Developer & Platform Evangelism - Financial Services Blog

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

fsdpe — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 19:00:00 GMT

In these difficult economic times, we believe it is a great time to hear the voices of customers across various industry sectors, who are driving down costs, improving efficiency, and increasing agility and quality of solutions to business problems. Whether your interest is in industry solutions, Application Lifecycle Management and/or Cloud Computing, we believe you will hear groundbreaking design and development techniques and walk away with actionable best practices for use in your business and technical decision making.

We are back with a great agenda and are coming to New York City May 5-6, 2009.

Interested? It is a free conference, consider yourself invited. Please register using this link.

See you there!

Live Framework and why should you care?

fsdpe — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 18:00:00 GMT

The Live Framework team recently published a short (but to the point) white paper entitled The Live Framework: What is it and Why Should I Care?

“The Live Framework provides a platform-agnostic, HTTP-based, resource-oriented programming model for accessing data. This programming model abstracts away the details of the File System, Networking APIs (for P2P and P2C), caching/storage APIs, serialization technologies, etc. and provides a consistent way to access data on all devices – PC, Mac, Mobile as well as (Windows Live) cloud. “

Contents include:

From My Computer to My Mesh
For what scenarios is the Live Framework relevant?
What problems does the Live Framework help you solve?
What is a cloud / client symmetric programming model?
How do application developers benefit from the Live Framework?
What is the programming model exposed by the Live Framework?
What application types are supported by the Live Framework?
What are the different flavors of Live Operating Environment available today?
Do I need the Client Live Operating Environment for creating client side applications?
What is the Live Framework Resource Model? How can applications interact with it?

Looking to jump in? This is what you’ll need to get started!

Windows 7 Beta 1 for MDC Attendees

fsdpe — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:00:24 GMT

Breaking news!!!

Attend an upcoming MSDN Developer Conference and you will receive a Windows 7 Beta 1 DVD.

Note: The Windows 7 DVDs will not be ready to hand out in time for the events happening in December, but we’ll definitely mail them out to you as soon as they become available. Everyone attending the event from Houston, Orlando and Atlanta WILL get their DVD, just not at the actual event :-)

Register today and you’ll get the best of the PDC in your own backyard and hear all of the exciting announcements around the Azure Services Platform and Windows 7.

Experience Windows Azure
Create applications that seamlessly bridge the gaps between PC, Web, and phone
Be among the first to see Windows 7
See the latest advances in Multi-Touch Application Development
Take your .NET skills to the next level
See sessions on WPF 4.0, Silverlight 2, The Future of C# and VB, ASP.NET 4.0, Live Mesh and more

The Cost? Just $99.
Check out the session line up…

Azure Services Platform	Client and Presentation	Tools, Languages and Framework
A Lap Around Windows Azure and the Azure Services Platform	ASP.NET and JQuery	The Future of Managed Languages: C#, and Visual Basic
Developing and Deploying Your First Azure Service	Developing Data-centric Applications Using the WPF DataGrid and Ribbon Controls	A Lap Around "Oslo"
A Lap Around the Live Framework and Mesh Services	Building Business Focused Applications using Silverlight 2	A Lap Around Visual Studio 2010
Developing Applications Using Microsoft SQL Data Services	ASP.NET 4.0 Roadmap	An Introduction to Microsoft F#

See you there!

Get in the Game with Visual Studio Team System

fsdpe — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:00:49 GMT

Have you seen the new stadium they are building for Visual Studio Team System? Complete with stadium seating, here's a picture...

Follow a blend of technology, resources and practical tips at the Visual Studio Team System Cafe and join us for a Lap Around VSTS 2010 at the MSDN Developer Conference.

Code Camp - Community, Great Content, Free, Prizes, this Saturday

fsdpe — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 14:00:07 GMT

Join me at the Code Camp in Stamford, Connecticut this Saturday. I'll be presenting 2 sessions - What I learned at the PDC *and* Silverlight+WCF *or* PowerShell for Developers (or all 3). As far as the actual event goes, from the organizers...

We have 4 tracks with 6 sessions for a total of 24 presentations plus a lunch time chat with Richard Hale Shaw. Some of the best regional and local developers will be speaking on some excellent topics including the latest announcements from the Professional Developers Conference such as Cloud Services and Live Framework as well as LINQ, Entity Framework, Silverlight 2.0, WCF, MVC and more.

We have a number of prizes from Red Gate, Telerik, Infragistics, Jet Brains, Microsoft and more including a Zune and an Xbox.

If you have not already registered then register now.

Https://www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=132314

The Sessions

See you there!

The Best of the PDC in your neighborhood

fsdpe — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 14:00:39 GMT

Coming to a city near you, check for yours. The MSDN Developer Conference will sell out early. Register today.

