Murray Gordon's Blog

VM Support in Windows Azure

2010-03-29T20:25:14Z

Many of my customers and partners have raised questions around Windows Azure and the pilot program that Microsoft announced with Amazon Web Services.

While Windows Azure is not participating in this pilot, Microsoft is actively monitoring the feedback and will leverage the results this pilot to shape their future offerings.

Microsoft has committed to enabling customers to purchase Windows Azure through a combination of existing and new licensing agreements. Additionally they will also ensure that they support a centralized seamless and consistent purchasing experience that existing multi-year commercial customers enjoy. Microsoft will have more specific details on this process later in the year.

Below you will find the FAQ for questions related to the pilot program. If you have additional questions please let feel free to comment on this post. I can answer those individually.

1. Will Windows Azure offer VM support?

Yes, Microsoft will add Virtual Machine functionality to Windows Azure to expand the set of existing applications that can be run on it. This Virtual Machine deployment functionality will enable developers to run a wide range of Windows applications in Windows Azure, while taking full advantage of the built in automated service management.

2. What is the pricing for this proposed VM functionality in Windows Azure?

We are not announcing pricing for the proposed Windows Azure VM functionality right now. However, this pricing will be consistent with our current Windows Azure pricing model.

3. How does this proposed VM functionality in Windows Azure differ from Amazon hosting Windows Server VMs?

While Windows Azure is a cloud service that uses (and charges via) computation resources that are analogous to physical computers, it differs in important ways from platforms such as AWS that offer VMs on demand. With a purely VM-based platform, the situation is much like hosting: You bear full responsibility for configuring and managing the VMs and the software they contain. With the proposed VM functionality in Windows Azure, while developers have the flexibility to customize the Windows Azure VM and incorporate it in service models, the platform itself takes care of everything else.

4. When will Windows Azure offer VM capability/support?

We are still engaged in the planning and prioritization for additional functionality in Windows Azure based on customer feedback. As we announced at PDC we will enable customers to migrate existing Windows Server applications through the managed virtual machine (VM) functionality in 2010.

5. Will Windows Azure enable similar Windows Server-license mobility in the future?

The Windows Azure team regularly evaluates new licensing models that could better serve customer needs. We look forward to customer and partner feedback on the Windows Server License Mobility pilot. We will take this feedback into consideration as we structure future licensing models.

6. When will Windows Azure be available in the Enterprise customer programs like the Enterprise Agreement & Select?

In the future, Microsoft will provide the ability for Windows Azure licensing agreements to be integrated into Enterprise customer programs such as Enterprise Agreement and Select. We will provide specifics about the licensing model and pricing details in calendar year 2010.

7. When will Windows Azure platform volume licensing pricing details be available?

We will provide volume licensing details in calendar year 2010. We don’t have specifics to share at this time.

Here’s the original email about Amazon Web Services, if you have not seen it yet.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Amazon Web Services <no-reply-aws@amazon.com>
Date: Thu, Mar 25, 2010 at 3:10 AM
Subject: Announcing the Windows Server 'Bring Your Own License' Pilot Program
To: REMOVED

Dear Amazon EC2 Customer,

We are excited to announce the immediate availability of the Microsoft Windows Server® License Mobility Pilot, which enables customers with Microsoft Enterprise Agreements (EA) to migrate their existing Windows Server licenses to Amazon EC2. By moving existing licenses to the cloud, you can leverage licenses that you have already purchased to reduce your cost of running Windows On-Demand or Reserved Instances by up to 41%. Microsoft will stop accepting new enrollments for the pilot on September 23, 2010 so it is important to act quickly.

To participate in this pilot, Microsoft requires that your company meet the following criteria:

Your company must be based (or have a legal entity) in the United States

Your company must have an existing Microsoft Enterprise Agreement (EA) that is valid for a minimum of 12 months after your entry into the pilot

You must already have purchased Software Assurance from Microsoft for your EA Windows Server Enterprise, Datacenter, and Standard licenses

You must be an Enterprise customer (Academic and Government institutions are not covered by this pilot)

Once you have enrolled in the pilot, you will be eligible to run your Windows Server licenses in Amazon EC2 for the next 12 months following your sign-up. You will still be responsible for maintaining the appropriate number of Client Access licenses and External Connector licenses needed to operate your EA Windows Server licenses.

To learn more about this pilot or sign-up, please visit http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/windows-license-mobility-pilot. We hope that you take advantage of this new pilot!

Sincerely,

The Amazon EC2 Team

We hope you enjoyed receiving this message. If you wish to remove yourself from receiving future product announcements or the AWS Newsletter, please update your communication preferences.

Amazon Web Services LLC is a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc. Amazon.com is a registered trademark of Amazon.com, Inc. This message produced and distributed by Amazon Web Services, LLC, 1200 12th Ave South, Seattle, WA 98144.

Thanks for checking out this post!

Cheers,

Murray Gordon
ISV Architect Evangelist
Microsoft Corporation

MurrayGordon.com
US ISV Team Blog

Get started with Microsoft Test Manager

2010-02-26T18:30:56Z

I been getting a lot of questions lately about the testing story for Visual Studio 2010. Here’s a little summary and resources to get you started.

