Windows Azure Platform .NET Services (Service Bus and Access Control Service) is now Windows Azure Platform AppFabric.
That is not to be confused with Windows Server AppFabric which consists of Dublin and Velocity.
More to come soon…
Bill Zack
I plan to do a lot of blogging about Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference and Windows Azure while in LA this week. However this is not one of those posts.
I arrived in LA on Friday to spend the weekend with my son who lives there. For fun we took a ride down past Disneyland to see the Microsoft Store in Mission Viejo California. After all it was only an hour and a half south of LA!
This is the second of the new Microsoft retail stores to open. It was located in an upscale mall, The Shops at Mission Viejo. Outside the store the mall was covered in banners and signs advertising the store.
I was there on a Saturday afternoon and it was mobbed. On display were computers from Dell, Lenovo, HP and others, several mobile phones, hardware accessories, Xboxes and lots and lots of software. (I fell in love with the new solid-state Dell Adamo, despite the price.)
There were also several Microsoft Surface table-top units on display but it was impossible to get close to them due to their popularity.
The Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) based computer wall that wrapped completely around the store was a nice effect.
The Microsoft staffers (and there were a lot of them) were very enthusiastic and anxious to help everyone who walked in. At one point they even all got together and did a dance number to the music playing from the speakers in the store. (Electric Slide!)
I had heard that there was an Apple Store also in the mall but it was closed for renovation so we could not compare the crowds. All-in-all it was a pretty cool experience!
Bill
The folks from Alinan have developed a very comprehensive and detailed TCO/ROI comparison tool for the Microsoft Windows Azure Platform. You can access the tool at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/tco/.
This tool does an excellent job of calculating the TCO/ROI of hosting an existing application on the Windows Azure Platform as compared to running the application on-premise. In doing this it considers not only the cost of operation but the entire application life-cycle. This includes planning, acquisition, setup and installation, management and support, evolution and retirement of the application. In the case of an existing on-premise application it also considers the cost of migrating the application.
One impediment to the use of the tool could be that it does require you to know what your existing on-premise application is actually costing you. (Believe it or not some companies do not actually know that!) But never fear. The tool is loaded with lots of industry standard data for all aspects of an on-premise application environment. (The folks from Alinan are experts in this area.) I do recommend that you sit down with your local Microsoft representative to determine the appropriate numbers to feed into the tool.
Here are some screen shots from the tool to whet your appetite . You will be hearing a lot more about it in the coming weeks and months. I will also update this post as more information becomes avialble
Lots of terrific articles posted this week on the Innovation Showcase news site. Read about new features in Visual Studio 2010, check out David Chappells’ whitepaper on the SharePoint 2010 Developer Platform and see video interviews with Don Box and Dave Thompson.
Visit the Innovation Showcase Site
Subscribe to the Innovation Showcase Feed
Follow Innovation Showcase on Twitter
This is the beginning of an on-going calendar of Windows Azure related events in the New York, New Jersey and Southern Connecticut area. Please let me know of any other Windows Azure events that you know about.
To start it off:
Again, if you know of any other Windows Azure related events in this area please let me know.
Thanks
I like working for Microsoft (That's in case my boss is listening :-)) but it has never been as much fun as it was today. As you know by now Windows 7 launched today. I was asked to volunteer to go to my local Best Buy and demonstrate the features of Windows 7 to their customers.
What a blast! As an Architect Evangelist for Microsoft I deal mostly with enterprise customers so I had never done anything like this before, dealing directly with consumers. It was a great experience. Not only was the response to Windows 7 universally positive but it also accounted for record computer sales at this Best Buy. Computers were literally flying off the shelves. I spoke to the person at the door who was responsible for logging out every sold computer as it left the store. On a good day they were selling about 10 computers (this Best Buy is not in a major population area.) By noon they already had sold twice that number!
Most of the customers that I spoke to indicated that they had been to the store recently looking for a computer but had decided to wait until they could get one loaded with Windows 7. Several of the customers were looking for a computer for small children in the 8-13 year old range. In particular the Parental Controls features were a big hit with them. Others just liked the little usability features that permeate the operating system.
Happy is Here, and I have no doubt that More Happy is Coming. :-)
It is great when my worlds collide. As many of you know I am an Architect Evangelist with Microsoft. I also run the New York City chapter of the International Association of Software Architect (IASA).
On October 12-14, 2009 we held our IT Architect Regional Conference in New York. This was billed as the Thought Leaders Edition because of all the industry Architecture thought leaders presenting there.
Here is a montage of screen shots from the event.
Microsoft Sponsors the New York IT Architecture Regional Conference
The Thought Leaders Panel. Left to right: Angela Yochem (Dell Enterprise Architect and IASA Fellow), Grady Booch (Chief Scientist, IBM/Rational), Roger Sessions: (ObjectWatch), John Zachman (President of Zachman Associates, CEO of Zachman Frameworks Associates and arguably the father of Enterprise Architecture), Bill Inmon: (Arguably the father of the Data Warehouse.) and Eric Evans: (Author of the book Domain Driven Design and the father of that discipline).
