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How to access data today: ORM

2009-11-11T16:56:48Z

ORM, Workflow, Modelling. What do they have in common?

Well they are three areas that seem to have been in transition for ever. Especially in the Microsoft world.

So I decided to take a closer look and I’m starting with ORM, Object Relational Mapping which is the way to access data today. Like it, or not, it is generally the preferred way today.

A great staring point is Eric Nelson’s session which is apparently already from March: http://www.infoq.com/presentations/ORM-LINQ-Entity-Framework-Eric-Nelson

Here’s what I remember: Link to entities (part of ADO.NET Entity Framework) is our strategic technology. This is Microsoft’s and probably your long term bet. Why?

- It is not just there for SQL Server

- Microsoft is investing in this, see for instance the ADO.NET Entity Data Model Designer (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc716685(VS.100).aspx)

- Microsoft is using it in other Microsoft products (SQL Data Services…)

- There are plenty partners building on it (IBM, OpenLink, DevForce, LLBLGen v3…)

Here is Eric’s page with resources on the Entity Framework. Be sure to check it out! http://geekswithblogs.net/iupdateable/archive/2009/09/23/entity-framework-4.0-resources-ndash-documentation-links-best-blog-posts.aspx

At Tech Ed Europe 2009

2009-11-11T14:59:35Z

Day 3 at Tech Ed Europe 2009. No vacation day here like at home in Belgium. You can follow live comments here: http://search.twitter.com/search?max_id=5618541733&page=5&q=%23tee09

Details on the Microsoft Courier

2009-11-04T23:22:24Z

Is it real? http://gizmodo.com/5381011/microsoft-couriers-swipes-snips-and-scribbles-the-leaked-interface I don’t know.

It sure is intriguing. What’s clear is that NUI’s are starting to be implemented. The Microsoft Surface is just scratching the, well…, surface.

This is the time to get your MSDN Premium

2009-11-04T13:26:19Z

Because, if you have this today, you will get more when VS2010 arrives:

Here’s how subscription levels will transition:

If you have this active subscription on March 22, 2010:	…then your subscription will become this:	…and you’ll get everything you had before, plus:
Visual Studio Team System Team Suite with MSDN Premium	Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN	Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate, Team Foundation Server 2010 + CAL
Visual Studio Team System editions with MSDN Premium (Architecture, Database, Development, Test)	Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN	Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate, Team Foundation Server 2010 + CAL
Visual Studio Professional with MSDN Premium	Visual Studio 2010 Premium with MSDN	Visual Studio 2010 Premium, Team Foundation Server 2010 + CAL
Visual Studio Professional with MSDN Professional	Visual Studio 2010 Professional with MSDN	Visual Studio 2010 Professional, Team Foundation Server 2010 + CAL
Visual Studio Professional with MSDN Embedded	Visual Studio 2010 Professional with MSDN Embedded	Visual Studio 2010 Professional
MSDN Operating Systems	MSDN Operating Systems

See details of the Ultimate Offer for devs

And then there are the Windows Azure Platform benefits! https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/subscriptions/ee461076.aspx

Watch Remix09 sessions online

2009-11-02T11:15:57Z

All content is available online in case you missed it.

1. Watch the sessions here: http://www.microsoft.com/belux/remix09/#agenda

2. Download the tools announced at reMIX here: http://www.microsoft.com/belux/remix09/#resources

3. Follow us here: Twitter (@remixbe), Facebook, Linkedin

XRM: Interesting session for ISV’s

2009-11-02T10:09:32Z

Overview of the possibilities of Dynamics xRM

xRM (Anything Relationship Management) is the natural evolution of CRM (Customer Relationship Management). In today’s dynamic business environment companies demand the ability to manage anything (X=anything), not simply relationships with customers.
Microsoft CRM sits on the .NET platform and because of that, it is much more than a traditional CRM product. Instead, a better way to think of Microsoft CRM is as a rapid development application with out of the box CRM functionality, capable of instantly leveraging the .NET platform, and a vast array of Microsoft applications.

Target Audience: Business & Technical Decision Makers

Date: November 26—Afternoon

Questions? Send me a message.

Deploying Windows 7

2009-10-28T09:52:28Z

The interest in Windows 7 is huge. Yesterday before noon I was at a customer testing application compatibility with Windows 7 because they wanted to offer their employees the option to jump straight from Windows XP to Windows 7. In the afternoon I was speaking to an IT crowd from local governments lot’s of questions about deployment there too.

So here’s a useful resource:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=EE2A1D38-88A9-43B3-95BC-7E962F0B6030&displaylang=en

Windows 7 Application Compatibility

2009-10-28T09:07:06Z

The E-ID software you need to run work with your Belgian electronic identity card has been tested on compatibility with Windows 7 32 and 64 bits. The outcome was all green lights so you can now see here (FR) http://eid.belgium.be/fr/Comment_installer_l_eID/Windows/ and here (NL) http://eid.belgium.be/nl/Hoe_installeer_je_de_eID/Windows/ that the software is compatible.

