Windows Azure

• Windows Azure: Active Directory Release, New Backup Service + Web Site Monitoring and Log Improvements - Announcement #1 of the month.
• Windows Azure: General Availability of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Announcement #2 and the biggest one. Scott Guthrie gives an introduction to the awesome capabilities of Windows Azure.
• Windows Azure: Improvements to Virtual Networks, Virtual Machines, Cloud Services and a new Ruby SDK - Announcement #3
• Announcing the release of Windows Azure SDK 2.0 for .NET - Announcement #4 was just made today and should the most interesting one for .NET developers.
• In-App Purchase and Mobile Services - An awesome post made by Josh Twist how you can implement in-app purchases on iOS in combination with the Windows Azure Mobile Services.
• How to use Windows Azure Table Storage in Windows Azure Mobile Services - A great sample written by Paolo Salvatori how to use the Windows Azure Table Storage in the Windows Azure Mobile Services to store data in place of Windows Azure SQL Database.
• Fetching Windows Azure Mobile Services Data in XAML based Windows Store Application - A simple example how to fetch data from the Windows Azure Mobile Services from Windows Store applications.
• Deploy a Secure ASP.NET MVC app with Membership, OAuth, and SQL Database to a Windows Azure Web Site - A new sample posted on the Windows Azure Developer Center for implementing a secure ASP.NET MVC application.
• Global Render Lab at the Global Windows Azure Bootcamp - An extended explanation of the Global Render Lab made by Alan Smith. The Render Lab was part of the Windows Azure Bootcamp last week.

Windows Phone

• More Dev Center features – we’re listening - Announcement of some improvements to the dev center, f.e. the ability to cancel submission and automatic screenshot resizing.

Other stuff

• 10 things you might have missed about MVVM Light - Do you like MVVM Light? Than you should read this post. There could be something you have missed about MVVM Light.
• Visual Studio 2012 Update 2 Now Available - The announcement of update #2 for Visual Studio 2012.
• Json.NET 5.0 Release 1 - Another announcement. Not for a Microsoft product, but for a library most developers are using.

Like you have seen, a lot of announcements in April. Let’s wait and see what will be going on in May.

- Jan (@Horizon_Net)

But let me start at the beginning. Nearly two months ago at the MVP Summit in Redmond some of the Windows Azure MVPs (ahead was Magnus Martensson a.k.a. @noopman) had an idea: One big event in several cities in several countries. I think they had no idea how big it really will become. With the enthusiasm of the Windows Azure Insiders and the help of several Microsoft employees it came bigger and bigger.

As I first heard about this idea I thought “cool, but what is special about it?”. I had no idea how special it really will become!
Some weeks later Magnus asked in an email why there is only one German event location (Bad Homburg) and I thought “should we also make one in Berlin?”. I talked with Alexander Singer (@salexsinger) if that is a good idea. He said “why not?” and so we decided to make it happen. But two guys are not enough to organize an event like this. We asked Holger Diekhoff, Hans Laubisch, Malte Lantin (@MalteLantin), Peter Kirchner (@peterkirchner), and Nico Wilhelm if they could help us.

Every time when organizing an event you ask yourself whom could you invite as a speaker? In my case it was very easy. Malte connected me with Anton Staykov (@astaykov), a Windows Azure MVP from Bulgaria. He was our first speaker. But only one speaker for a nine hour event? That shouldn’t be enough. I asked the Windows Azure Insiders if someone is near Berlin and would like to speak at our event. Just a few hours later Markus Eilers (@pulsd) answered that he would be happy to join us. Speaker #3 was Oliver Michalski (@ol_mic) who was the only one from the speakers and organizers (except Hans) who actually lives in Berlin. To top the speaker list off Peter agreed to hold the keynote.
Four speakers should be enough, right? I was happy that we had so many great speakers in one room, but something special should happen.
A few weeks ago I met Dion Hutchings (@dionhut), who is a technical evangelist at Microsoft, at the Student Technology Conference in Berlin. I had an idea and asked him if he could join us via Skype during the keynote. His simple answer was “of course, I would love to do that!”. With him we had five speakers collected in just a single week!

[From Left to right: Me, Anton Staykov, Markus Eilers, and Peter Kirchner]

Enough of the organizational stuff. Let me tell you something about the event itself. It all started Friday night (German time) with the kickoff in Australia and Japan. Nearly ten hours later it was our part to make this event bigger than everything else. 24 people from all places of Germany joined us in Berlin.