Products that include Testing features

Three products provide testing functionality in Visual Studio 2010:

Visual Studio Test Professional: This is primarily for the generalist tester who wants to create manual test cases, run these tests and view the results as part of a test plan. This SKU includes the new application called Microsoft Test Manager. This SKU can be installed quickly and easily on the test machine where the tester wants to run their tests. You can also run automated tests from Microsoft Test Manager if an automated test is associated with a test case using functionality in one of the following two SKUs.
- NOTE - Visual Studio 2010 is not provided as part of the Test Professional.

Visual Studio 2010 Premium: This provides the features to enable a user to create unit tests and UI automated tests for an application. The tests that are created can be run from Microsoft Visual Studio 2010, the command line, Team Foundation Build, or be associated with a test case and run from a test plan using Microsoft Test Manager.
- NOTE - Microsoft Test Manager is not part of the Visual Studio 2010 Premium SKU.

Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate: This contains all the test functionality provided for Visual Studio 2010. It includes Microsoft Test Manager providing the functionality for planning, creating, and running test cases. It also enables you to create and run unit tests, UI automated tests, load tests and Web performance tests, generic tests and ordered tests using Microsoft Visual Studio 2010. These automated tests can be run from Microsoft Visual Studio 2010, the command line, Team Foundation Build, or be associated with a test case and run from a test plan using Microsoft Test Manager.
- NOTE - If you want to run load tests and simulate multiple users, you must also purchase virtual user license packs.

Full Story on Testing

Here’s the link to get the full story on testing http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms182409(VS.100).aspx

Opening Microsoft Test Manager

Here’s a screenshot of how to start Microsoft Test Manager, if you are running VS2010 Ultimate:

Thanks for checking out this post!

Cheers,

Murray Gordon
ISV Architect Evangelist
Microsoft Corporation

My Blog @ MSDN
MurrayGordon.com
US ISV Team Blog

Technorati Tags: Microsoft Test Manager,Visual Studio 2010

Windows Azure Resources for Decision Makers

2010-02-26T16:02:34Z

Jared Bienz, an ISV Architect Evangelist on our team covering the South Central Region, came up with this fairly comprehensive list of great resources on Windows Azure and Live Framework.

This content is great for business decision makers.

Don’t miss the link to the SQL Azure Migration Wizard at the bottom. If you haven’t seen it, this is a powerful tool.

Windows Azure Links

Windows Azure Homepage

The main public landing page for Windows Azure. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/

Windows Azure and ISVs – A Guide for Decision Makers

A great whitepapre written by David Chappell for ISV decision makers. http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=157857

Azure Case Studies

A great selection of whitepapers from big named companies like 3M, Seimens, Kelley Blue Book and more. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/evidence/

Azure Pricing

Main public pricing page. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/pricing/

Official Azure ROI and TO Calculator

The official TCO and ROI wizard. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/tco/

Getting Started with Azure

The primary public start page for those looking to move to or start development on Windows Azure. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/getstarted/

Azure Application Compatibility Support

Compatibility resources offered through the Microsoft FrontRunner program. http://frontrunner.msdev.com/whyjoin/windowsazure.aspx

Other Azure Resources

A great page summarizing many more Azure resources beyond what’s available in this list. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/resources/

SQL Azure Links

SQL Azure Migration Wizard

A great tool for migrating data between local SQL and SQL Azure, even between one SQL Azure instance and another. It does it’s best to transfer both structure and data, and it lets you know why if it can’t. http://sqlazuremw.codeplex.com/

Thanks for checking out this post!

Cheers,

Murray Gordon
ISV Architect Evangelist
Microsoft Corporation

My Blog @ MSDN
My Blog @ GeeksWithBlogs
US ISV Team Blog

SharePoint 2010 configuration, migration and feature breakdown

2010-02-22T19:04:35Z

Here’s some great info on SharePoint.

John Weise, ISV Architect Evangelist at Microsoft, pointed me at this TechNet info and thought I’d pass it along.

If you have anyone doing SharePoint work there is some great stuff here on configuration, migration and new feature breakdowns. These are all is PDF and great to have in your back pocket when talking through a SharePoint rollout.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263199(office.14).aspx

Thanks for checking out this post!

Cheers,

Murray Gordon
ISV Architect Evangelist
Microsoft Corporation

My Blog @ MSDN
My Blog @ GeeksWithBlogs
US ISV Team Blog

Technorati Tags: sharepoint,sharepoint 2010,sharepoint 2007,windows server 2008 r2

NEW Video - Lieberman Software talks about being a Microsoft partner at PDC 2009

2010-02-09T19:39:04Z

Phil Lieberman from Lieberman Software talked with us at PDC 2009 about their business, being a Microsoft partner and also the benefits of getting your product certified. Be sure to watch to the end to hear the great comment Phil makes about Windows XP and Windows 7.

Video Link - http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/jodonnell/Lieberman-Software-talks-about-being-a-Microsoft-partner-at-PDC-2009/

Thanks for checking out this post!

