ArcReady Logo

For the last 2 1/2 years Microsoft DPE has been putting on a series of events called ArcReady (short for architecture readiness). We have run the events in the area that Microsoft calls its Central Region (which is the 18 states in the middle of the United States between Canada and Mexico and Nebraska and Tennessee). The events have been interesting and well attended and I thank each and every person who took the time to attend one of the 35 events on 10 different topics that I personally helped to deliver in Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana. But ArcReady as an event series has come to an end.

We started the ArcReady series because our customers were telling us that Microsoft had a lot of great developer tools and technologies, but we did not talk enough about architecture; that we focused on products and not solutions. You talked and we listened and created ArcReady and (we think) delivered that architecture message very successfully.

After a year we launched another series of events called MSDN Unleashed, which was the developer oriented companion to the ArcReady series and we ran that from September to this last may in the afternoon (right after the ArcReady events). We heard from our customers that many of you did both development work and architecture work (you wore both hats). You did not want separate topics between the architecture and development sessions. You also did not want to have to take a whole day off work in order to hear our architecture and developer discussions. You also wanted us to continue to talk about solutions and not just products. You talked and we listened.

So we made the following changes:

  • We eliminated ArcReady as a separate event and as a separate name
  • We will have architecture conversations during our developer events
  • We will focus on solutions and include Real World applications and case studies in all events
  • Our events will be 1/2 day, so as to have less impact on your work schedule
  • We have gone back to the MSDN Events name for developer events (no more Unleashed)
  • We will also added a 1/2 day event for IT Professionals under the name TechNet Events if you prefer to talk about servers and networks instead of code – these TechNet Events will also include an architecture discussion

We hope that you like the changes to the event format. We know that your time is valuable and we want to make your investment of that time in one of our events as rewarding as possible. If it is not, please talk to us and we will listen.

Announcing Real World Azure with Microsoft IT

Our first event under the new format will be on cloud computing and specifically the Windows Azure Platform. Cloud computing is a big topic in the industry these days, Microsoft is not the only player in the space, but we are pretty proud of our Windows Azure Platform. This topic will talk about the nuts and bolts of the platform, but will also showcase an application built on the platform, “Project Austin”. Here is information on the TechNet Events and MSDN Events.

TechNet Events Presents – Azure for the IT Professional

In this event, we will discuss:

  • Azure architecture from the IT professional’s point of view
  • Why an IT operations team would want to pursue Azure as an extension to the data center
  • Configuration, deployment and scaling Azure-based applications
  • The Azure roles (web, web service and worker)
  • Azure storage options
  • Azure security and identity options
  • How Azure-based applications can be integrated with on-premises applications
  • How operations teams can manage and monitor Azure-based applications</UL>

Dates & Location (click on city name to register)

(All TechNet events are from 8:30am to noon)

MSDN Events Presents – Azure for the Developer & Architect

  • Cloud computing architectures in general and the Azure architecture in particular
  • Several aspects of Azure from the developer’s and architect’s perspective
  • Azure roles (web, web service and worker)
  • Azure storage options
  • Azure security and identity options
  • How Azure-based applications can be integrated with on-premise applications
  • Configuration, deployment and scaling Azure-based applications
  • How development teams can optimize their applications for better management and monitoring

Dates & Location (click on city name to register)

(All MSDN Events are from 1:00pm to 5:00pm)