No Spin Architecture : Events and Misc

Aspiring Architect Series - 2008

makif — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 22:40:00 GMT

About: This blog post is about the upcoming Aspiring Architect Series

Greetings,

Based on suggestions I received from my blog readers, I have organized the next part of the architect series and have lined up a great set of speakers. Please share the links with your peers, I hope that you will find it to be useful investment of your time

Aspiring Architect Series 2008

Last year we held a Web Cast series for aspiring architects that was attended by over 1200 individuals and covered a number of strategies that can help developers and IT professionals to transition to the architect roles. The Aspiring Architect Series 2008 builds on last year’s content and covers a number of topics that are important for architects to understand. Please make sure that you have gone through the 2007 series which can be found at http://blogs.msdn.com/mohammadakif/archive/tags/Aspiring+Architects/default.aspx . We are hopeful that you will find the upcoming series to be a very useful investment of your time.

June 16^th, 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Introduction to the aspiring architect Web Cast series

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032380836&Culture=en-CA

June 17^th, 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Services Oriented Architecture and Enterprise Service Bus – Beyond the hype

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032380838&Culture=en-CA

June 18^th, 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – TOGAF and Zachman, a real-world perspective

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032380840&Culture=en-CA

June 19^th, 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Services Oriented Architecture (Web Cast in French)

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032380842&Culture=en-CA

June 20^th, 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Interoperability (Web Cast in French)

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032380844&Culture=fr-CA

June 23^rd , 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Realizing dynamic systems

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032380846&Culture=en-CA

June 24^th, 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Web 2.0, beyond the hype

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032380848&Culture=en-CA

June 25^th, 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Architecting for the user experience

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032380850&Culture=en-CA

June 26^th, 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Conclusion and next steps

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032380852&Culture=en-CA

Best regards,

Mohammad

Videos - Canadian Strategic Architect Forum

makif — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 20:41:00 GMT

About: This post is about CSAF 2008

Hello,

The annual Canadian Strategic Architect forum was held in Vancouver this week, one of the participants has been blogging about the event and has compiled the links to the video recordings of the sessions delivered at CSAF. We had a number of Microsoft and industry speakers, my personal favorite was the session delivered by Richard Cleaver, Chief Architect of Bank of Montreal

http://www.archiveloper.com/

Best regards,

Mohammad

Architect Jobs

makif — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 21:23:00 GMT

About: This blog post is about architect job opportunities

Greetings,

I was recently contacted by my friends at PetValue and the BC government to help them find some good architects, I am posting the links here, please go through them and circulate them in your circle of friends as well

http://www.bctc.com/careers/jobs.htm

Job Description for Petvalu

http://www.petvalu.com/careers/sysarch.htm

Growth and future business initiatives at Petvalu:

http://www.petvalu.com/aboutus/investorrelations.htm

Best regards,

Mohammad

best regards,

Mohammad

Resources: Visual Studio 2008, Windows Server 2008, SQL 2008

makif — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 23:40:00 GMT

About: This post contains the list of resources about Visual Studio 2008, Windows Server 2008 and SQL 2008

Greetings,

I want to thank all of you who attended the Architect Track at launch and provided feedback; here are some of the resources we mentioned during our track.

General

1. Joel’s blog (in French)

a. http://blogs.msdn.com/joelq

2. Channel 9 for Architects

a. http://channel9.msdn.com/tags/Architecture

b. http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/ARCast.TV

3. Subscribe to “The Architecture Journal”

www.architecturejournal.net

4. Patterns and Practices Web Site

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-ca/practices/default.aspx

Aspiring Architects

5. Web Cast series for aspiring architects

http://blogs.msdn.com/mohammadakif/archive/2007/05/25/architecture-101-recording-and-resource-links.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/mohammadakif/archive/2007/06/01/software-development-lifecycle-and-methodologies-recording-and-resource-link.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/mohammadakif/archive/2007/06/12/service-orientation-and-other-architectural-approaches-recording-and-resource-links.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/mohammadakif/archive/2007/06/21/transitioning-to-an-architect-role-recording-and-resource-links.aspx

Visual Studio

6. Visual Studio 2008 Product Comparison

a. http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/products/cc149003.aspx