After the kickoff made by Peter and Dion I had the opportunity to introduce the attendees to one of the big things of the bootcamp: The render lab!
The render lab was a competition (and also a cooperation) between the different countries and event locations. Alan Smith (@alansmith) created an environment on Azure where you can run instances and render a video which was recorded with a Xbox Kinect. Just have a look at the following video to get an impression what it looks like.

At the end of the day we made it to the #1 location in the world! Together with Bad Homburg Germany was #2 in the countries list.

But how does it look like to create a video for the job queue? Here’s an impression from Berlin.

All in all there were 9,904 worker roles which rendered 727,059 with almost sever years of compute time in just 24 hours. During the event there were nearly 2,105,773 requests per hours (that means 585 requests per second) on the render queue. If you would like to know more about the render lab, just have a look at the blog post from Alan.

During the day we had an awesome agenda with a lot of interesting topics, ranging from the Windows Azure Media, Windows Azure Websites, to best practices on Windows Azure.

[Anton during one of his talks]

Throughout the event you could feel the passion of the community. It was proved by the participation in the render lab, the conversations on Twitter, and so on.

At the end of the day I was happy that nothing has gone wrong and was amazed by this awesome Windows Azure community around the globe.

Before I stop here I like to make some acknowledgements. First of all I would like to thank all attendees. Without you it haven’t been that funny! I also like to thank all of our speakers and their families for lending me their husbands/fathers. A big thank you goes to the people which helped me to organize this event. Alex, Holger, Hans, Malte, Peter, and Nico: You did an amazing job and made my live one of the easiest in the history of event organizers!

To conclude this article I have only four words for you: “I LOVE THIS COMMUNITY!”

- Jan (@Horizon_Net)

Are you familiar with the Microsoft Virtual Academy? It is a great place to become familiar with the greatest technologies from Microsoft. Beside the courses MVA offers some Jump Start series from time to time. Today and yesterday a whole bunch of Jump Start were kicked-off with the Windows 8 UX Design Jump Start. The whole May several courses will follow. Here’s a short overview about them:

MVA Live Q&A: Programming Windows with Charles Petzold on April 30, 2103

The best opportunity to ask the legendary Charles Petzold questions about how to use C# and XAML for building Windows 8 apps.

Applying ALM with Visual Studio 2012 (exam 70-498) Jump Start on May 1, 2013

Steven Borg and Anthony Borton help you to use Application Lifecycle Management with Visual Studio 2012 and prepare yourself for the exam 70-498.

Developing Windows Store App Essentials using C# Jump Start on May 2, 2013

Jerry Nixon and Daren May will show you sample after sample of creating Windows Store Apps with C#

Windows Azure for IT Professionals Jump Start on May 16, 2013

Are you IT professional and interested in Windows Azure? This Jump Start is the best place to get started. It will cover topics such as Windows Azure Virtual Machines and Virtual Networks.

Software Testing with Visual Studio 2012 (exam 70-497) Jump Start on May 28, 2013

Another Jump Start for the preparation for an exam of the MCSD: Application Lifecycle Management track (exam 70-497). It is focused on making testing a valuable part of your ALM process.

Administering Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2012 (exam 70-496) Jump Start on May 29, 2013

The Jump Start for the third exam (exam 70-496) in the MCSD: Application Lifecycle Management track. It will help you to make the administration of your Team Foundation Server easier.

A great opportunity for developers and IT professionals. Register now for these events!

- Jan (@Horizon_Net)

Aber was ist das Global Windows Azure Bootcamp? Das Bootcamp ist ein Azure-Community-Event, das am 27.04. an knapp 100 verschiedenen Standorten weltweit von Mitgliedern der Windows Azure Insiders und MVPs durchgeführt wird. Die Speaker werden ihr Wissen über die verschiedensten Themengebiete weitergeben … und das kostenlos.

In Bad Homburg werden Sascha Dittmann und Damir Dobric, beide Windows Azure MVPs, für beste Stimmung sorgen. Für Berlin konnten wir Anton Staykov (Windows Azure MVP), Markus Eilers (Windows Azure Insider) und Oliver Michalski (Windows Azure Insider) als Speaker gewinnen.

Interessiert? Dann folgt jetzt ein kleiner Vorgeschmack auf die Agenda für Berlin:

From zero to hero with Windows Azure Web Sites

You just work a new project that has uncertain future? What is the easiest way you know to deploy your web project to real server – just name it! Windows Azure Web Sites is a new service from the family of Windows Azure which offers three different flavors – free (yes, completely free!), shared and reserved. In this session we will learn how to start completely free and scale enormously should we have to!

