If you’ve recently joined me for AzureFest in Toronto and Mississauga, thank you for coming out! I hope the session was a worthwhile experience for you and that you were able to see how your existing knowledge and skills with .NET and Visual Studio can be leveraged to develop applications for the Cloud.
If you’re going to be joining AzureFest in another Canadian city, that’s great!
Either way, now you’ve taken the first step and have started working with Windows Azure, why not continue and explore concepts that I didn’t cover at AzureFest?
Windows Azure Jump Start Videos
We’ve put together an excellent video series for you called Windows Azure Jump Start. It’s perfect for watching during a lunch break or in the evening when you need or want to think about something other than work. Each video is about 45-50 minutes and focuses on the different areas of Windows Azure: the Windows Azure environment, application lifecycle, storage, diagnostics, security, and scalability.
Here are the links to the videos, slides, and source code:
Video
Slides
Code
Slides (Same as session 11)
But before you get started, I’d like to review with you these three things:
Windows Azure Subscription
Do you have a Windows Azure subscription yet? If not, there are three ways to get started: MSDN Subscription Benefits: If you have MSDN Premium, MSDN Ultimate, or BizSpark, you have complimentary monthly Windows Azure benefits that you can unlock for learning and testing. For more information on your benefits, check out my blog post, Ramp Up on Windows Azure MSDN Benefits, and activate your benefits today. Windows Azure Introductory Special: This one is for you if you’d like to take your time as you go through your learning and testing journey. With the Windows Azure Introductory special, you get Windows Azure hours for free each month. The Introductory special does require a credit card, but as long as you stay within the included hours and resources, you will not be charged for anything. Go ahead and activate your Introductory Special. Windows Azure Pass: If you’re a fast learner or need a forcing function to make sure that you do the training in a given period of time, you can activate a 30-day Windows Azure Pass. The Windows Azure Pass provides a comparable number of hours and resources as does the Introductory Special without the need for a credit card. However, after 30-days, your account and anything you may have deployed will be deleted. If you think that 30 days is enough for you and you don’t want to use a credit card, go to http://windowsazurepass.com, select Canada as your country, and enter the promo code CDNDEVS.
2: Tools for the Cloud
Once you have your subscription activated, download and install the tool add-ins that you’ll need for that rich development environment experience. You can download them from the Windows Azure Developer Center.
3: Windows Azure Platform Training Kit
Last but not least, download the Windows Azure Platform Training Kit. It includes hands-on labs and several sample applications to help you quickly learn how to use Windows Azure, SQL Azure, and the Windows Azure AppFabric.
How do we, developers, learn cool new things? Do we read some materials, take some notes, and then we’re good to go? Maybe take a class or two and that’s it? No. We read, maybe take some classes, but most importantly, we learn by building apps! With on-premise solutions, that’s relatively easy. Build out a virtual machine, install the required software, and off we go. How do we do that with Cloud solutions? Just as easy. You use this great 4 letter acronym – MSDN.
With the benefits that come with your MSDN Professional, Ultimate, or BizSpark subscriptions, you can do a whole lot with Windows Azure for free. Let’s look at the benefits chart:
Let’s do some comparisons:
Good stuff, right?
So what’s next? 5 easy steps to get you started:
Don’t wait. Activate your benefits and start building Cloud applications today.
Don’t have MSDN but want to learn about Windows Azure? Have an app that you’d like to test with Windows Azure? Not a problem! Send me an email (jonathan.rozenblit@microsoft.com) or a DM on Twitter (@jrozenblit) and I’ll you setup with a trial subscription where you will get the same benefits for 30 days.
With all these great benefits and programmes, all you need to do is find the time to use them! As much as I’d love to, that’s one area where I wouldn’t be able to help.
This post also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.
The long anticipated Gartner Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) MarketScope report has been published. Gartner rated Microsoft as “Positive”, the second highest rating in the MarketScope report, citing “substantially improving” administration and “filling in the gaps” around testing, lab management, and modeling with release of Visual Studio 2010.