Of course we have many more ISV’s who declared their software compatible. More in fact than was the case at the launch of any previous version of Windows. Here’s a list:

https://partner.microsoft.com/belux-nl/40119619

I’m impressed!

Acceptance test Engineering Guide

2009-07-02T16:29:49Z

Beta 2 of this guide has just been released:

http://www.codeplex.com/Wiki/View.aspx?ProjectName=TestingGuidance

The first guide will cover the discipline of acceptance testing from several perspectives and contexts. It will provide models, heuristics and a set of actionable job aides rooted in a sample app. The focus is on:

How to Plan for Acceptance Testing
What Kinds of Acceptance Tests to Run
How to Create and Run Acceptance Tests
Defining What “Done” Means
How to Justify Your Approach

Surface SDK finally there for all Microsoft Partners

2009-06-30T19:13:34Z

Go here and register: https://partner.surface.com/en/Pages/default.aspx

If you are not a Microsoft partner yet then this is the place to go to:

http://partner.surface.com/EN/Pages/MicrosoftPartnerProgram.aspx

Azure Services Platform coming to Europe

2009-06-30T15:11:31Z

Great to read on the MS Datacenters blog that we are bringing the Dublin datacenter live tomorrow, July 1st.

http://blogs.technet.com/msdatacenters/archive/2009/06/29/microsoft-brings-two-more-mega-data-centers-online-in-july.aspx

The Dublin, Ireland, data center is our first mega data center built outside of the United States. This building covers 303,000 square feet, with 5.4 mega watts of critical power available now. Over time, the data center can expand to a total of 22.2 mega watts of critical power, growing with our business and customer demand. The facility makes extensive use of outside air economization to cool the facility year round, resulting in greater power efficiency with a resultant reduction in carbon footprint.

Let’s hope we will be able to set the geo location bit for Azure applications soon to keep the data in Europe. This might be interesting for legal reasons and for bandwidth/network speed related challenges.

Dynamic Datacenter Toolkit

2009-06-26T14:32:42Z

Looks like there will be a lot of interesting content at the Worldwide Partner Conference.

For instance the session abstract about the Dynamic Datacenter Toolkit reveals some interesting information such as the expected availability.

Since many of you ISV’s are also offering hosted solutions, I thought that especially the Toolkit for Hosters would be of interest to you.

If you want to start building your Private Cloud today, you can visit the website and get an early start: http://dynamicdatacentertoolkit.com/

Session details:

CI011 Building the Foundation for a Cloud Computing Infrastructure

Presenters: Hyder Ali, Radhesh Balakrishnan, Frank Zakrajsek

Tue 7/14 | 3:30 PM-4:30 PM | 252-254

Get an overview of Microsoft's cloud computing infrastructure strategy and how it can help customers lower costs while improving agility within their datacenters. We share the architecture and demo both the Dynamic Datacenter Toolkit for Hosters (available now!) that enables hosting Partners to offer managed servers in a hosted environment, and the Dynamic Datacenter Toolkit for Enterprises (available Q4 CY 2009) that enables building the foundation for a Private cloud.

Session Type: Breakout Session

Track: Core Infrastructure

Competency Focus: Advanced Infrastructure Solutions, Networking Infrastructure Solutions, Security

Level: Intermediate

Partner Type: Hoster, Independent Software Vendor, Systems Integrator/Services, Value Added Reseller

Product: Servers: Windows Server

Windows 7, the boxes

2009-06-24T12:01:15Z

http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windows7/archive/2009/06/23/check-out-the-new-windows-7-packaging.aspx

Very clean designs, I like that. I’m also really happy to see that the boxes are simplified.

First time I tried to open a Vista box, I had to go search the web. Embarrassing? Microsoft even created a special page for it. See first link… http://www.bing.com/search?q=opening+a+vista+box&form=IE8SRC&src=IE-SearchBox

Gerd Debruycker blogs about Virtual Conferences and football marketing

2009-06-24T00:36:00Z

Gerd Debruycker is an event veteran at Microsoft. He has been driving many events succesfully amongst which Tech Ed and many others.

Finally Gerd started to blog. http://gerdde.wordpress.com/

He blogs about Virtual Conferences and about football marketing. He playes football with the best at the time.

Enjoy!

Hans

Belgian VSTS Case study

2009-06-22T15:13:14Z

Recently, a new case study was released highlight the benefits that ADAM saw from implementing VSTS.

Dutch: http://www.microsoft.com/belux/nl/cases/?case=adam

French: http://www.microsoft.com/belux/fr/cases/?case=adam

Adam is a software house active in the sector of Digital Asset Management. They engaged with Compuware to introduce Visual Studio Team System to their developer team and implement VSTS as a the toolset that supports their Application Lifecycle.

As expected they are seeing a lot of benefits from it. They automated a lot of tasks which would otherwise be executed manually – like the build process – and find it much easier now to switch between projects. Read the cases study to find out about the other advantages they are seeing.

(In the picture on the left Pieter Gheysens and on the right Michael Vanhoutte).