The cities...

The agenda...

The details...

Conference web site with additional information and details.

Measure Twice; Cut Once

fsdpe — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 08:00:15 GMT

Microsoft just announced a new version of the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit. What is it (emphasis mine)?

MAP is a scalable and agent-less assessment platform designed to make it easier for you to adopt the latest Microsoft technologies. In this version, MAP has expanded its assessment capabilities to include SQL Server 2008, Forefront/NAP, and Microsoft Online Services migration, as well as providing a Power Savings assessment to help you “go green.”

Here are the new features (there are many more):

SQL Server Database Instance Discovery
Microsoft Online Services Needs Assessment and Survey
Forefront Client Security/NAP Readiness Assessment
Power Savings Calculator
Virtualization Infrastructure Assessment

Could you use this? How would you? Do you care? Here's why you might - from the team's blog.

During challenging economic times, many businesses like yours look to cloud-based services, such as Microsoft Online Services including Exchange Online, to outsource their IT e-mail services and reduce capital expenditures. But how can you quickly determine what it takes to migrate to Exchange Online? What is your messaging needs for the next few years? Are your business desktops ready for the migration to “the cloud”?

Distributed Computing at the Architecture Journal

fsdpe — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Just in time for the PDC, the latest Architecture Journal is focused on Distributed Computing. Check it out!

P.S. If you are a fan of the WPF based Reader like I am – great for offline and great digital reading experience, a reliable source mentioned that this issue will find its way to the reader (after a short time lag).

Back to Basics – the Microsoft Financial Services Newsletter for Developers

fsdpe — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 13:00:00 GMT

Just received the latest edition of the newsletter and thought it was a good read to share in its entirety. The theme? Back to Basics. What do you think?

Welcome to the Fall 2008 edition of the Microsoft Financial Services Developer Newsletter!

As the financial services industry continues to grapple with this period of unprecedented turmoil, one mantra seems to be emerging as a guiding principle among the few firms that are successfully weathering the storm: back to basics. Gone are the days when banks sought to secure competitive advantage through their trading operations, dealing in increasingly complex securities, with profits (and losses) magnified by the use of extreme leverage. Indeed, Wall Street’s final two stalwarts of traditional investment banking have recently transformed themselves into commercial bank holding companies, subject to greater regulation and also eligible to participate in traditional banking activities such as lending and taking deposits.

So what does “back to basics” mean for the industry, and for the developers and architects who enable financial innovation through software? There are many implications, but today I’d like to highlight three in particular.

First, as competition grows for securing customer deposits, excellence in branch banking becomes even more important, as does the need for deep customer insight. Understanding customer needs, presenting compelling offers that are tailored to individual needs, and keeping branch operational costs under control once again sound like great ideas, and technology has an important role to play in achieving each of these goals.

Second, risk management and compliance take center stage as regulators begin to look more closely at all aspects of a financial firm’s operations. Likewise, financial institutions, burned once by risky investments, take a closer look at everything from their securities holdings to their processes for underwriting commercial and consumer loans. In exchange for access to government-provided liquidity, financial institutions of all sizes and sub-specializations will subject themselves to even greater regulatory scrutiny. Developments in the United States this week provide early evidence of this trend.

Finally, as the structure of the industry continues to change -- with mergers, acquisitions, bankruptcies, and divestitures transforming not only firms but entire sectors of the market -- organizational agility becomes of paramount importance. Successfully integrating acquired firms may be the differentiating core competency in this era of unprecedented consolidation.

Where does Microsoft technology fit into this picture, and how can you -- along with your partners in financial services -- thrive in these uncertain times? Getting “back to the basics” in branch banking means understanding customers, and Microsoft’s business intelligence (BI) suite can help with this goal by making BI ubiquitous within your organization. From the core capabilities of Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services that power customer insight, all the way through to the end-user tools such as Microsoft Office Excel 2007 and Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 that allow users at all levels of a financial institution to transform insight into action, we provide a comprehensive platform that financial developers can use to drive customer insight.

In the area of risk management and compliance, Microsoft BI is also important, as are many of the capabilities of Microsoft Exchange Server, such as digital rights management, archiving and retention policies, and many more. Added to our increasingly strong offering in enterprise search, as well as a robust portfolio of partner solutions, Microsoft has the technology to help financial firms better manage risk. Finally, in the area of integration, Microsoft continues to make significant investments in simplifying complex integration requirements, as demonstrated by our announcements regarding “Oslo,” “Dublin,” and many other technologies. Likewise, cloud computing -- specifically “finished services” such as Microsoft Exchange Online -- can help ease the integration of acquired companies by providing a rapidly implemented solution for migrating e-mail accounts. “Oslo,” “Dublin,” and our initiatives in cloud computing will be discussed in greater detail at the upcoming Professional Developer’s Conference (PDC) later this month, so I encourage you to attend this event.

