smallcloud_thumbNext Thursday, September 20th, the Cloud OS Signature Series rolls into the area – specifically to the Hyatt Regency Hotel at 575 Memorial Drive in Cambridge.

Craig Hodges, the General Manger of Microsoft’s Northeast District, will kick things off at 9 a.m. with a keynote: The Cloud OS: A Modern Platform for the World’s Apps. From there attendees can attend anyone of three tracks, each targeting a distinct role in the enterprise:

IT Executives (registration)

IT Professionals (registration)

Developers* (registration)

My colleague Dan Stolts will be presenting in the IT Professionals track, and I along with some key cloud-savvy community members will be managing the Developers track. In that Developers track, you’ll have the opportunity to get some in-depth, hands-on experience with Windows Azure via both instructor-led and self-paced hands-on labs!  To fully participate though, you need to be ready – so here’s your homework assignment:

Developers Track Hands-on Lab Prerequisites

Be sure you have a Windows Azure account, and provision a 90-day free Windows Azure account if not.

Have Visual Studio 2010 (or 2012) or Visual Web Developer Express 2010 installed.  You can use Visual Studio 2012 if you like, but the lab materials have not yet been updated to reflect the new release.

Download and install the Windows Azure SDK for .NET

Download the lab instructions and code

* Following feedback from the inaugural event of this series in New York City last week, there’s been an adjustment in the Developers track schedule.  We have allotted significantly more time for the hands-on lab and lab walkthroughs, so items have been cut from the schedule. The lab materials supporting those sessions will still be provided to attendees and is available for download now. The new schedule does not yet appear on the Cloud OS Signature Series site, so I’ve provided it below.

8:30am-9:00am

Registration. Visit the Microsoft Partner Pavilion

9:00am-10:00am

Keynote: Moving from Private and Public to Hybrid Cloud; Windows Server 2012, System Center 2012, Windows Azure and Visual Studio 2012

10:00am-10:15am

Break. Visit the Microsoft Partner Pavilion

10:15am-11:15am

Meet Windows Azure

  • Attend an Azure presentation and demo that will go through capabilities including web roles, worker roles, Storage, Access Control Service, Service Bus and Virtual Machines
  • A demo of Azure management portal through a simple ASP.NET web application will show the power of Windows Azure service deployment and operational model

11:15am-11:30am

Break. Visit the Microsoft Partner Pavilion

11:30am-12:30pm

Introduction to Windows Azure Cloud Services

  • Attend this instructor led walk through session to learn how to provision your Windows Azure account, install the tools, and familiarize yourself with the portal and cloud emulators.
  • Deploy an ASP.NET application to Windows Azure to gain firsthand experience of cloud deployment and operations

12:30pm-12:45pm

Recap of the Morning. Account Team Introductions. What's Next.

12:45pm-1:30pm

Lunch. Visit the Microsoft Partner Pavilion

1:30pm-2:30pm

Introduction to Windows Azure Virtual Machines

  • Attend this instructor-led lab walkthrough to deploy a simple ASP.NET MVC web application to a web server hosted on Windows Azure Virtual Machine using SQL Server and Azure load balancer

2:30pm-2:45pm

Break. Visit the Microsoft Partner Pavilion

2:45pm-4:45pm

Building Windows Azure Cloud Services

  • Attend this hands-on lab and explore the basic elements of a Windows Azure Cloud Service by creating a simple guest book application

4:45pm

Closing Remarks and Raffle Giveaway.