Here is excerpt from the report by Jim Duggan and Thomas E. Murphy specifically around Visual Studio and ALM:
Visual Studio 2010 gives Microsoft's ALM offering a new, more-cohesive look, and addresses pricing and administration obstacles that have limited the use and adoption of the ALM offering. Microsoft's strategy is to build from the significant base in the construction IDE core (Visual Studio); from the broad enterprise use of Office and SharePoint for requirements, tasks and workflow; and with its aggressive pricing model. It continues to enhance workflow and metadata handling, as well as expand the tools from which you can use the ALM features. With Visual Studio 2010, Microsoft reduced the prices of both the VS client and the Team Foundation Server (TFS) component. Microsoft also incorporated interfaces to leverage its project and PPM offerings, as well as its agile methodology positions, to build awareness and commitments in larger clients. Although gaps remain in some management and execution tool areas, the technical approach is well-suited to support multiple instances of tools from multiple vendors. Because Visual Studio has such broad industry support, many of the gaps are "filled," and clients have the ability to exploit existing investments in products like HP Quality Center. Microsoft's recent contributions to filling in the gaps include testing, lab management and modeling in the Visual Studio 2010 release. Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) and TFS had demonstrated scalability, but install setup was complicated and there had been administrative challenges for organizations with large numbers of projects. Substantial improvements to administrative facilities have been delivered in Visual Studio 2010. Another area of improvement is the ability to customize workflows, adding flexibility in supporting both agile and more-formal development processes, as well as enabling support from third parties. Additionally, there are more reporting and analytic capabilities. Microsoft's offering is well-architected for provisioning as a service, and for support of agile and other emerging styles of application delivery. Microsoft's commitment to the development tools market, and its depth of resources, should result in continued broadening of the solution. Microsoft improved support for Eclipse and for other non-Microsoft environments with Visual Studio Team Explorer Everywhere 2010. This permits users to store artifacts in TFS. Cross-platform support in other parts of the solution are limited, so a separate Java tool stack is likely needed. Another plus for Microsoft is the strength of its Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) franchise. Relatively low cost and ease of acquisition make MSDN a realistic channel to sell ALM into many accounts. Microsoft has a strong reach in the market, and moderate pricing for a large, stable provider. It has a proven, scalable architecture. A large community of supporting vendors helps fill gaps in the tool portfolio. Rating: Positive
Visual Studio 2010 gives Microsoft's ALM offering a new, more-cohesive look, and addresses pricing and administration obstacles that have limited the use and adoption of the ALM offering. Microsoft's strategy is to build from the significant base in the construction IDE core (Visual Studio); from the broad enterprise use of Office and SharePoint for requirements, tasks and workflow; and with its aggressive pricing model. It continues to enhance workflow and metadata handling, as well as expand the tools from which you can use the ALM features. With Visual Studio 2010, Microsoft reduced the prices of both the VS client and the Team Foundation Server (TFS) component. Microsoft also incorporated interfaces to leverage its project and PPM offerings, as well as its agile methodology positions, to build awareness and commitments in larger clients. Although gaps remain in some management and execution tool areas, the technical approach is well-suited to support multiple instances of tools from multiple vendors. Because Visual Studio has such broad industry support, many of the gaps are "filled," and clients have the ability to exploit existing investments in products like HP Quality Center. Microsoft's recent contributions to filling in the gaps include testing, lab management and modeling in the Visual Studio 2010 release.
Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) and TFS had demonstrated scalability, but install setup was complicated and there had been administrative challenges for organizations with large numbers of projects. Substantial improvements to administrative facilities have been delivered in Visual Studio 2010. Another area of improvement is the ability to customize workflows, adding flexibility in supporting both agile and more-formal development processes, as well as enabling support from third parties. Additionally, there are more reporting and analytic capabilities. Microsoft's offering is well-architected for provisioning as a service, and for support of agile and other emerging styles of application delivery. Microsoft's commitment to the development tools market, and its depth of resources, should result in continued broadening of the solution. Microsoft improved support for Eclipse and for other non-Microsoft environments with Visual Studio Team Explorer Everywhere 2010. This permits users to store artifacts in TFS. Cross-platform support in other parts of the solution are limited, so a separate Java tool stack is likely needed.
Another plus for Microsoft is the strength of its Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) franchise. Relatively low cost and ease of acquisition make MSDN a realistic channel to sell ALM into many accounts.
Microsoft has a strong reach in the market, and moderate pricing for a large, stable provider. It has a proven, scalable architecture. A large community of supporting vendors helps fill gaps in the tool portfolio.
Rating: Positive
To top the great news about the rating, Gartner announced that it will graduate the ALM MarketScope report to Magic Quadrant status effective immediately.
More information on Visual Studio, Team Foundation Server, and ALM:
When you consider developing new applications for the Cloud - or consider migrating existing apps to the Cloud - you’re probably starting to think about the security of your application's data. There are many “myths” around this particular topic and many skeptics that use them as a safety blanket to stay away from putting applications in the Cloud.
IT In Canada’s Mary Allen just posted a great interview with John WeigeIt, Microsoft Canada’s cloud policy expert and national technology officer, entitled Patriots and PIPEDA – locating security and privacy in the cloud. In this article, they discuss the various aspects of data security and privacy that are people’s minds. I highly recommend reading the article even though there’s no code; take some notes so that you’re armed and ready with information when someone asks you what you think about security and privacy in the Cloud. Here are some key points to take away from the interview:
To summarize, in order to make the right decision whether “To Cloud or Not To Cloud?”, it’s important to go past the myth and preconceptions and dig deeper to discover what is relevant to your specific application. You will then be in a position to make a fact-based decision.
Stay tuned for more myth busting interviews, information, and resources that will help your “To Cloud or Not To Cloud?” discussions and decisions.