In summary, Microsoft technology can play a key role in enabling financial institutions to get back to the basics during this time of unprecedented change. Until next quarter, I wish you success in all your endeavors, and best of luck in these challenging times.

Regards,

Brian Jackson
Technology Strategist
Microsoft Corporation

You can sign up for the newsletter here.

Silverlight 2 as Interoperability Glue

fsdpe — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 18:45:22 GMT

Say it fast and it rhymes! I was reading the press announcement that Silverlight 2.0 is ready (the bits should propagate to the web soon), and I liked this nugget:

This is great, following the link to the Soyatec's eclipse4SL page gives some screen shots and a timeline for the project.

This is really well done. For my Java buddies, this announcement (and the bits in December - fingers crossed) coupled with a cup of Silverlight, RIA and Interoperability is a very cool combo. Read more about Silverlight and Java Interop at InfoQ.

IE8 and the horse's mouth

fsdpe — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 18:30:02 GMT

I know it is a horrible expression, but if you are looking to get some questions answered about IE8 (Beta 2 has been out since end of August), you will want to mark your calendars for this Thursday:

The transcripts of older conversations are a great way to catch up on things you may have missed. E.g. If you are concerned about compatibility with older, quirky browser behaviors *and* you have embedded IE (e.g. like the Vista Sidebar does), then you'll want to know about this:

Q: What's the difference between Visual Studio WebBrowser and Internet Explorer 8.0 itself? Can I get IE 8.0 embedded in my Windows Forms Applications?

A: The latest version of the WebOC/Trident is automatically used in .NET applications when IE8 is installed. By default, the control operates in IE7 emulation mode.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/chats/transcripts/08_0814_ez_ie8.mspx

Developers, are you ready for IE 8?

P.S. Join the IE Team on their blog for in depth technical information.

Hello Dublin - more on .NET Framework 4.0

fsdpe — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:07:16 GMT

Dublin? Check out Steve Martin's blog for details. Follow the links for what is coming to Windows Server:

Internet Explorer 8 - you ready?

fsdpe — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 19:45:19 GMT

Hey enterprise developers, are you ready for IE 8? There is an all in one IE 8 compatibility page that talks about the whys and the hows. Check it out!

P.S. You'll see links to adding the X-UA-Compatible tag for IIS and Apache. Nice.

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=EmulateIE7"/>

Demystifying WPF, Vista, Security and something about SP1

fsdpe — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:00:01 GMT

Sound intriguing? MSDN Events will be presenting:

Session 1: Demystifying WPF
Today’s applications need to do more than simply work. They need to draw in the user, and provide a differentiated experience. This means moving beyond battleship gray forms, boxy UIs, and providing a positive user experience. Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) provides powerful capabilities to develop a compelling user interface, the kind that makes an application stand out. In this session, we’ll examine the core concepts of WPF such as layout panels, data binding, styles and control templates, and we’ll use them to develop an application UI from the ground up.

Session 2: Ten reasons your applications will be more secure when deployed on Vista

Reputations are tough to shake – particularly in the software industry. While Microsoft Windows has enjoyed great market share, especially in the desktop OS space, its industry position has made it a target for hackers worldwide. Microsoft leadership recognized the need to develop a security engineering approach that could withstand global Internet scrutiny, and Windows Vista is the first desktop operating system to embody this significant philosophy shift. Vista is built from end to end with security at the very forefront of the project. In this session, you'll learn 10 reasons why your application is more secure when it's deployed on Vista. We'll also cover new capabilities designed to protect memory, minimize privilege and provide resource-oriented access control, plus a plethora of additional security enhancements.

Session 3: Developing Applications with Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1
Service Pack 1 and Visual Studio 2008 introduce a wide variety of new features for targeting Windows, Office and the Web. This includes more controls, a streamlined setup, improved startup performance, fresh graphics features, improved AJAX support, and much more. We’re also introducing the ADO.NET Entity Framework and ADO.NET Data Services, which are designed to simplify application data access by providing an extensible, conceptual model for data from any source, while enabling this model to closely reflect business requirements. Don’t miss this lively session and learn how to use these powerful new features in your applications

Headed to NY and NJ late August, get in!

Go get it - Visual Studio 2008/.NET Framework 3.5 SP1 (and the Training Kit)

fsdpe — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 02:30:21 GMT

SP1 is here; complete with the revved 3.5 Enhancements Training Kit. Jonathan reveals all, including the links to the released versions of SP1.

Here's a taste...

P.S. The Training Kit is a great tool for self study and community building. For the original kit, they released videos of the original delivery of the sessions (checking if they have recordings for this version - stay tuned). You can grab it all in one place. Good stuff!