7. Adam’s blog is at

http://blogs.msdn.com/adamga

8. Adam’s content

http://adamga.canitpro.ca

9. Visual Studio Webcast series

http://msdn.microsoft.ca/vswebcasts

10. Install Visual Studio 2008

Download available for MSDN Subscribers, Trial version available

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-ca/vstudio/aa700831.aspx

11. Download training kits, hands-on-labs and videos

http://download.vstudio/starterkits

12. Subscribe to Scott Guthrie’s blog

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/

Windows Server 2008

13. Virtualization overall

http://www.microsoft.com/virtualization/default.mspx

14. Server 2008 on MSDN

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-ca/windowsserver/default.aspx

15. TechNet

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/2008/default.aspx

16. Small environments without management tools, try System Center Essentials

http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/essentials/default.mspx

17. Larger environments try System Center Virtual Machine Manager

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/scvmm/bb727241.aspx

Best regards,

Mohammad

Microsoft to start development in Canada

makif — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 15:38:00 GMT

About: This post is about the new development center Microsoft is opening in Vancouver, Canada

Hello,

I am very happy to report that Microsoft Canada and our corporate head office will be opening a software development centre in Greater Vancouver, BC. The Microsoft Canada Development Centre (MCDC) will open in the Fall of 2007 and will be home to software developers from around the world.

Canada has a burgeoning hi-tech and software industry, globally envied quality of life, and our cities represent exactly the kind of environment that leading information workers want to live in. The Vancouver area, in particular, is a global gateway with a diverse population, is close to Microsoft’s corporate offices in Redmond. The Microsoft Canada Development Centre will help Microsoft remain globally competitive in its recruitment efforts while expanding our development footprint into Canada and providing strong economic benefits to the country.

Initially, we expect a few hundred employees to be part of this Centre. We will continue to assess the Centre’s growth potential moving forward and hope that the Centre will become one of the company’s key hubs for international talent and for software development. With the opening of this Centre, Canada will be one of only a handful of countries hosting development centers outside of our Redmond, WA, main campus.

Best regards,

Mohammad

Table top computing

makif — Wed, 30 May 2007 22:45:00 GMT

About: This blog post is about table top computing

Greetings,

I don’t usually blog about ‘cool products’ but I have to make an exception this time. I was blown away by the new table top computer we announced yesterday that bridges the gap between the physical and the digital world. You will be able to sit in a hotel lobby (starwood that owns Sheraton and Westin is an early adopter) order drinks from the table, drink at the table, split the bill at the table, pay at the table, get directions, use table as a concierge and do much more. You would also be able to compare phones at (selected) T-Mobile stores on the table and do other really cool stuff. The table top computers costs between $5000-10000 for now but we are committed to bringing the costs down and making it available to consumers. I would recommend checking out the three videos on the following Web Site

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/

Best regards,

Mohammad

SAF agenda and recordings

makif — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 21:17:00 GMT

About: This blog post is about the CSAF agenda and recordings

Hello,

Last week we hosted 150 architects from across Canada in Vancouver for the 3 day Canadian Strategic Architect Forum. Everyone who attended the forum received a full copy of the Office 2007 Professional and Vista Ultimate plus one individual won an XBOX 360. In the spirit of Web 2.0 we allowed attendees to participate in real-time on http://www.csaf07.com , we also recorded all 47 sessions and are in process of making them available. A number of PPTs and recordings have already been posted and rest are on the way. The agenda for the event was as follows:

