Robin Mestré : Platform Strategy Advisor, Microsoft Corporation

Windows Azure Platform Pricing

2009-07-14T23:57:30Z

A major announcement was made today at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans. After a long wait, we finally have the pricing for Azure which I am happy to report is very competitive with other cloud service provider offerings. Windows Azure, SQL Azure and .NET Services will have consumption-based pricing when they become commercially available at the Professional Developers Conference 2009. Partners and customers can start building on the community technology preview (CTP) for...(read more)

Software + Services: Microsoft in the Era of Cloud Computing

2009-07-14T01:43:14Z

It's been a while since I've blogged partly because I got some new responsibilities that took up much of my time over the past year and partly because I'm not inclined to post short meaningless entries - I use Twitter for that (follow me on http://twitter.com/robinmestre ). As you may have heard, Microsoft has made its entrance into cloud computing, in fact it is one of the six major priorities Steve Balmer has set for our company - it is also one of the primary priorities of Ray Ozzie, who has taken...(read more)

Silverlight for Designers (Part III): Accelerated Results

2008-10-14T20:38:58Z

QUICKLY ITERATE THE FINAL USER INTERFACE, GRAPHICS AND FUNCTIONALITY OF YOUR SILVERLIGHT APPLICATION WITH EXPRESSION BLEND Designers and developers can work seamlessly together, sharing Silverlight projects, code, and designs for better productivity and quality. Designers can quickly create stunning, rich user experiences, which the developer can immediately leverage in the underlying application code. There is no conversion needed, no recreation of graphics in code, simply a smooth transition...(read more)

Silverlight for Designers (Part II): Powerful Technology

2008-10-14T20:38:24Z

UTILIZE THE HIGHLY CUSTOMIZABLE CONTROLS TO QUICKLY DESIGN A CUSTOM LOOK AND FEEL FOR YOUR APPLICATION WITHOUT BEING FORCED INTO CODE The online consumer expects a much more dynamic and fluid experience when they use the web today. Silverlight enables designers to deliver distinctive, branded and targeted applications. These allow customers to find the information they need faster, make complex decisions easier and keep them engaged longer, helping companies be more effective at attracting, engaging...(read more)

Silverlight for Designers (Part I): Compelling Experiences

2008-10-14T20:37:55Z

DELIVER COMPELLING USER INTERFACES WITHOUT RESORTING TO BITMAP GRAPHICS BY UTILIZING REAL VECTOR GRAPHICS, GRADIENTS AND ANIMATION Customers have come to expect compelling, functional and easy to use interfaces wherever they interact with a company, whether it’s on a mobile device, on the web or in the physical world. Designing a user interface from scratch each time is both time consuming and an unnecessary burden on the designer. While bitmap graphics offer great functionality and control for interfaces...(read more)

Silverlight for Developers (Part III): Accelerated Results

2008-10-14T20:37:18Z

USE THE TOOLS AND LANGUAGES YOU ALREADY KNOW AND LOVE. CODE IN VISUAL STUDIO USING JSCRIPT, IRONRUBY, IRONPYTHON, VB.NET, C#. The Microsoft Visual Studio development system is a suite of development tools designed to aid software developers—whether they are novices or seasoned professionals—face complex challenges and create innovative solutions. It provides features such as efficient code editors, IntelliSense, Wizards, and data designers in one integrated development environment (IDE) to high-end...(read more)

Silverlight for Developers (Part II): Powerful Technology

2008-10-14T20:36:08Z

SILVERLIGHT HAS THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE RUNTIME ON THE WEB TODAY. EXPLOIT ALL THE RICHNESS OF THE .NET BASE CLASS LIBRARIES INCLUDING XML, LOCAL STORAGE, INPUT/OUTPUT, GLOBALIZATION AND GENERICS. The Common Language Runtime (CLR) provides the underlying programming framework within Silverlight 2. It is an efficient industry-strength component which can scale to build complex applications. It is responsible for managing code execution at runtime, and provides core services such as compilation, memory...(read more)

Silverlight for Developers (Part I): Compelling Experiences

2008-10-14T20:35:40Z

HARNESS ADVANCED SUPPORT FOR 2D GRAPHICS, ANIMATION, LAYOUT, HIGH-DEFINITION VIDEO, DATABINDING, NETWORKING AND CONTROLS TO CREATE RICHER EXPERIENCES THAN PREVIOUSLY POSSIBLE. Building a modern Rich Internet Application requires a set of technologies. First, to create the look of the application, Silverlight provides declarative XAML support for rich 2D graphics; providing an object model that goes all the way down to path data and gradient stops. Any attributes can be animated, and we also supply...(read more)