Infrastructure as a Service – Windows Azure im Hybrid-Cloud Konzert

Windows Azure war für viele Organisationen bisher ein Buch mit Sieben Sigeln. Dieser Talk zeigt, was die Infrastrukturerweiterungen in Azure für den Aufbau und die Flexibilisierung von cloud-basierten Umgebungen und Hybrid Clouds tatsächlich leisten. Wir sprechen darüber, wie Sie Ihre Marktpositionierung und SLAs mit Azure mühelos verbessern können und wie Sie von Microsoft’s “Power of Choice” Versprechen profitieren.

Cinema in the Cloud – Einführung in die Windows Azure Media Services

Folgende Themen werden behandelt:

1. Trends am Beispiel von Youtube
2. Überblick über die Media Service Architektur
3. Überblick über das Objektmodell
4. Überblick zum Thema Cliententwicklung (Microsoft Media Platform)
5. Demo 1 Anlegen eines Media Service
6. Demo 2 Überblick Media Service Dashboard
7. Demo 3 Media Service Workflow mit dem Management Portal
8. Demo 4 Mein erstes Programm

Unified Identity Management with Windows Azure ACS

“Your password length must be between 10 and 32 characters, and must contain lowercase characters, numbers, special symbols, eye drop of a Unicorn, blood drop of a bat.  For security reasons, please tell us the name of your first pet.” How many times have you seen similar requirement?

We live in 21st century. There is Facebook, there is Google, there is Microsoft. There are dozens of online identity providers. My firm belief is that there is no single internet user that does not already have at least one existing identity. What do we, as developers do, to help ourselves and the millions of Internet users stop creating yet another username/password combination. Nothing?

In this session we will see how to use the completely free Federation service from Microsoft to help us respect our Internet users (and business partners!). In a matter of minutes we will enable our Internet web application recognize and welcome users from Google, Facebook, Microsoft Account, Yahoo and more!

Windows Azure im Praxiseinsatz

Während einige Unternehmen noch die Pferde satteln, haben andere bereits intensive Erfahrungen mit Windows Azure und der Flexibilität einer Cloud Plattform gemacht. Wir haben die Erfahrungswerte gesammelt und sprechen über spannende Projekte, große Erfolge und Lerneffekte. Dabei zeigen wir entstehende Muster, die bei der Gewinnung von Kunden, Planung von Produkten und Maximierung der Cloud Effekte helfen können.

Angebissen? Dann jetzt noch schnell einen kostenlosen Platz für Bad Homburg oder Berlin sichern.

- Jan (@Horizon_Net)

Together with Scott Guthrie the Windows Azure Insiders and MVPs are lining up as speakers for the Azure Conf. Here’s an overview about the sessions:

• Taking Control of your Windows Azure Services
• Windows Azure Web Sites – things they don’t teach kids in school
• Essential Azure IaaS for Developers
• From Collocated Servers to Windows Azure Web Sites in Three Days
• Node.js End-to-end
• Developing Cross Platform Mobile Solutions with Azure Mobile Services and HTML5
• Real World Architectures Using Windows Azure Mobile Services
• Lights, Camera, Action – Media Services on the Loose
• Debugging and Monitoring Windows Azure Cloud Services
• How it’s Made – MyGet.org

Event #2, the Global Windows Azure Bootcamp, is an event which will take place at around 100 locations worldwide. “But I have no location next to me?” That’s no problem! Most of the locations will stream their sessions so you can follow them online. Excited? Than register now for both events!

It’s a pleasure to be part of this energetic community!

- Jan (@Horizon_Net)

March was exciting month for Windows Azure developers. A lot of new things were published like some really cool updates to the Windows Azure Mobile Services or HDInsight.

Windows Azure

• New Hadoop service + HTML5/JS (CORS), PhoneGap, Mercurial and Dropbox support
• Android Support, SQL Reporting Services, Active Directory, More…
• Getting Started with HDInsight – Shayne Burgess from the HDInsight Team gives an overview about the new released preview of the HDInsight Services.
• Developing for HDInsight – Eron Kelly shows how you as a developer can interact with HDInsight.

Windows Phone 8

• Using the SQLite database engine with Windows Phone 8 apps – Adam Denning gives a brief introduction how you can add SQLite support to your Windows Phone 8 app.

That’s it for today, but I can promise you that April will overtop March with some cool events I’m looking forward to like the AzureConf and the Global Windows Azure Bootcamp. If you’re interested in attending the Bootcamp in Berlin register today for it here.