18-Apr-06
18-Apr-06
Welcome Address - Mark Relph
The Archiectural Last Mile - Norm Judah
SOA - Service Oriented Accountability, Wesley McGregor
OBA – the new paradigm for Composite Application	Operational Efficiency assessment processes and tools	.Net 3.0 for architects	AJAX.ASP.NET
Break
Becoming a Microsoft's Certified Architect	SoftGrid – Return on virtualization	Ontology and Taxonomy of services in a SOA	An Introduction to LINQ
Break
Web 2.0 - Demystified	Infrastructure for Identity Management	Case Study: MOSS 2007 adoption at a large enterprise	OBA Examples
Break
Putting the User back into Architecture Simon Guest
Wrap-up Mark Relph/Peter Van Der Zouwe
19-Apr-06
19-Apr-06
Welcome - Mark Relph/Peter Van Der Zouwe
IT Governance - Kathy Watanabe
Break
Case Study - SOA at Service Canada	Securing enterprise infrastructure	Case study: Building a Data Warehouse	Microsoft Enterprise Search: Customization & Integration with Line of Business Data
Break
MS and SAP Interoperability	Reference Architecture for virtual environments for development and test	Architecting for the User	MOSS 2007
Lunch
Models for an Event Driven Architecture	ADFS Architecture and deployment	Are architects 'project-killers'?	Long horn server
Break
Understanding Microsoft’s Enterprise Search Strategy	"Adventures of a Windows Honeypot: How Early Warning Devices Are High Yield and Low Noise, And Belong in Any Environment"	Microsoft's BEPL strategy	Threat modeling tool demonstration
Break
Security - Todd Thompson and Matt Clapham
Wrap-up - Mark Relph/Peter Van Der Zouwe
20-Apr-06
20-Apr-06
Welcome - Mark Relph/Peter Van Der Zouwe
Building a Services Oriented Infrastructure - Mark Baciack
Break
Aligning architecture with business priorities	Assessing Infrastructure Security through Technical Compliance Management	Interoperating Microsoft and SAP	Performance analysis using Visual Studio
Break
SOA Governance	SoftGrid – Inside the grid	Architecting for performance	Vista’s top 10 security improvements
Lunch
Architecting worflow-based solutions	SoftGrid – The art of sequencing	"How Attackers Attack: The Eight Ways Hackers Use to Break Into Windows"	IT Governance Tool Demonstration
Break
Connecting and integrating disparate systems in your enterprise - Steve Martin
Wrap-up - Mark Relph/Peter Van Der Zouwe

Please visit http://www.csaf07.com if you want to view the power point or recording for any session

Best regards,

Mohammad

Strategic Architect Forum

makif — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 16:42:00 GMT

About: This a blog post about Canadian Strategic Architect Forum, Vancouver 18-20

Greetings,

I am writing this post from my hotel in Vancouver where we are holding the Canadian Strategic Architect Forum. We are extremely excited to host 150 enterprise, solution and infrastructure architects from a variety of industries and plan to cover a number of topics through 47 sessions presented by Microsoft and Industry speakers! Based on the huge demand for the event and our lack of ability to accommodate everyone who wanted to attend, I am happy to report that we plan to record 39 of the 47 sessions (everything except for the roundtables). I will post the link to the recordings on the blog. Some of the topics we plan to cover include

1. User Experience

2. Real-world case studies about SOA implementation, governance and other best practices

3. Interoperability with SAP

4. Enterprise Search

5. IT and Business alignment

6. Workflow & MS BEPL strategy

7. Virtualization

8. Intranet, internet and application security, threat modeling and other techniques

9. Architecting for performance, reliability and non-functional requirements

10. .NET 3.0, MOSS 2007, AJAX.ASP.NET, Longhorn

And much much more! Stay tuned for the link to the recordings. Also everyone attending the session is getting some amazing takeaways at the end of each day (can’t disclose the actual items as that is a big surprise) . I would also recommend checking out Mark Relph's entry about SAF http://blogs.msdn.com/mark_relph/archive/2007/04/17/up-this-week-canadian-strategic-architect-forum.aspx and subscribing to his blog, its a great way to stay updated about the Canadian events.

I look forward to meeting some of you at SAF this week

Best regards,

Mohammad

Architect forum slide deck

makif — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 06:17:00 GMT

About: This blog post is about how to download the User Experience slide deck presented at the architect forums

Greetings,

We were very pleased to have Simon Guest (Director, Architectural Strategy Team) present at architect forums in four Canadian cities recently. He presented some really interesting ideas around putting the user back in to architecture. You can download is slide deck from

http://simonguest.com/blogs/smguest/archive/2007/03/09/Canada-Speaking-Tour.aspx

Simon not only presented some great ideas around architecting for users but he actually provided some specific actionable steps that can be undertaken to improve user experience. We also had four banks present at the financial services architect forum, where they shared their experiences around SOA Governance, SQL consolidation, Business and IT alignment and REST vs. Web Services. There was also considerable discussion around demystifying Web 2.0 and its applicability in an enterprise context, I will be writing a series of blog posts on Web 2.0 in the coming weeks, stay tuned!

Best regards,

Mohammad

Job Opening: Architect Advisor

makif — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 00:18:00 GMT

About: This post is about the Architect Advisor job opening in my group

Greetings,

Are you a Solutions Architect who wants to have a big impact on Enterprise Customers?

We are looking for an Enterprise Architect (or aspiring Enterprise Architect) who would love to engage with Architects and Senior Developers at large Canadian companies to show them how Microsoft Technologies can benefit their organisations.

