Check out

https://bmspublic.blob.core.windows.net/codesamples/Azure%20University%20Brochure%20-%20MTC%20September%202011.pdf

and enroll in Azure U!  Time is running out!

Want to check out Windows Azure and see how it can make your life easier, save your company money, and show people your mad cloud skillz???   Check out the Windows Azure Pass. You can register a Live ID for a Pass and receive 30 days of free cloud computing.  NO credit card required. Do this before your boss comes over and expects you to have answers about ‘this cloud thing.’

Just go to http://www.WindowsAzurePass.com, and enter the promo code DPCE01. Your Pass will be activated within a few days, and you can start deploying code all day long.

Once you get a pass, you can attend a two-day boot camp to learn more about Windows Azure, try some hands-on labs on your own time, or join us online during office hours to get all of your questions answered.

What exactly do you get for free?

The Windows Azure platform 30-day pass includes the following resources :

Windows Azure

• 3 Small Compute Instances
• 3 GB of Storage
• 250,000 Storage Transactions

SQL Azure

• Two 1 GB Web Edition Database

AppFabric

• 100,000 Access Control Transactions
• 2 Bus Service Connections

Data Transfers

• 3 GB In
• 3 GB Out

How will your IT organization consider using “the cloud”?  Is there even an option for you; and if so, what does it look like?

Next month we start our new series of events focusing on how IT is being transformed into a dynamic, service-based resource for your business.  To do this you need to not just think about things like Virtualization, but to consider taking advantage of cloud-like solutions; whether in your own datacenter or hosted elsewhere.   And I know you’ll agree: Choosing the right solution for the right scenario becomes very important.

“I agree, Jeff.  So when and where are these events?”

I’m glad you asked! 

Here is the schedule.  The events run from 8:00am to 12:30pm, though we may let you out early for good behavior.  Click on any of these to get a summary of the three parts of our morning.

(Dates in bold are being delivered by yours-truly.)

TechNet Events Presents: Transforming IT - Virtualization to the Cloud

Tuesday, March 15, 2011	Grand Rapids, MI
Thursday, March 17, 2011	Detroit, MI
Tuesday, March 22, 2011	Cleveland, OH
Wednesday, March 23, 2011	Bloomington, MN
Wednesday, March 23, 2011	Milwaukee, WI
Thursday, March 24, 2011	Columbus, OH
Monday, March 28, 2011	St. Louis, MO
Tuesday, March 29, 2011	Madison, WI
Tuesday, March 29, 2011	Overland Park, KS
Wednesday, March 30, 2011	Omaha, NE
Friday, April 01, 2011	Nashville, TN
Tuesday, April 05, 2011	Baton Rouge, LA
Wednesday, April 06, 2011	Cincinnati, OH
Thursday, April 07, 2011	Dallas, TX
Tuesday, April 12, 2011	Houston, TX
Wednesday, April 13, 2011	Louisville, KY
Thursday, April 14, 2011	Indianapolis, IN
Thursday, April 14, 2011	Austin, TX
Thursday, April 21, 2011	Chicago, IL
Friday, April 22, 2011	Des Moines, IA
Tuesday, April 26, 2011	Tulsa, OK
Tuesday, May 10, 2011	Downers Grove, IL
Thursday, May 12, 2011	Cedar Rapids, IA

For other events around the country, check out and continue to watch the TechNet Events site.

See you there!

I am sure many of you have heard of Boot to VHD using Windows 7 and/or Windows Server 2008 R2.  If not, check out this Bing search for reference material.  The resource I have yet to stumble across is the best way to set up your environment if you want to take advantage of this great technology.  How big should my VHD be?  Should I have a base image and the diff VHDs for different environments?  Is there an optimal way to configure Windows 7 and Office to maximize performance and productivity?  What’s the best way to setup my machine if I have an SSD?  The list goes on….

I have my own ideas, and I have solicited input from some of the local Microsoft Hyper-V wonks for their insights, but I still feel like I am walking in the woods alone.  Anyone have any insights, experiences, recommendations?  If so, drop me an email or post a comment.  I’ll collect the info and publish what we come up with.  Eventually, maybe a Wiki or something…

Just a quick update to the Azure Storage app… added support for both Win 7 folder dialogs and older Windows as well.  Still not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but slightly better. I would like to try and add drag and drop support and provide a progress indicator for larger files when uploading. 

Download Here

I had need to demo some Azure blob storage stuff to a customer the other day.  This is what I churned out.  Quick and dirty, incomplete testing, and probably some design flaws, but it gets the point across. ;-)

To use the sample, you need to modify the DemoAuthorizationService.cs file to include your real Azure account and token information, or change it to use the local devstore account and key (though you  will need to modify the DemoAuthToken.cs file to return the right Uri – like I said, some stuff that needed to be cleaned up).