- Jan (@Horizon_Net)

ASP.NET

• Four new single page application templates. Gunnar Peipman introduces the four new single page application templates Ember (uses Emberjs and Handlebars), Durandal (uses Durandal, Bootstrap, Knockout, and Sammy), Breeze (uses Breeze, Knockout, and g), and Hot Towel (uses Durandal, Bootstrap, Breeze, Knockout, g, Sammy, and Toastr).
• Building Amazing Apps with the ASP.NET EmberJS Template. Nathan Totten explains the above mentioned new Ember template in more detail and shows you how you can get started with it.
• Bundling and minifying in ASP.NET MVC. Another post from Gunnar Peipman about the bundling and minifying feature in ASP.NET. He shows how you can use it and gives you some tips and tricks.

Application Lifecycle Management

• ALM Rangers ship guidance for Microsoft Fakes, TFS Disaster Avoidance and updates to two other guides. The ALM Rangers have published some new and updated guides. Willy-P. Schaub introduces them in short and gives you the appropriate download links.
• Run CI builds in your Git team project. Andy Lewis shows how you can create a CI build process with Git.

Windows Store App Development

• How to profile a XAML Windows Store App. Does your Windows Store App has not the performance which you want to have? Then have a look at this post from Andrew B. Hall which shows you how you can profile your Windows Store App.
• Alive with activity, Part 1: Working with tiles, badges, and toasts. A great tile experience is a key factor for the success of a Windows Store App. Kraig Brockschmidt explains why your app should be “alive” and how you can achieve this “aliveness”.

Windows Azure

• Choosing between SQL Server in Windows Azure VM & Windows Azure SQL Database. Often comes the question “What should I use? A SQL Server running in a Windows Azure VM or should I go with Windows Azure SQL Databases?”. Madhan Arumugam and Guy Bowerman post will help you to decide in which situation you should use one of them.

- Jan (@Horizon_Net)

Before I start I like to take your attention to my blogs list. I started this page to give you an overview about helpful sites. Since the initial creation I have updated it today with a link to Pluralsight which is a great site if you are looking for trainings for several technologies.

The first one is called modern.IE. You probably have heard about this site. It is a dev center with free tools and resources which should help developers to focus on the thing they should do and love - development.

Like you may have heard the Team Foundation Service now supports Git. Andy Lewis gives an introduction how you can create a Git project and helps you to get started.

Beside version control test your application is another important part of the application lifecycle management. Vinay Krishna gives an introduction to the Windows Phone Unit Test capabilities with the Visual Studio 2012 Update 2.

One thing you normally have to do during the app development is to make it available for more markets. That means you have to localize your app. Dan Zucker gives you on this post some tips how you can achieve this goal.

- Jan (@Horizon_Net)

From time to time a Windows Azure preview feature comes out of the preview and is ready for production usage. This week Scott Guthrie announced the release of the Windows Azure Media Services. The Media Services where are already used to the stream the London 2012 Olympics.

A cool new feature of Windows Azure was also released as a preview this week – Notification Hubs, which lets you efficiently route push notification messages to millions of mobile users and devices.

For Windows Phone developers, who still develop for Windows Phone 7 another release was very important this week. On Tuesday the Windows Phone SDK Update for 7.8 was made available, so developers can start developing for the new phone update.

Another interesting article for Windows Phone developers, who want to satisfy their users was written by Jonathan Lyons. Building High Performance Windows Phone Apps shows you how you can get even more power with your app.

- Jan (@Horizon_Net)

8 Tips for Designing Windows Phone Apps is a great article about what’s should be the focus for every app: The customer. It helps to satisfy the users of your Windows Phone 8 app.

The next article is also about Windows Phone 8. Microsoft just launched the Windows Phone’s Next App Star contest. Until March 5th you have the chance to participate. Why should you care about this contest? If you do well in this contest you have the chance to be featured in a Windows Phone primetime TV ad in the US.

As a premier I like to cover to cover two GitHub repositories. The first one is the Azure Mobile C# SDK which offers a platform agnostic C# SDK for the Azure Mobile Services. The second one is the web dev checklist which was created by Sayed Ibrahim Hashimi and Mads Kristensen. You can see it on http://webdevchecklist.com/. Why I’m talking about that checklist? Because it’s great! The Windows Azure Insiders, inspired by the work of Sayed and Mads, are currently working on a Windows Azure Checklist. I can promise you that this site will grow fast in the future.

At the beginning I have said that I like to cover one article which normally not fits into the topics I’m covering on my blog – Amazon Web Services. A few days ago I saw an article written by Richard Seroter about Interacting with Cloud From Visual Studio: Amazon Web Services. What should I say about this article: It’s great! What have I done after I read this one? I downloaded the AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio and have activated an Amazon Web Services account.
But you’re normally working with Windows Azure! That’s right, but for me it’s important to have a feeling for the things others do, so I can make the right decision when it comes to the decision what platform should be used in a project. Just give it a try!

- Jan (@Horizon_Net)