Angela Yochem: on Enterprise Architecture
Eric Evans on Domain Driven Design.
John Zachman on Enterprise Architecture and the Zachman Framework.
SQL Azure will go live next month at PDC on November 17th. Since SQL Azure is accessed using the standard TDS (Tabular Data Stream) protocol used by SQL Server most existing application clients and tools should be able to work with it virtually unchanged. There are some slight differences mainly in the capabilities supported in SQL Azure vs. SQL Server and so there may be a period of time where the existing on-premise SQL Server tools have to catch up with SQL Azure. For instance in the current CTP SQL Management Studio works after a fashion but not all of its features are fully working yet. The same can be said for tools like BCP, SSIS, etc.
In the meantime there have been a number of useful SQL Azure tools developed and contributed to the community via CodePlex and other sources. Note that most of these tools have been developed with CTP versions of SQL Azure and may have to be updated to work with the released version next month. It is also possible that some of the exiting supported tools may obviate the need for them. However they do serve at least as a temporary substitute and as an illustration of how to develop SQL Azure applications and tools.
Here is a brief summary of a few of them:
SQL Azure Migration Wizard. This wizard helps you to migrate an on-premise SQL Server 2005 or 2008 database to SQL Azure. It creates the necessary scripts required to do the migration.
SQL Azure Explorer This tool is an add-in for Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1 (only) that lets you create/drop databases, logins and users and perform other database related functions from within Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1.
SQL Azure Manager is a lightweight tool for managing SQL Azure databases. It is a community effort to quickly enable connecting to SQL Azure databases and performing basic tasks.
For information on more tools and sample applications go to CodePlex and search for “SQL Azure”.
We invite you to explore Windows Azure™ – Microsoft’s platform for building and deploying cloud based applications – from a real world point of view!
During this event, we’ll review critical lessons Microsoft IT has learned migrating internal line-of-business applications to Windows Azure™.
What is Windows Azure™? When should I use it? How does it apply to my job? Whether you’re an IT Professional, Developer or Architect, we’ll address your top of mind questions about cloud computing.
TechNet Events Presents – for the IT Professional from 8:30am to noon
In this session, we will discuss:
· Azure architecture from the IT professional’s point of view
· Why an IT operations team would want to pursue Azure as an extension to the data center
· Configuration, deployment and scaling Azure-based applications
· The Azure roles (web, web service and worker)
· Azure storage options
· Azure security and identity options
· How Azure-based applications can be integrated with on-premises applications
· How operations teams can manage and monitor Azure-based applications
TechNet LIVE Webcast | REGISTER >>
MSDN Events Presents – for the Developer & Architect from 1:00pm to 5:00pm
· Cloud computing architectures in general and the Azure architecture in particular
· Several aspects of Azure from the developer’s and architect’s perspective
· Azure roles (web, web service and worker)
· How Azure-based applications can be integrated with on-premise applications
· How development teams can optimize their applications for better management and monitoring
MSDN LIVE Webcast | REGISTER >>
As promised Microsoft announced today some very important enhancements to the Windows Azure Platform. We now have a deployment and management API that developers and third-parties can use to do things like deploy and manage Windows Azure compute and storage components. The old portal still exists, but having an API gives you much more flexibility.
We also announced more flexibility in how you can deploy applications. For instance you can now deploy applications directly to Production without going through Staging if you so desire. For more information see http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsazure/
Windows Azure .NET Services provides powerful capabilities to connect disparate endpoints across and through the firewalls in place at multiple organizations.
It also provides a general claims-based authentication service in the cloud that can be used to protect REST based cloud storage and other resources.
These are fairly complex components to understand but this blog post by David Aiken of the Azure Evangelism team links to a short video developed by another member of the Azure evangelism team, Nigel Wattling, that explains it very well.
It is worth a look. Highly recommended.
October 12-14 is almost here. Don’t forget to register for the biggest Architecture event to hit New York, ever! See the event description. The event is filling up fast.
On that date in New York The International Association of Software Architect (IASA) will hold the biggest IT Architect Regional Conference (ITARC) ever held, perhaps the biggest IT Architecture conference ever held anywhere. Although it is billed as a regional conference it will bring together most of the leading architects of our generation, people like Grady Booch, John Zackman, Eric Evans, Bill Inmon, Len Bass, etc. This is the first time that all these industry though-leaders have ever assembled in one place.
In addition to hearing keynotes about the state of architecture today from these thought-leaders you will also hear from many other local and national architects in five parallel breakout tracks and have the option to attend a one day training pre-conference as well.
Please attend the conference. Furthermore, whether you can attend or, not please post the conference announcement prominently where you work and pass it on to all other senior developers, architects, CTOs, and CIOs in your company. Also please pass it on to your peers in other companies and post it on any social networks that you use like Face book, Twitter and LinkedIn.
In order to stimulate attendance we are offering a 10% discount off the listed registration fee to anyone who registers using the special user group registration code: chapter2346. Also, for every company that registers three attendees they will get a fourth attendee from that company in free!