Silverlight for Applications (Part III): Accelerated Results

2008-10-14T20:34:33Z

CALL ON MILLIONS OF EXISTING DEVELOPERS AND THOUSANDS OF BUSINESSES ALREADY FAMILIAR WITH .NET DEVELOPMENT TO HELP CREATE AND DEPLOY SILVERLIGHT APPLICATIONS. Silverlight has gained strong industry support from content creators, distributors, software vendors, and solution providers. Over 85 companies now support Silverlight via the Silverlight Partner Initiative, and major enterprises and media companies are announcing plans to integrate Silverlight into their online experiences, promising to truly...(read more)

Silverlight for Applications (Part II): Powerful Technology

2008-10-14T20:33:55Z

CREATE APPLICATIONS THAT ARE ACCESSIBLE, DISCOVERABLE BY SEARCH ENGINES, AND SECURE. Microsoft Windows is the most accessible operating system platform and with the standard controls, Silverlight aims to continue this accessibility seamlessly from desktop to browser. Despite having the power of the .NET framework available within the Web browser, Silverlight remains securely contained within the Web browser, unable to access desktop files or resources. Silverlight content is described using XAML,...(read more)

Silverlight Platform for Applications (Part I): Compelling Experiences

2008-10-14T20:32:58Z

INCREASE REPEAT VISITS AND BRAND LOYALTY WHILE DRAMATICALLY REDUCING CUSTOMER SUPPORT COSTS THROUGH COMPELLING, INTUITIVE, HIGH PERFORMANCE WEB EXPERIENCES. For many businesses the Web has become a key means of communicating with existing customers and attracting new business, overtaking more traditional, costly channels such as call centres and retail outlets. The cost savings and scale achievable on the Web are very attractive but the experience on the Web has to be given as much attention as any...(read more)

Silverlight for Media and Advertising (Part III): Accelerated Results

2008-10-14T20:31:58Z

UNLEASH THE CREATIVITY OF YOUR DESIGNERS AS THEY COLLABORATE WITH DEVELOPERS USING THE INTEGRATION BETWEEN EXPRESSION STUDIO’S CREATIVE TOOLS AND THE VISUAL STUDIO FAMILY OF DEVELOPMENT TOOLS. Talk to anyone building interactive applications, and they will tell you about the promise and the frustration of user experience design. Concepts that look great in photo editing tools rarely lend themselves well to actual implementation, while tools that mash together designer and developer disciplines often...(read more)

Silverlight for Media and Advertising (Part II): Powerful Technology

2008-10-14T20:30:48Z

PROTECT YOUR PREMIUM CONTENT WITH A CHOICE OF CONTENT PROTECTION TECHNIQUES: WEB PLAYLISTS, SILVERLIGHT DRM, WINDOWS MEDIA DRM, AND THIRD PARTY DRM PROVIDERS. With the explosive growth in streaming online video and rich internet experiences it’s critical to ensure your content and your business models are secure. The new peaks in online video audiences create a great opportunity to explore new revenue opportunities but also expose the challenges in managing and protecting valuable media assets. ...(read more)

Silverlight for Media and Advertising (Part I): Compelling Experiences

2008-10-14T20:30:03Z

ENGAGE CUSTOMERS IN YOUR BRAND AND CONTENT WITH RICH MEDIA, HIGH PERFORMANCE GRAPHICS, AND ANIMATIONS. Media Experiences include custom media players embedded in a Web site for viewing by Mac OS and Windows users on a range of Web browsers. Windows Media audio and video streaming can be combined with transparent overlays and new ad-insertion technologies. Personalized news tickers, DVD-like interactive menus, captioning, custom rating, and community features can be seamlessly displayed in a traditional...(read more)

Silverlight and the User Experience Era in Software

2008-10-14T20:28:36Z

Now more than ever, experiences are about much more than “look and feel”. Great experiences are those that look great and work flawlessly. They entertain and engage, with rich, contextual and relevant content. They are easy to use. And they ensure reliability, performance and security, under real-world pressures of scale and complexity. The best experiences are deeply connected to the companies and brands they represent – they’re not just billboards, they’re windows and doors through which customers...(read more)