As you know, the Windows Azure platform has many moving parts – one of which is AppFabric. In a nutshell, AppFabric is a middleware platform for developing, deploying, and managing applications on the Windows Azure platform. It breaks down into these key areas:
Itai Raz, Product Manager for Windows Azure AppFabric, just started a new blog post series that will explore key concepts and principles of Windows Azure AppFabric. Before going into all of the technical details, Part 1 of the series (What is Windows Azure AppFabric trying to solve?) gives a great introduction and describes the challenges that Windows Azure AppFabric is meant to address. I love that he explains what AppFabric is trying to achieve - I believe that knowing why something was created before getting into its nitty-gritty ensures that it’s used in the way that it was intended to be used. Follow the series to learn more about the capabilities of AppFabric and how each of them will help address the challenges Itai talks about in Part 1.
You should also visit the Windows Azure App Fabric Developer Center on MSDN to help you get started learning Windows Azure AppFabric. If you scroll towards the bottom of the page, you’ll find “How Do I?” videos and a couple of AppFabric samples you can download to get you going.
Here are a few additional places where you can learn about Windows Azure AppFabric:
On February 7, 2011, tune in to watch Windows Azure Boot Camp: Connecting with AppFabric, a 200 level webcast that will look at how to secure a REST Service, what you can do to connect services together, and how to work with firewalls and NATs.
And if the above wasn’t enough, you can also check out the Windows Azure AppFabric Team’s Blog and follow them on Twitter and Facebook.
This post also appears on Canadian Developer Connection
(Haven’t heard the acronym “WAPTK”? No worries – Windows Azure Platform Training Kit. It’s your one stop to get hands-on labs, presentations, and demos that are designed to help you learn how to use the Windows Azure platform.)
If you’ve downloaded the WAPTK in the past, that’s great! The Windows Azure Team has just released the January edition of the training kit with new demo scripts, labs for working with Windows Phone 7 and the Cloud, and new and improved code snippets for Visual Studio.
Some of the specific changes with the January update of the training kit includes:
Download the January Update to the Windows Azure Platform Training Kit today.
This article also appears on Canadian Developer Connection
ISV developers, come experience Windows Azure in a lab experience like no other! Join your fellow developers and explore how you can leverage your existing .NET development expertise to develop applications and services for the Cloud.
Two tracks have been designed to ensure that you get the information that is most relevant to you:
You’ll probably be interested in the Development Track, so I’ve included the agenda below:
To get the most out of the hand-on labs, make sure to bring either your personal or business credit card. It’s required in order to activate your Azure subscription. You’ll need to do this even if you only want to use it for the event and deactivate it afterwards.
The Windows Azure Experience Lab will be held on Monday, February 7, 2011 at 11 King Street West, Suite 1400, Toronto, ON M5H 4C7 from 9:00AM to 5:00PM
Make sure to register today.
I look forward to seeing you there!
If you’re like me and are actively doing work with Windows Azure, whether you’re learning how to develop Cloud-based applications, actually building an application, or just demoing Windows Azure capabilities to various audiences, you probably have one or more deployments configured in the Windows Azure Developer Portal. You start up your deployment, do your thing, and then stop your deployment so don’t get billed when you’re not actively working. Right?
If you remember to stop your deployment every time, consider yourself a rare breed! For the rest of us who don’t always remember to do it right away and then realize in the middle of the night that we forgot, there is hope!
During my most resent perusal of CodePlex, I came across a nifty little utility written by Windows Azure MVP Michael Wood (@mikewo) called GreyBox. GreyBox is an application that sits in your system tray and visually indicates to you whether you have any deployments running in your Windows Azure subscription.
As Michael describes in his blog post, if the box is blue, you have one or more deployments running (a.k.a. consuming compute hours). If your deployments have all been stopped, the box is grey. Simple! Now if that wasn’t useful enough, GreyBox will also alert you, on intervals that you define in the configuration, that you have deployments running. Commit this to memory - “If the cube is grey, you’re OK. If the cube is blue, a bill is due”. Thanks for that nice and simple summary, Brian Prince.
Give GreyBox a try and hopefully, it will remind you, like it reminds me, that your deployments are still running - before you get into bed!
Have you had an interesting or funny experience with remembering that you forget to turn off your deployments? Share your stories by commenting below.
This article is also posted on Canadian Developer Connection
Picture this – it’s time to sit down and start architecting your new application. You’re going to use the latest and the greatest – you’re going to go Cloud. Cloud – as in Windows Azure – just to make sure! What’s the first thing you think of? Design Patterns, of course.
To start, you’ll need patterns for:
That’s where Windows Azure MVP David Pallmann’s Azure Design Patterns site comes in handy – it covers them all (and it’s made with Silverlight). Why scour the abyss of information online when you can go to one place and see it all, neatly organized in a way that’s easy to navigate? Make sure you bookmark it and refer back to it whenever you sit down to architect an application.