You may already have some experience as an Solutions Architect (on Microsoft of other Enterprise software Platforms) and you definitely have a passion for painting a compelling architectural vision and evangelising leading edge technologies.

You like to be on the cutting edge of technology and enjoy working in a dynamic, fast moving environment. You enjoy presenting on the latest technologies and industry trends (to audiences large and small) and have always had positive feedback on your presentation skills and your ability to engage and influence your peers.

This job includes generating a lot of great stories about use of the latest Microsoft technologies as well as doing everything that is appropriate to ensure that Enterprise Architect’s are satisfied with Microsoft and our technologies! You will spend a lot of time in front of customers, but have the flexibility to determine the best way to get the job done.

Please check out the full job description at; http://www.microsoft.com/canada/employment/default.mspx (search for Architect Advisor)

If this sounds like you then please contact me directly or send you resume through the link above and and we can set up a time to talk.

Best regards and best of luck

Mohammad

Windows Vista Release to Manufacturing

makif — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 03:37:00 GMT

About: This post is about Vista RTM

Greetings,

Vista is out! Yes it has been released to manufacturing; it is being released simultaneously in 5 languages and we have worked with hundreds of OEMs to ensure that we have more than 50% more device drivers at RTM than XP. Vista is also the first operating system ever that ships with .NET (3.0) and that followed the Secure Development Lifecycle from beginning to end. It is also the first time that customers will be able to deploy worldwide on diverse hardware all with a single IT-managed image and it’s the first time that this image can be serviced offline, because of the improvements in deployment tools, leading OEMs will be able to drive their mission-critical manufacturing process for building and configuring machines using only inbox tools. Windows Vista deploys Windows Vista!

The analysts seem quiet happy with Vista

· The long wait for Microsoft’s next operating system, Windows Vista, is almost over. Dramatically redesigned, the new OS features tighter security, slicker visuals and friendlier—one might be tempted to say Mac-like—applications for managing photos, movies and music. –Wilson Rothman, TIME

· If all Windows users were running Vista, the world would be a much safer place. –Larry Seltzer/eWEEK

· As to Microsoft (Windows) Vista, bravo. … It brilliantly and intuitively lets one use a PC with extreme efficiency and/or enjoyment. –James Coates/Chicago Tribune

· One of Vista's biggest promises and one of the best inducements to want it now - is to help you regain the upper hand in the battle against information overload. –John Clyman/PC Magazine

· With Vista, Microsoft has made significant investments in connecting people to information so they could work in smarter ways, which is essential for the enterprise. –Peter Galli and David Morgenstern/eWEEK

There are a lot of things in Vista for the enterprise that are compelling. You have security, management, robustness, fewer reboots…. I think a lot of people will refresh their desktops, servers and applications. –Peter O’Kelly, an analyst with Burton Group in Network World

To find out more information about Vista, please visit

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista

For more information about the biggest launch in the history of IT industry, please visit

http://www.microsoft.com/business/launch2007/default.mspx

For The Vista and office Launch events in Canada please visit,

http://www.microsoft.ca/anewday

In addition to keynotes and business value propositions, we will also be running Developer, IT Pro and Architect tracks at the Canadian launch events to focus on what Vista and Office 2007 mean to these particular communities, if you are a reader of my Blog, do come up after the track and say hello! I look forward to meeting some of you at the launch event

Best regards,

Mohammad

Office 2007 Released To Manufacturing

makif — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 18:21:00 GMT

About: This post is about Office 2007 RTM

Greetings,

I am very pleased to report that today Microsoft released Office 2007 to manufacturing, office 2007 is a very significant evolution, in addition to making business users more productive it is also meant to provide a development platform/base to the IT community so that they can rapidly deploy business solutions using technologies like InfoPath. My personal favorite within the office 2007 is SharePoint 2007 with its embedded workflow engine (it uses Windows Workflow from .NET 3.0), enhanced search functionality and significant improvements in the area of collaboration, document management and knowledge sharing. I plan to write a series on Office 2007, Vista and Web 2.0 in the coming weeks and months (once I finish the series on ESB). For more information about office please visit

http://office.microsoft.com

For more informtion about the biggest launch in the history of IT industry, please visit

http://www.microsoft.com/business/launch2007/default.mspx

Best regards,

Mohammad

BC and Alberta Architect Forums

makif — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 18:22:00 GMT

Note: This posts contains information and registration links for British Columbia and Alberta Architect Forums