Oh, and I did some wonky stuff with the WPF interface as well as far as styling some buttons go – better way to do what I did – but I was learning styling as I went and just banged out something that worked.  Having said all that, not a bad example of MVVM/MVP/whatever you want to call it.

Download here

Check out the first wave of Azure HDI videos if you want to learn more about Azure and cloud computing.  More to come in the near future…

Visit here for the full summary of videos

Overall Page

Get Started Developing on Windows Azure?

If you’re a developer and you’re new to Windows Azure, start here! You’ll see what you need to download and install, and how to create a simple “Hello World” Windows Azure application.

Deploy a Windows Azure Application

You’ll see what it takes to move your application into the cloud – you’ll see how to request and register a token, how to upload your Windows Azure application and how to move it between staging and production in the cloud.

Store Blobs in Windows Azure Storage?

Learn how to leverage Windows Azure storage to store data as blobs. You’ll learn about blob storage, containers and the API that makes it easy to manage everything from managed code.

Leverage Queues in Windows Azure?

Learn how to use queues to facilitate communication between Web and Worker roles in Windows Azure.

Debugging Tips for Windows Azure Applications

The Windows Azure SDK includes a development fabric that provides a "cloud on your desktop." In this screencast, learn how to debug your Windows Azure applications in this environment.

Get Started with .NET Services?

.NET Services are a set of highly scalable building blocks for programming in the cloud. In this brief screencast, you'll learn about the registration process, the SDK and the built-in samples - everything you need to know in order to get started.

Harness the Microsoft .NET Service Bus?

The .NET Service Bus makes it easy to access your Web services no matter where they are. In this brief screencast, you'll see how to take a basic Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) service and expose it to the Internet with the .NET Service Bus.

Get Started with the Live Framework?

If you are looking to get started developing with the Live Framework, this is the place to start! In this screencast you'll learn how to get a Live Services token and what you need to download in order to start writing Live Framework applications.

Use the Microsoft Live Framework Resource Browser?

The Live Framework Resource Model is a simple, straightforward information model based on entities, collections and relationships. In this brief screencast you'll learn how to navigate the relationships between entities by using the Live Framework Resource Browser, which is a tool that ships with the Live Framework SDK.

I posted the slides and demo code from the presentations I did at the Lincoln and Omaha User Group meetings.  You can download them directly or find them on the Download page.  The demo code is really just a remake of the PDC demo that Steve Marx’s did using standard ASP.NET instead of ASP.NET MVC.  If you don’t know MVC and want to focus more on the Azure parts of the app instead of figuring out the MVC “clutter”, you may find this version a bit more useful.  No, I am not knocking MVC.  I’m just saying if you have never used it, figuring out how certain things are wired together can distract you from the important parts of the actual Azure demo.

I was presenting at the Lincoln .NET User Group last night and about midway through, my Azure project failed.  I was getting an error that said the Account Name was not specified when my app tried to work with Azure Storage. It was bizarre because the first demo had gone great and the same error was showing up even when I went into my “completed and I know this will work” project.  It was very weird. 

I started to bang on it today, and discovered that somehow the Startup Project in the solution (in both solutions actually which made it doubly weird) had switched from the Azure Service project to the WebRole project.  That meant that my app was being run as a normal ASP.NET app and not being packaged and deployed into the Azure Development Fabric.  Without being in the Fabric, the StorageClient code could not access the Config Settings from the Azure Service project – BAM! No account name to be found!

Sorry to my Lincoln folks for that stumbling block. I’ve never had that happen before and not sure how it switched in mid-demo.  But now we know… ;-)

If you are a Ruby or Java programmer and you want to leverage Windows Azure (or parts of it anyway), make sure you check out your respective SDKs…

Java SDK for .NET Services

The Microsoft .NET Services offer interoperability by design through industry standards and web protocols such as REST, SOAP, WS-*, as well as through community based libraries that make it easier to use the services. The Java SDK for .NET Services includes a set of libraries, tools, prescriptive guidance & sample applications that will enhance productivity for Java developers willing to use the .NET Services to extend their Java applications by using the Microsoft cloud services platform to build, deploy and manage reliable, Internet-scale applications.

Ruby SDK for .NET Services

The Microsoft .NET Services offer interoperability by design through industry standards and web protocols such as REST, SOAP, WS-*, as well as through community based libraries that make it easier to use the services. The Ruby SDK for .NET Services includes a set of libraries, tools, prescriptive guidance & sample applications that will enhance productivity for Ruby developers willing to use the .NET Services to extend their Ruby applications by using the Microsoft cloud services platform to build, deploy and manage reliable, Internet-scale applications.

I’ve sat through several sessions on the various Azure service, like storage, and the openness of the service API really makes them viable choices for those using non-Microsoft tools. Check it out!