There are also two posts on David’s blog that I think you should read (in the following order):
As you start using design patterns for cloud computing and Windows Azure, don’t forget to share your experience with us of what works and what doesn’t.
That’s it for now. Go! Explore! Then share!
Here’s what was up in the Windows Azure Cloud last week (February 6 – February 12):
New This Week
Things To Try
Windows and SQL Azure Development
General Windows and SQL Azure
Find something interesting on Windows Azure this week? Share via comments below or let’s discuss on LinkedIn.
Here’s what was up in the Windows Azure Cloud last week (February 13 – February 19):
On Saturday, December 11, 2010, Canadian MVPs Cory Fowler (@SyntaxC4) and Barry Gervin (@bgervin) met with developers in Mississauga and showed them how developing and deploying applications to Windows Azure is fast and easy. You can read about it on Joey’s post from that Saturday.
Now, AzureFest is back! If you weren’t able to come out in December, now’s your chance to see how you can leverage the skills you already have (.NET, Java, PHP, or Ruby) and the tools you already know (Visual Studio, Eclipse, etc.) to deploy applications to Windows Azure. You’ll learn everything to you need to know to get up and running with Windows Azure quickly including:
AzureFest is a hands-on event. This means that you’ll be following along in your own development environment and actually deploying your solution during the event. In order to get the most out of the experience, you’ll need to bring a laptop with you that is running Windows Vista SP1 or Windows 7 with the Windows Azure Tools for Visual Studio installed. If you don’t have Visual Studio, or are not working with .NET, that’s OK. Use the language and tools of your choice – help will be on hand to assist you.
You’ll also need to bring a credit card. Windows Azure activations require a credit card even for the trial period, but don’t worry, nothing will be charged to your credit card as the last part of the event shows you how to take down all of your Windows Azure instances.
We’re taking AzureFest across Canada, and will be coming to a city near you. Check out the listings below to get all the information you need about each of the cities. Don’t see a city that’s near you? Keep checking back as we will be adding more cities and dates as we confirm them. If you’d like to help organize an AzureFest in your city or at your user group, please contact me via email, Twitter, or LinkedIn.
Downtown Toronto Microsoft Canada Ernst & Young Tower 222 Bay Street, 12th floor Wednesday, March 30, 2011 6:00PM – 9;00PM Click here to register
Presenters: Cory Fowler (@SyntaxC4), Barry Gervin (@bgervin)
Mississauga Microsoft Canada 1950 Meadowvale Boulevard Thursday, March 31, 2011 6:00PM - 9:00PM Click here to register
Vancouver BCIT, Burnaby Campus 3700 Willingdon Avenue Tuesday, April 5, 2011 6:00PM – 9:00PM Click here to register
Presenters: Jonathan Rozenblit (@jrozenblit)
Ottawa Algonquin College Campus 1385 Woodroffe Avenue, Ottawa Saturday, April 16, 2011 12:45PM – 1:30PM Click here to register
Presenters: Christian Beauclair (@cbeauclair)
Presenters: Cory Fowler (@SyntaxC4)
Fredericton UNB Campus Room 317, ITC Saturday, May 7, 2011 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM Click here to register
Quebec City l'École National d'Administration Publique (ENAP), salle 4114 555, boul.Charest Est, Québec, QC Thursday, May 12, 2011 5:00 PM – 8:30 PM Click here to register Presenters: Frédéric Harper (@fharper)
Make sure you register early as space is limited. Make sure to find me when you’re are the event – it will be an opportunity for us to chat about what you’re working on, possible projects to move to the Cloud, and how I can help extend your skills to the Cloud.
As of today, connecting Windows Azure to your application running on Windows Phone 7 just got a whole lot easier with the release of the Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows Phone 7 designed to make it easier for you to leverage the cloud services running in Windows Azure. The toolkit, which you can find on CodePlex, includes Visual Studio project templates for Windows Phone 7 and Windows Azure, class libraries optimized for use on the phone, sample applications, and documentation.
The toolkit contains the following resources:
There’s a really great article on how to get started in the wiki. Definitely check that out before you get started. To help make it even easier to get started with the toolkit, today’s (3/25) Cloud Cover episode will focus on the toolkit and how to get started using it. Over the next few weeks, videos, tutorials, demo scripts, and other great resources to go along with the toolkit will be released. Stay tuned here – I’ll keep you posted with all the new stuff as soon as it becomes available!
Want more? If those resources aren’t enough to get you started, make sure to stop by Wade Wegner’s blog (a fellow evangelist) for a quick “how to get started" tutorial.
Get Windows Azure free for 30 days
As a reader of the Canadian Mobile Developers’ blog, you can get free access to Windows Azure for 30 days while you’re trying out the toolkit. Go to windowsazurepass.com, select Canada as your country, and enter the promo code CDNDEVS.
If you think you need more than 30 days, no problem. Sign up for the Introductory Special instead. From now until June 30, you’ll get 750 hours per month free!
