Kevin Remde's IT Pro Weblog
This is really cool. The Windows Azure Team Blog just announced the availability of the new Pricing Calculator for Windows Azure.
Check out the team blog post, or click this screenshot to jump right in:
This is a simple link to another blog, but I thought it very worthwhile to direct you there. If you were interested in a great summary with links to greater details all about the Windows Azure platform-area announcements that were made last week at TechEd North America 2011, you’ll find them on Eric Nelson’s excellent blog post – HERE (I love their blog template, too. Cool look of torn paper.)
“Hey Kevin.. speaking of TechEd… when are you going to complete your diary? You stopped after Day 2!”
Yeah.. about that. I got really busy. The week of TechEd involves a lot of time spent away from the hotel room.. and when you are there, you need to sleep. (At least this old guy does.) I do have lots of photos and some good stories to share, and I promise I will get to them soon. I’m also compiling a quick video-diary-summary of some of the fun events also. Please be patient.
Recently a great series of 15 introductory videos have been completed and made available up on Microsoft Showcase, all focusing on SQL Azure. (You may recall that I blogged about SQL Azure in my “Cloudy April” series a few weeks ago.)
Here are the episodes:
The videos are short, single-subject, high-quality, and easy to consume and even share. Here’s an example:
Code samples are all also publically available on http://sqlazure.codeplex.com.
Dear TechEd Diary,
Tuesday at TechEd North America 2011 was another long day, but a good one. I managed to get some good sessions in, as well as do a quick pass through the exhibit hall. After breakfast, the day started by filling in as a helper (or “proctor”) in an instructor-lead lab. The instructor was my friend Brian Prince, and the lab was COS371-WRK-R Windows Azure Workshop - Part 1: Set Up the Tools and Create Your First Cloud Application. And they did.
Here are a few photos of the first part of the day:
“What was the best session you attended, Kevin?”
If I were attending it to learn (rather than work), and if I weren’t already intimately familiar with the content, I'd say Brian Prince’s session was the best. He really is a top-notch presenter, and very knowledgeable about Windows Azure.
But of the other three sessions I attended…
I’d have to say that my favorite was the last one. Matt McSpirit really put the hurt on VMware. I hope he doesn’t mind that I’m going to “borrow” his content and leverage it heavily in the coming months.
“So what did you do for fun in the evening?”
Like many – who learned that free food and beer were provided – I attended the Community Party. I had a really good chat with John Weston, Tim Vander Kooi, and several of the GITCA folks. And as a great cap on the evening, I attended one of my favorite TechEd traditions.
“The Jam Session?”
You got it.
“Did you sing this time, Kevin?”
No. The music was good (mostly), but after the long day I quite honestly wasn’t in the mood to try and navigate the chaos that is a bunch of people trying to figure out chords and what they want to play next while somebody is filling the void with a drum solo or “How’s everybody doin’ tonight?!!!” drunkenly shouted into a microphone. I had a great time.. but obviously I didn’t have as much fun as that guy.
Anyway.. here are a couple of photos from the evening.
On Wednesday I'll be attending some more sessions, plus a super-secret meeting of some-sort. Don’t ask.
Here I am back in my room at my lovely hotel after the first full day of TechEd North America 2011.
The keynote was good. The word of the week is definitely “cloud”.
“Are you surprised?”
Absolutely not.
After the keynote, a good “Foundational Session” by Norm Judah, and a good lunch, I attended and participated in a “DevOps Workshop”. It wasn’t actually a part of TechEd, but was an excellent opportunity to learn about a hot and trending topic in the software development world.
I managed to see an excellent session on “Windows Azure for the IT Pro” delivered by Joey Snow, and then I joined my boss and several of my teammates for dinner at the Hard Rock Café. (Also bought a few gifts for my kids. Shh… don’t tell!)
Tomorrow morning I’m going to help out Brian Prince with his Windows Azure Workshop (COS371-WRK-R - Windows Azure Workshop - Part 1: Set Up the Tools and Create Your First Cloud Application), and then have a very busy day of sessions to attend; mostly having to do with server and datacenter virtualization (and private clouds).
“And isn’t tomorrow night the Jam Session?”
Yes! One of my favorite parts of TechEd! And my hotel is practically right across the street. Very handy.
Made it here to TechEd North America 2011 in Atlanta. It was an early flight this morning, a simple (and cheap) train ride into town, and check-in at my hotel. I am registered…
…and then I attended what was left of the afternoon’s “Community Leadership Summit”.
Some of my teammates will be arriving later tonight.. but I don’t know if I’ll see them this evening. I’m going to attend the “Influencer Party at TechEd ‘11”, after I find some food someplace.
I’ve been “waitlisted” for the party/gathering of #thekrewe, so we’ll see if I get to go to that event later also.
So far, so good!
Interesting bit of twitter news: Apparently nobody is paying any attention to the “official” TechEd Twitter hash-tag “#teched_na”. Everyone is using #msteched.
“Power to the people!”
Exactly.
“Hey Kevin… Are you going to shoot any videos or put up any Video Diaries this year?”
I definitely won’t be doing as many as I did last year. It’s just a lot of work. I will be shooting video, and might put up a compilation of some TechEd fun later in the week; or soon after TechEd is over.
I’m looking forward to a fun week!