The event will be held at an incredible new facility in New York, Lighthouse International, at 111 East 59th Street (between Lexington and Park Avenue, close to many subway lines) Our venue committee has posted a screen show of the facility.
For more details on the event please see the event description here.
Please help us make New York the Architecture capital of the world in October!
Sincerely
Bill Zack, President, IASA New York http://blogs.msdn.com/billzack (Blog) 646 225-4904 (Work phone) 203 545-2339 (Mobile phone)
Join us at Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 and Silverlight 3 Innovation Showcase where you can learn how IE8 & SL3 features deliver the best web experience for your users. Register today to see what Innovation can do for you!
During this showcase we will discuss how you can Expand your Business Reach with Internet Explorer 8 and Build Line-of-Business Applications with Silverlight 3 and Expression Studio 3.
Who Should Attend: Solution Architects, CIO’s, CTO’s, Development Managers, Lead Developers, Business Decision Makers.
City/State
Date
Microsoft Location
Registration Link
Charlotte, NC
9/15, 2009
Charlotte Directions
Charlotte Registration
New York, NY
9/16, 2009
New York Directions
NY Registration
Farmington, CT
9/17, 2009
Farmington Directions
Farmington Registration
Reston, VA
9/18, 2009
Reston Directions
Reston Registration
Waltham, MA
9/22, 2009
Waltham Directions
Waltham Registration
Ft Lauderdale, FL
Ft Lauderdale Directions
Ft Lauderdale Registration
Bill Zack, Architect Evangelist
Microsoft Developer & Platform Evangelism
http://blogs.msdn.com/billzack (Blog)
646 225-4904 (Work phone)
203 545-2339 (Mobile phone)
Architects: Adverse times are also best times for innovation! Choosing the right battles to fight, and reinventing ourselves with less resources are par for the course today. However, not all innovation needs to be revolutionary or transformative. In fact, in the current economic crisis, opportunities for innovation can be found in aspects of our core competencies, and implemented as incremental and iterative changes.
For this series of Architect Council live webcasts on August 24 and 25, we will discuss two of the many ways architects can innovate by recognizing the impact to architects, and learning how to effectively leverage cloud computing beyond just another place to host existing assets.
DAY 1 – August 24, 2009 at Noon PST
Role of the Architect in Turbulent Times -- Event ID: 1032423112
Miha Kralj – Architect, Microsoft
With faltering economies and the resulting shift of priorities - architects must be ready for change in their role. Innovative new technologies such as Cloud Based Computing, Software as a Service and Virtualization open up new and exciting opportunities for architects to show value in their organizations. In this session we will discuss how the role of the architect has changed, introduce new architectural patterns, and show how to "do more with less".
Link to Register: ARCHITECT COUNCIL | Innovation is the Name of the Game Day 1 Live Meeting
DAY 2 – August 25, 2009 at Noon PST
A Closer Look at an Internet Service Bus -- Event ID: 1032423113
Clemens Vasters – Program Manager .NET Online Services, Microsoft
Look under the hood of the Microsoft .NET Services service bus - the protocols we use- and how to use the services from non-Microsoft platforms and languages. Learn which part of the messages and requests the Building Block service inspects, which parts are not inspected, and how you can verify this. Also, learn how to work through NAT and Firewall limitations. Lastly, hear about architecture on the Data Center side that enables "Internet scale”.
Link to Register: ARCHITECT COUNCIL | Innovation is the Name of the Game Day 2 Live Meeting
As a senior architect on the Microsoft Platform Architecture Team, Miha Kralj is responsible for leading architectural communities, helping the architectural profession to mature and grow, and coordinating activities within professional architectural organizations and bodies. Miha is a Microsoft Certified Architect (MCA), Project Management Professional (PMP), and Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP). He was also a founding member of the Project Management Institute (PMI) chapters in Slovenia and Yugoslavia.
Clemens Vasters is a Principal Technical Lead in the .NET Services team, working in an architect role on the 'Service Bus' feature area and acting – more behind the scenes – as the architect for the Billing feature area and as the architect/lead developer for the internal Provisioning infrastructure of .NET Services. Before joining Microsoft some 3 years ago, Clemens spoke at many conferences, taught technology, and helped companies with software architecture in over 35 countries.
On October 12-14, 2009 in New York IASA will hold the biggest IT Architect Regional Conference (ITARC) ever held, perhaps the biggest IT Architecture conference ever held anywhere. Although it is billed as a regional conference it will bring together most of the leading architects of our generation, people like Grady Booch, John Zackman, Eric Evans, Bill Inmon, Len Bass, etc. This is the first time that all these industry though-leaders have ever assembled in one place.
Please attend the conference. Furthermore, whether you can attend or, not please post the conference announcement prominently where you work and pass it on to all other senior developers, architects, CTOs, and CIOs in your company. Also please pass it on to your peers in other companies and post it on any social networks that you use like Twitter and LinkedIn. We have a lot of great architects committed to attend and we need to make this a success.
Please help us make New York the Architecture capital of the world in October.