If you have an MSDN subscription, you have Windows Azure hours included as part of your benefits. Sign in to MSDN and go to your member’s benefits page to activate your Windows Azure benefits.
This post is also featured on the Canadian Mobile Developers’ Blog.
I just came back from Vancouver where I had the pleasure of doing an AzureFest for members of the .netBC, VanTUG, and VanSLUG user groups. We had a great turn out, with 86 people showing up to learn about Windows Azure! Thank you to all of you who came.
When I originally posted that AzureFest is back, I promised you that AzureFest would be coming to a city near you. The team and I have been working on securing more venues and more dates, and I will share those as soon as they are confirmed. Having said that, AzureFest Ottawa is now confirmed!
My fellow developer evangelist, Christian Beauclair (@cbeauclair) will be at the Ottawa Code Camp on April 16th. Join him from 12:30 pm to 1:45 pm for a demonstration of the developer tools and deployment of an application to the Cloud. If you have a laptop and a rocket stick (unfortunately there will not be wireless at the event), you can activate your Windows Azure subscription and follow along, deploying your own app to the Cloud by the end of the talk.
To attend AzureFest Ottawa, register for Ottawa Code Camp here. I’ve also updated the original AzureFest post to include all of the information you need in order to attend.
Stay tuned for more dates and cities!
Learn more about AzureFest.
Online
Case Studies
Videos
Books
When considering Windows Azure and the Cloud, architects and developers are often discouraged, thinking that in order to move a solution to the Cloud it must be reengineered to support the Cloud. Fortunately, that is not the case as there are different ways that a solution can take advantage of the Cloud.
Designed For Windows Azure – Consider this option if you are in the process of planning or developing the next release of your solution. When you design your solution for Windows Azure, you take advantage of the cloud-based services available with Windows Azure – commonly Blob Storage, Tables, Queues, and SQL Azure. Going a step further, you may leverage the programmatic scalability of Windows Azure to allow your solution to scale up and down as it needs in order to handle additional traffic or increased processing loads. The Windows Azure programming model is what enables this for your solution (and the application(s) with in it) and it is worth getting familiar with it in order to optimize how your solution can leverage the power of the Cloud. To learn more, you can download the Why Develop in the Cloud: The Windows Azure Programming Model whitepaper.
Compatible with Windows Azure – if rewriting portions of your solution to use cloud-based services is not an option or is not on the product roadmap in the near future, it does not mean that you cannot leverage Windows Azure to realize the infrastructure and cost benefits that come with the Cloud. With the Windows Azure VM role, you can run your solution in the Cloud without any modifications. Though you manage the VM completely and are required to maintain the VM (patches, fixes, etc.), you are still taking advantage of the Windows Azure environment: immediate scalability, in-place upgrades with no service downtown, and load-balanced traffic. This is a great option with which to get started on your journey to adopt the Cloud.
Having said that, the best way to determine which areas of your solution can and cannot be modified easily to leverage Cloud services is to give it a try! Before you go ahead, make changes to your solution, and start testing those changes, you are going to want to:
When you are ready to leverage Cloud services in your solution, send me an email or a message on Twitter. I’d love to connect and see how I can help you and/or connect you with various local Windows Azure experts that can help you, and your organization, on your journey to the (Windows Azure) Cloud.
When was the last time you had a chance to go to the movie theatre during the day? More importantly, when was the last time you learned something new at the movie theatre? Well Azure at the Movies will not only get you out to the ScotiaBank Theatre on May 5, 2011 from 9 AM to noon, but it will also guarantee that you walk away having learned how to provide stability and elasticity for your web based solutions using Windows Azure.
Join me and the gang from ObjectSharp, Barry Gervin, Cory Fowler, Dave Lloyd, Bruce Johnson, and Steve Syfuhs for a half day event in Toronto where we’ll explore how Silverlight, ASP.NET MVC, Team Foundation Server, Visual Studio, and Powershell all work together with Windows Azure to give you, the developer, the best development experience and your application the platform to reach infinite scale and success.
Thursday, May 5, 2011 Registration: 8:00 AM – 9:00 AM Seminar: 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM ScotiaBank Theatre, 259 Richmond Street West, Toronto
Click here to register.
I look forward to seeing you there and chatting about your journey to the Cloud and how I may be able to help.
East Coast, after many hours of logistics discussions and preparations, AzureFest is coming your way! If you haven’t yet heard of AzureFest, check out this post where AzureFest is described in full.
Remember, AzureFest is a hands-on event. This means that you’ll be following along on your own laptop and actually deploying your solution during the event. In order to get the most out of the experience, make sure to bring your laptop, a power cable if you’re going to need to plug in your laptop, and a credit card. Don’t worry, nothing will be charged to your credit card during AzureFest. Your credit card is just required for activating your Windows Azure account.