Cheers,

Murray Gordon
ISV Architect Evangelist
Microsoft Corporation

My Blog @ MSDN
My Blog @ GeeksWithBlogs
US ISV Team Blog

Technorati Tags: Certification,Developer,PDC2009,Windows 7,Windows Vista,Windows XP

NEW Video – Talking with NewsGator at PDC 2009

2010-02-09T19:18:58Z

Video Link - http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/jodonnell/Talking-with-NewsGator-at-PDC-2009/

At PDC this year, our team spoke to Glenn Berry of NewsGator Technologies, an RSS platform company, about their work with Microsoft development technologies.

This is a great video about Sharepoint, Silverlight and SQL 2008, shot by Warren Wilbee. Definitely worth checking out.

Thanks for checking out this post!

Cheers,

Murray Gordon
ISV Architect Evangelist
Microsoft Corporation

My Blog @ MSDN
My Blog @ GeeksWithBlogs
US ISV Team Blog

Technorati Tags: Newsgator,PDC2009,RSS-Reader,Sharepoint,Sharepoint 2010,Silverlight 4,SQL 2008

VIDEO - Gabriel Torok from PreEmptive Solutions talks with Murray Gordon at PDC 2009

2010-01-27T23:58:43Z

Video Link – Gabriel Torok from PreEmptive Solutions talks to me at PDC 2009

Check out this video I shot with with Gabriel Torok of PreEmptive Solutions about their solutions to help developers get better insight into their code. In addition Gabriel talked about the new Runtime Intelligence solution that helps developers gain insight into code performance in the field.

Technorati Tags: .NET 4,Developer Community,PDC2009,Runtime Intelligence

Thanks for checking out this post!

Cheers,

Murray Gordon
ISV Architect Evangelist
Microsoft Corporation

My Blog @ MSDN
My Blog @ GeeksWithBlogs
US ISV Team Blog

NEW Tool to Ease Migration from MySQL to SQL Server

2010-01-27T23:48:03Z

Microsoft Previews Tool to Ease Migration from MySQL to SQL Server

Microsoft has released a new preview version of a tool that enables users of the MySQL database to migrate to Microsoft's SQL Server.

On Jan. 11, Microsoft released a Community Technology Preview (CTP) of the Microsoft SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) for MySQL toolkit. This tool dramatically cuts the effort, cost and risk of migrating to SQL Server.

A new addition to the SSMA family is the CTP version 1.0 for MySQL that provides an assessment of migration efforts as well as automates schema and data migration from MySQL to SQL Server. Freely download and preview this tool now.

The tool comes in two versions: One for migrating from MySQL to SQL Server 2005 and another for migrating to SQL Server 2008 and SQL Azure -- Microsoft's cloud-based relational database service built on SQL Server technologies.

The tool is supported on Windows 7; Windows Server 2003; Windows Server 2008; Windows Server 2008 R2; Windows.

You can check out the original post I’m referring to on TechNet at http://blogs.technet.com/dataplatforminsider/archive/2010/01/11/free-download-microsoft-sql-server-migration-assistant.aspx

Technorati Tags: SQL Server 2008,MySQL,SSMA for MySQL

Thanks for checking out this post!

Cheers,

Murray Gordon
ISV Architect Evangelist
Microsoft Corporation

My Blog @ MSDN
My Blog @ GeeksWithBlogs
US ISV Team Blog

Rumor: Oracle-Citrix acquisition hits the rumor mill

2010-01-12T21:56:47Z

Interesting take on the possible move by Oracle to gain a real stake in the virtualization space.

http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/server-virtualization/oracle-citrix-acquisition-hits-the-rumor-mill/

Definitely worth a read.

Thanks for checking out this post!

Cheers,

Murray Gordon
ISV Architect Evangelist
Microsoft Corporation

My Blog @ MSDN
My Blog @ GeeksWithBlogs
US ISV Team Blog

New “Fact or Fiction?” Ads for PHP Developers

2010-01-12T20:28:17Z

Just read about this new “Fact or Fiction?” ad campaign for PHP developers that Wintellect completed for Microsoft.

These pages are navigated to via banner ads from a media buy that will target PHP developers (see attached image examples). The idea is to draw PHP developers into the ASP.NET and VSTS platforms.

A big media buy went along with this to post these banners around the web…

So we should be seeing these ads around the internet soon.

I love these ads. You get the Fiction, then the Fact, then a link to get the software.

Here’s the first 3 of this series:

FICTION - “Microsoft doesn’t provide any tools that a PHP Developer can use.”

http://www.factorfictionphp.com/tools-for-php-developers.php

FICTION - “PHP doesn’t run well on Windows.”

http://www.factorfictionphp.com/install-php-web-apps.php

FICTION – “Downloading Silverlight will break my machine.”

http://www.factorfictionphp.com/php-create-web-desktop-mobile-apps.php

Thanks for checking out this post!

Cheers,

Murray Gordon
ISV Architect Evangelist
Microsoft Corporation

My Blog @ MSDN
My Blog @ GeeksWithBlogs
US ISV Team Blog