Hello,

The fall sesion of the architect forums in Alberta and British Columbia will be held in Calgary and Vancouver respectively. The Architect forums are designed to give an opportunity to the top enterprise, solution and infrastructure architects working in BC and Alberta to discuss the realities of executing IT projects. Many of the best pratices and lessons are technology agnostic and assume a diverse IT environment. The fall session of the architect forums would feature a variety of topics including 'SOA in the real-world', 'Microsoft's ESB strategy', 'Infrastructure Optimization' and others. The registrtaion links for the forums are as follows:

You can register for the Alberta Architect Forum to be held on October 25, 2006 at

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032308607&Culture=en-CA

You can register for the British Columbia Architect Forum to be held on October 27, 2006 at

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032308604&Culture=en-CA

Best regards,

Mohammad

Job openings in my group

makif — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 00:36:00 GMT

About: This post is about two opportunities open in my group at Microsoft Canada; please send an email to Mohammad.akif@microsoft.com if you are interested in finding out more or would like to recommend any candidates, I will keep your interest and recommendations completely confidential.

Greetings,

Microsoft Canada is hiring and I thought of reaching out to all of you to ask for recommendations for these roles. I know that many of my readers are based out of Canada so please accept my apologies for the wide distribution.

About the group: In the last ten plus years I have worked in multiple countries on multiple continents, my current job and group is definitely the most fun I have ever had in my professional career. My group at Microsoft Canada is essentially responsible for increasing customer satisfaction by providing value in a variety of ways. I will be glad to have an offline discussion with you about the group and role, I truly do believe that the group and the roles offer excellent opportunities for learning cutting edge technologies, develop organizational, management and communication skills and have a lot of fun!

Architect Evangelist: The Architect Evangelists at Microsoft Canada are responsible for managing architect satisfaction through organizing forums, holding 1:1 and 1: Few discussions with senior customer and partner architects, articulating Microsoft’s position and strategy in key areas and presenting at Microsoft, Industry and Customer events. We typically focus on cutting edge technologies and how to make them real for our customer through a variety of breadth and depth activities. The ideal candidate for this role will need very strong communication skills and will have 7+ years of experience, most recent of it as an architect. You do not need to be a Microsoft expert to qualify for this role, having a strong background in a competitor’s technology is equally fine, as the VP of my group puts it, “You need to have the right DNA and we will provide an opportunity to learn the rest”.
Search point person: I am sure we will come up with a better title soon, but essentially this person will be responsible for creating, organizing and coordinated structured efforts across the subsidiary in the area of online and enterprise search. The ideal candidate for this role will have the skills required to work in a matrix organizational structure, deal with ambiguity, create and execute structured efforts and become a spokesperson for Microsoft’s value proposition in the area of search.

Please send an email to Mohammad.akif@microsoft.com if you are interested in finding out more or would like to recommend any candidates, I will keep your interest and recommendations completely confidential

Best regards,

Mohammad

WinFX rebranded as .NET 3.0

makif — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 04:59:00 GMT

About: This post is about the rebranding of WinFX as .NET 3.0

Hello,

Microsoft has decided to rebrand WinFX as .NET 3.0, this is purely a branding decision with absolutely no impact on the actual framework, its components or their delivery schedule. As many of you are aware WinFX is scheduled to be released with Windows Vista and comprises of the following major components

1. Windows Communication Foundation, WCF, (project codename was Indigo)

2. Windows Presentation Foundation, WPF, (project codename was Avalon)

3. Windows Workflow Foundation, WF (no it is not WWF)

4. Windows CardSpae, WCS (previously called infocard)

5. .NET 2.0

In short, .NET 3.0 = WCF + WPF + WF + WCS + .NET 2.0, please note the .NET 3.0 is an additive release, the language compiler it uses are the same as .NET 2.0, we added WCF, WPF, WF and WCS to .NET 2.0 and are calling the superset .NET 3.0

Personally I am very excited about the name change to .NET 3.0, during my conversations with customers I frequently used .NET 3.0 as the answer to the question 'what is WinFX ?' and am very happy that we have rebranded it officially now. With over 35 million downloads the .NET brand has a very positive recognition amongst the IT community and even amongst the business users, I am hopeful that this rebranding will help in avoiding confusion about the next version of the .NET programming framework.

Best regards,

Mohammad