Here’s the information for the cities on the AzureFest East Coast Tour. If you want to see for yourself how easy it is to move your existing application to the cloud, this is an event you don’t want to miss. Register early as space is limited.
Moncton Greater Moncton Chamber of Commerce Board Room – First Floor 1273 Main Street, Suite 200, Moncton, NB Friday, May 6, 2011 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM Click here to register
Halifax The Hub 1673 Barrington St., 2nd Floor, Halifax, NS Sunday, May 8, 2011 1:30 PM – 4:30 PM Click here to register
We’re always looking to hear your thoughts and suggestions on the things that we do. If you have any feedback, we’d really appreciate it if you would share it with us here. We’re starting to think of the next wave of AzureFests – what would you like to see us cover in the next hands-on event? Post any and all suggestions you may have here. We’ll take everyone’s input and design AzureFest 2.0 accordingly. Looking forward to hearing from you.
Moncton, Halifax, and Fredericton developers, enjoy AzureFest!
AzureFest is making a surprise visit to Calgary this weekend! If you haven’t yet heard of AzureFest, check out this post where AzureFest is described in full.
If you want to see for yourself how easy it is to move your existing application to the cloud, this is an event you don’t want to miss. Register early as space is limited.
Calgary University of Calgary, Rm 121 ICT Building 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, AB Saturday, April 30, 2011 Click here to register
Have plans? No problem! A virtual AzureFest is coming your desktop in May – stay tuned.
I’ve been talking a lot about AzureFest recently as we’re travelling around the country introducing developers to the concepts of Cloud computing, and more specifically, what’s possible with Windows Azure. Many of you have told me that with a schedule defined by the constraints of application build, test cycle, and deployment milestones, taking the time out of your day to come out to an in-person training event is difficult. You also told me that short 1 hour training “sprints” squeezed in during the day are a great way to get your training done while not interfering with your project commitments.
As a result, I’ve designed a 3-part lunch and learn live webinar series where we can get together for three Thursdays and explore how to build solutions for the Cloud. You’ll see how developing and deploying applications to Windows Azure is fast and easy, leveraging the skills you already have (.NET, Java, PHP, or Ruby) and the tools you already know (Visual Studio, Eclipse, etc.), all in the comfort of your own chair, at the office, or at home.
We’ll go through an overview of Windows Azure, making sure that you learn everything to you need to know to get up and running with Windows Azure. We’ll cover the Windows Azure platform itself, the Windows Azure SDK, and the Windows Azure Tools for Visual Studio 2010. We’ll then apply the concepts as we migrate a traditional on-premise ASP.NET MVC application to Windows and SQL Azure.
Unlike other webinars, this is a hands-on event. This means that you will be following along in your own environment and, by the end of the webinar, your application will be running on Windows Azure!
Click here for the webinar details.
I look forward to spending Thursday lunches with you learning about the Cloud!
Recently, I saw a tweet from Mitch Garvis (@MGarvis) about having completed three certification exams in one day. It got me thinking - how could he possibly have time to study for not one, not two, but three exams all at once all while still working full time? I’m sure the thought of certification has crossed your mind at one point or another and was then quickly dismissed due to time constraints.
Determined to figure out what his secret was, I reached out to Mitch and asked him the simple question, “How do you make time to study for three exams at the same time as working full time?” The answer was simple – don’t study. Surprised by this answer, I asked him to elaborate.
In order to answer the actual question, Mitch thought it was important to understand what certification is and how it differs from a degree. He explained:
One of my best friends, the best man at my wedding has a degree in Computer Science, but every time something goes wrong with his computer, he calls me. Because of his degree, he can talk binary, he can talk math, he can talk architecture, but his degree is not relevant [to the problem at hand at that point in time]. Likewise, my Windows 2000 certifications are no longer relevant. Certification is an on-going validation, “I am familiar with”, or “I’m up to date with” the technologies with which I’m working.
If certifications are an on-going validation, there presumably would be a lot of studying involved to make sure that you know the relevant technology for which you’re going to be certified. So how does one find the time to do all of this studying? Is there a magic recipe for studying to maximize the little time there is available for studying?
I’m going to tell you my secret, that as an MCT, I’ve told hundreds, if not thousands of students over the years – don’t study for certification exams! People look at me and say “how can you say that?”. Know the product. I just did an MCTS exam on Active Directory. I didn’t study for that exam. I live in Windows and Windows Server and I know Active Directory. All of the questions on the exam, sure they may be scenario based, saying “You are the __________ [fill in the blank]”, well I am the “fill in the blank", I have been the “fill in the blank”, the people that I speak to every day are that, and I have to know that (the fill in the blank). So that’s like saying “Mitch, can you please study how to make a cup of coffee?” It’s where I live. Likewise, if you don’t live there, you shouldn’t be taking the exam yet.
I’m going to tell you my secret, that as an MCT, I’ve told hundreds, if not thousands of students over the years – don’t study for certification exams! People look at me and say “how can you say that?”.
