2014-04-29 - Two for one: Visual Studio Monaco and alternative technologies on Windows Azure

Again two sessions in one evening! We'll be exploring Visual Studio Monaco as well as what else you can do on Windows Azure if you leave the beaten track. Neo4J, Redis, HBase and all sorts of other technologies mixed and matched in IaaS and PaaS.

Session info

Developing Azure Websites with Visual Studio Online (Monaco): because it's mundane Monaco

With Visual Studio Online or shortly VSO, Microsoft already offered a broad range of tools and services that support different kinds of development. To further build on that vision, Microsoft recently released a preview of “Monaco”, a new development service specifically designed for building and maintaining Windows Azure Websites. 

With Monaco, Microsoft provides developers with a lightweight, friction free companion to the Visual Studio IDE that is accessible from any device on any platform. It is a rich, browser based, code focused development environment optimized for the Windows Azure platform, making it easy to start building and maintaining applications for the cloud. 

In this session we will walk you through this exciting new Windows Azure service, show you how fast you can make changes in Monaco and how the online experience can speed up your development and offers you an even greater set of tools than the ones you already use every day. We will talk about more advanced scenarios, and show you how the extensions work, how you can leverage Git and TFS source control in combination with Monaco, and how you can even make live changes, compile them and have them reflected immediately online.

Speaker: Mike is Microsoft Lead Consultant and Architect at Crosspoint Solutions (part of the Cronos group), a company with a strong focus on BI, Data and CRM. Mike is mainly focused on the complete Microsoft product stack and therefore very flexible to work with. He’s been active in the IT industry for over 15 years and has performed almost all types of job profiles, going from coaching and leading a team to architecting and systems design and training. Today he’s primarily into the Microsoft Cloud Platform and Application Lifecycle Management. He’s not a stranger to both dev and IT Pro topics. 

In January 2012 he became a crew member of AZUG, the Belgian Windows Azure User Group. As an active member he’s both involved in giving presentations and organizing events. Mike is also a Windows Azure MVP and Windows Azure Insider. 

Mike likes helping out in the community and introducing new & young people into the world of Microsoft and technology.

Forget the cheese, let me out of the trap. I <3 Windows Azure.

In other words, building scalable applications the "easy" way. Recently I got involved (still am) in developing a niche product using exotic technologies like Neo4J, Redis, SignalR, HAProxy, ServiceStack, NServiceBus and a lot of others. Although I can't share the actual product name, what I will try to do is show you how we layered our application, architectural decisions, pitfalls, my love-hate relationship with Neo4J and how we're mixing PaaS, IaaS and VNETs for the optimal result. This is not a beginners session, more like level 400-500, so if you're a newbie I can't guarantee you won't leave crying. You need to have experience with Windows Azure, understand scaling concepts and the like.

Speaker: Panagiotis Kefalidis is a Software Development Consultant/Architect and Trainer. He has been a speaker at domestic and international events such TechEd and ITProDevConnections, delivering trainings and consulting on cloud computing and the Windows Azure Platform for almost 3 years. He also has experience with other cloud platforms like AWS, Google Gears and others. He's a supporter of the EuroCloud movement, likes Pizza, Sushi and fast cars. Born and raised in Greece but currently living and working at Belgium for Devoteam BE.. He is currently a Windows Azure MVP.

Practical details

Event date: April 29, 2014 - welcome from 17:45, sessions start 18:15 (ends when we can shut up Panos)
Catering: sandwiches

Event location:
Cnext
Zeutestraat 2 B
2800 Mechelen
Belgium

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