how an ISV...

Then I would like to hear from you . We are trying to a) better understand how UK ISVs are deciding between C# and Visual Basic and b) I am personally interested in exploring how we can give some recognition to UK ISVs using Visual Basic rather than C# for their .NET development. Please send me a few...

The observant amongst you (i.e. those who don't use a rss reader and actually visit this site) will have spotted I have changed the theme and removed a number of ISV links etc. More to do - but I am getting there. In the meantime, you will find all those ISV links (empower etc.) over at the new team...

Executive summary :-) If you are technical within an ISV, subscribe to http://blogs.msdn.com/ukisvdev/ The Detail... This blog originally started back in July 2004 (wow - 4 years back!) with an initial focus in SQL Server 2005 early adoption for ISVs. It has had a couple of changes of focus since then...

I have gathered together some useful resources in one place to cover of the interesting topic of how to load balance requests to a service implemented using WCF - in response to a request from a UK ISV doing some interesting .NET 3.0/3.5 work. Frankly I wish I could have a) found a lot more or b) found...

Then you are probably not alone - sharing code appears to be more popular than ever (thanks all!). There are many different licenses out there which you may wish to take advantage of - and the answer really does depend on exactly what you hope to achieve. I have been looking for a comparative summary...

This impressed me so much when I first caught a glimpse of it earlier this year. I have previously posted about the importance of Silverlight as a technology and this demo really shows the huge potential of Silverlight for building RIAs . Enjoy!

You would remember if you had :-) The UK Partner Bot ( 'partnerbot@hotmail.com' ) is an IM Bot similar to the Encarta bot (" encarta@botmetro.net ’") except for one slight difference - Partner Bot doesn't actually know that much and seems to do little more than look for a few key words...

On May 7th 2007 (a little over a year ago) I posted "I surrender - I am no longer a developer...". The problem I was trying to solve was simple enough. I was trying to be helpful/valuable in too many areas which was leading to problems with work/life balance and limiting my ability to add real value...

A few ISV have asked me an identical question this week "what resources are available to help me move from Visual Basic 6 to .NET". I plan to expand on this in the coming weeks - but for now a swift set of the best links: Keep an eye on the Visual Basic team talking about migration and interop...

I would encourage you to pop along to one of these Innovation Days if you are a UK ISV interested in understanding how to partner with Microsoft. They were popular last time around but we seem to have had a much larger gap than expected. The good news is they are back and David has the technology slot...

This has come up a lot with my ISVs lately. Time for a step by step: Start at http://www.microsoft.com/Learning/training/find/FindCourse.mspx   Decide which product you want training on: Browse the results - note some are classroom, some are online etc. Select the course you think best matches If...

Apologies for the delay - meant to blog about this (and lots of other stuff) much earlier in the month. We released a new Community Tech Preview of Windows HPC Server 2008 this month. The good news is that you can join the HPC beta today, download an ISO of an evaluation copy of Windows Server 2008 and...

Working for Microsoft has many benefits - an obvious one being I don't have to pay for Visual Studio, which means I simply install the top of the range SKU. Hence I am running Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Suite (catchy isn't it :)). But... the early adopters I work with often are not using the...

One of the challenges we have had when working with UK ISVs on Windows Presentation Foundation is to get them to think about the user interface as anything other than a gray canvas onto which you drop lots of labels, text boxes and buttons. It has been tough. Not least because my entire team comes from...

I have previously posted on High Performance Computing and what it may mean to ISVs. Currently two of my ISVs are getting very active with the beta of Windows HPC Server 2008 in the area of Financial Services which is exciting - but not nearly as exciting (IMVHO) as using HPC to address the needs of...

Lots of partners I meet in the UK take advantage of the Microsoft Action Pack (For £199 plus VAT you get oodles of software!!!). From March 1 st , all of you renewing your subscriptions must take a course and pass an assessment to renew. The good news is the courses are all 100% subsidised and take...