Know the product. I just did an MCTS exam on Active Directory. I didn’t study for that exam. I live in Windows and Windows Server and I know Active Directory. All of the questions on the exam, sure they may be scenario based, saying “You are the __________ [fill in the blank]”, well I am the “fill in the blank", I have been the “fill in the blank”, the people that I speak to every day are that, and I have to know that (the fill in the blank). So that’s like saying “Mitch, can you please study how to make a cup of coffee?” It’s where I live. Likewise, if you don’t live there, you shouldn’t be taking the exam yet.
When you’re a developer and code for a living, as Mitch says, you live there – in the code, platforms, tools, etc. You may know a lot, but a the exams cover specific areas in depth. How do you know if you have the depth required to be able to answer the questions?
When looking at the exam that you want to do, look at the objective domains, the outline of what they say is required, and fill in the blanks. “I do this all the time, I do that all the time, but you know what, I’m weak on this”. Focus on that and don’t cram, but review it. If you’re smart, you’re going to go back and implement it before because you can read the words on the paper as many times as you want, do you know what happens when you press the Next button? Sometimes the exam says what happens when you press that Next button. “You’re in this situation. What should you do first?” Well beyond sitting at the computer and turning on your screen, you have to know where to go first and books don’t always tell you that. Experience always tell you that. Experience is what you get a minute after you really needed it. Experience is what is going to make the difference between stressing over taking exams and going to exams and saying “You know what, I have free time today, let me take an exam.”
In summary, Mitch’s view on exams is that you take them as validation that you have studied, implemented, and experienced what it is that you will be examined on:
If you’re looking for a new job, new field, you need to study as you wouldn’t have that experience. If you’re in the job, [a certification is] validation that you’ve learned [book or experience, or both] the material.
Whenever I talk to people about certifications, both with those who have certifications and those who don’t, I get a different answer. Certifications mean different things to different people. As you read last week, Susan (@HockeyGeekGirl) posted her views on certification. Here are Mitch’s thoughts:
Certifications is not just about getting them done, they are a necessity. We live in a world that is highly competitive. I’m no competing with all of the IT professionals in Oakville for the same jobs. I’m competing with professionals in Oakville, and Toronto, and Scarborough, and Vancouver, and India, and China who all want to come to this great place to work. I have credentials as far as experience goes, but certification is the proof that I have the respect from my profession to not only learn to do something the right way but also demonstrate and quantify that I’ve taken the time to do that. Certifications differentiate the IT professional or the dev from the computer guy hacker who sits in his basement and probably does it well, don’t get me wrong, and I know many great computer guys who don’t have certifications, but if we are going to be a profession, we don’t have a BAR association, we don’t have a Charter of Accountants, we don’t have a medical board. We are a self-governing, or not even self-governing – we are an industry that doesn’t have that self-governing or globally governing body that gives me this “hey I’m a doctor”, “I’m a lawyer”, “I’m an accountant”, that doesn’t mean that we’re not professionals. Certifications do that.
Certifications is not just about getting them done, they are a necessity. We live in a world that is highly competitive. I’m no competing with all of the IT professionals in Oakville for the same jobs. I’m competing with professionals in Oakville, and Toronto, and Scarborough, and Vancouver, and India, and China who all want to come to this great place to work. I have credentials as far as experience goes, but certification is the proof that I have the respect from my profession to not only learn to do something the right way but also demonstrate and quantify that I’ve taken the time to do that.
Certifications differentiate the IT professional or the dev from the computer guy hacker who sits in his basement and probably does it well, don’t get me wrong, and I know many great computer guys who don’t have certifications, but if we are going to be a profession, we don’t have a BAR association, we don’t have a Charter of Accountants, we don’t have a medical board. We are a self-governing, or not even self-governing – we are an industry that doesn’t have that self-governing or globally governing body that gives me this “hey I’m a doctor”, “I’m a lawyer”, “I’m an accountant”, that doesn’t mean that we’re not professionals. Certifications do that.
Now It’s Your Turn
What’s your take on certification? What do certifications mean to you? Share your thoughts on LinkedIn. If you have a certification story that you’d like to share, tips and tricks, etc, please send me an email. I’d love to be able to share it here on the blog.
Conversation Continued
In next week’s post, I’ll share with you the discussion I had with Mitch around exam results – how to learn from passed exams, and more importantly, how to learn from failed exams.
Mitch Garvis is a Renaissance Man of the IT world with a passion for community. He is an excellent communicator which makes him the ideal trainer, writer, and technology evangelist. Having founded and led two major Canadian user groups for IT Professionals, he understands both the value and rewards of helping his peers. After several years as a consultant and in-house IT Pro for companies in Canada, he now works with various companies creating and delivering training for Microsoft to its partners and clients around the world. He is a Microsoft Certified Trainer, and has been recognized for his community work with the prestigious Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award. He is an avid writer, and blogs at http://garvis.ca.
This article is also featured on the Canadian Solution Developers’ Blog.
In the words of Rob Tiffany (@robtiffany), Mobility Architect at Microsoft, “the combination of mobile and cloud computing is like peanut butter and chocolate. Nobody does it better than Microsoft when Windows Phones and Slates are connected to Windows Azure over wireless.” If you haven’t had a chance to see how Windows Azure offers you, the mobile developer, an easy way to add redundant storage, compute power, database access, queuing, caching, and web services that are accessible by any mobile platform, check out this session from TechEd North America last week.
In this session, Rob helps you make sense of wireless-efficient web services and data transports, such as JSON. You’ll learn how to scale out processing through multiple Web and Worker role instances. Next, you’ll learn how to partition your data with Windows Azure Tables to dramatically increase your scalability via parallel reads. You’ll also learn about providing loose-coupling for inbound data from devices through the use of Azure Queues and Worker Roles. Finally, you’ll combine all this with distributed AppFabric Caching and Output Caching to provide a responsive mobile experience at Internet scale.
Did this make you think of cool ideas for the two? I’d love to hear them, so please share. Are you doing something with Windows Phone 7 and Windows Azure? I’d love to hear how you’re using it. Share the coolness in this LinkedIn discussion.
Happy viewing.
This article is also posted on the Canadian Mobile Developers’ Blog
Back in March, Frédéric (@fharper) introduced Code Your Art Out, a “wicked” coding competition, as described on the competition’s home page. Between March 1st and June 1st, any kind of web app could be submitted. Over the last week, the apps were judged on their interoperability with different technologies, creativity, and usability, and now I can announce the finalists! But before I do, just a reminder of what’s at stake for these finalists:
What did they have to do? The participants had to create any web solution and deploy it to either Windows Azure or IIS. Alternatively, they could port an existing web solution onto Windows Azure or IIS. That’s it. Everything else was left up to their creativity.
So with that, drum roll please…
On behalf of the Judges, we’d like to give a HUGE congratulations to the following finalists:
The competition was very tough, and deciding the top two was not easy, but it was a unanimous decision that Epilogger and Save The Rain shall battle it out for 1st and 2nd place on June 24th in downtown Toronto. The URLs for these apps will be shared after the 24th as well a recount of the finale event!
Look out for them because they are impressive, easy to use, unique and all around wicked. Congratulations and thanks to all of the teams who submitted apps for the competition. Everyone did a great job and should be very proud!
Last month, during TechEd North America, we were introduced to some of the new features that were coming in the next version of Visual Studio, specifically in the area of Application Lifecycle Management (ALM). My colleague Susan Ibach (@HockeyGeekGirl) was at TechEd and blogged about some of those details. If you weren’t able to get out to TechEd and haven’t yet watched sessions on-demand that talk about Visual Studio vNext, you absolutely must.
Tech·Ed North America 2011 Keynote Address Jason Zander, Robert Wahbe
If you fast forward to 1:01:15 in the video of the Keynote address, you can watch Jason Zander, Corporate VP, Visual Studio talk about what to expect from Visual Studio vNext.
The Future of Microsoft Visual Studio Application Lifecycle Management Cameron Skinner
This demo-heavy session offers early insights into the future of Application Lifecycle Management and agile development that are incorporated in the next release of Visual Studio.
And if those two sessions were not enough to get you excited, our friends at TechNet Edge captured some great conversations on the ground at TechEd, specifically, this conversation between Richard Campbell and Jason Zander about the upcoming ALM features.
Jason Zander on ALM
Jason Zander talks to Richard Campbell about Visual Studio v.Next, specifically the upcoming ALM features. Jason talks about the next generation of ALM and how it brings stakeholders, developers and IT Pros closer together with new tooling.
Want to dive deeper and find out more? Download the Visual Studio vNext whitepaper. It’ll provide you with additional contexts and outlines of the problems that Visual Studio vNext is working to solve, how they relate to problems that are faced as an industry, and how Visual Studio vNext will improve the effectiveness of ALM.
So what’s next? Stay tuned! As more information because available, we’ll make sure that you hear about it here. In the meantime, join me in this LinkedIn conversation around the features announced in these sessions, share your thoughts, and perhaps recommend a feature or two that you would like to see in Visual Studio vNext.
This article is also featured on Canadian Developer Connection.
If you were one of the 167 developers that were in Regina, SK these last couple of days for Prairie Dev Con (and if you weren’t, then make sure you are next year because it is just a great event! More on that at another time…), you would have heard Jeff Sandquist (@jeffsand), Senior Director for Channel 9, make mention of something happening this week during his keynote. He didn’t say what, he just said that it would be awesome!
I can’t tell you what I don’t know, but here’s what I do know:
and last but not least, I can tell you it has something to do with…
So, hopefully, you are now just as curious as I was when I heard (and still am!), so make sure you check it out tomorrow! Then, come back here and share your thoughts!