Our technical team run regular Azure workshops and briefings for software companies looking to either make the move to Azure, or evolve their existing systems to better exploit the benefits of the Intelligent Cloud and Intelligent Edge on Azure

This is the current event list – it will be updated continually, so please come back and check for the latest updates

Azure Workshop – Serverless, Microservices and Containers, 18th January 2018.

Azure Workshop - Data and the Intelligent Cloud, 8th February 2018.

Microsoft Public Sector DevCamps. These lecture & lab-based learning experience allow attendees to develop practical Azure, bots, cognitive services, predictive analytics Power BI and Apps for Office skills over a 2-day event.  Register here: London  - 20th & 21st February 2018. Manchester – 22nd & 23rd February 2018.

Azure workshop - Azure and Hybrid computing, 13th February 2018. 

Azure and DevOps. 15th March 2018. This technical seminar is designed for companies wishing to start their DevOps journey. It will take you on a journey working with Microsoft tools and platforms to deliver DevOps practices to both cloud and on-premises scenarios. Incl Continuous Integration & Deployment with VSTS/TFS Build, containers, application insights, and more. Register here.

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]]> https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/david_gristwood/keep-calm-and-carry-on-hacking Thu, 30 Nov 2017 10:44:39 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/david_gristwood/?p=2766 Last week our team hosted 15 software companies at our Reading offices for one of our new “Design for Azure” (aka ‘Platform as a Service’) “Code With” Hacks. We had over 150 applicants for the event - https://www.microsoftevents.com/profile/form/index.cfm?PKformID=0x2796288abcd – many more than we expected, and unfortunately, many more than we could accommodate. The good news is that we will be running more in the new year, as we have had incredible feedback from attendees that it really helped support and accelerate their move to Azure.

We had a great mix of software companies, some with long established relationships with Microsoft, others new to working with us and keen to build a commercial and technical relationship. Some were migrating well proven workloads to Azure, other had plans to disrupt their chosen markets. Some were working with leading edge technologies, others with more traditional line of business technology stacks. Some were moving existing on-premise systems to Azure, others prototyping and developing brand new applications optimised for Azure. The one thing they had in common, they wanted to be on Azure…

A lot of the time was spent on “whiteboard” design discussion (which Surface Hubs are particular good at) as many folk wanted to sanity check their ideas or discuss possible architectural designs, and the feedback made it clear that this was one of the most valuable aspects of the hack. This hack was very much positioned as a “line of business” hack, so much of technical conversations were around the ideas of serverless, micro-services and containers, and focused on technologies such AppServices, Functions, Container Services, Kubernetes, Service Fabric and the like, alongside a variety of database and data store discussions. We had a lot of great questions around identity and security, especially as it related to Azure Active Directory. DevOps was also a very hot topic, and many companies wanted to talk about how to best build their deployment processes.

We will be running more hacks in the new year, so in the meantime, Keep Calm and Carry On Hacking…. and if you would be kept updated on future hacks, please register your interest at https://aka.ms/ukocpisvhack0817

And, if the whole world of serverless, micro-services, containers and the like are of interest, our team will be kicking off the new year with a “Serverless, Microservices and Containers” Azure workshop on 18^th of January in London – to register for a place, go to https://aka.ms/ukocpisv180118]]> https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/david_gristwood/azure-technical-briefings-out-about-in-the-uk Mon, 18 Sep 2017 12:03:19 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/david_gristwood/?p=2645  Our technical team have been out and about across the UK meeting with software companies, talking about Azure and the journey to cloud. The briefings we have run have explored the various aspects of the journey that many people have encountered in their to move to the cloud:

- Lift and shift to get onto Azure quickly and easily, using virtual machines and our Infrastructure as a Service offering

- Make small changes to reduce running costs and enhance scalability and availability using our Platform as a Service capabilities

- Undertake some elements of redesign to start harnessing the power of serverless computing via Azure Functions, Logic Apps and Power BI

- Explore the next wave of technology innovation such as Machine Learning, AI and Bots.

In the sessions we explore architectural design and best practices. You can find the slides here.

Here are some of the briefings we have coming up:

Designing Highly Scalable and Available Cloud Solutions – What to do and What to avoid – London, September 27^th, 2017

We will explore the key critical considerations when building secure, scalable and highly available cloud-based solutions. We will share the secrets, based on a wealth of real-life implementation scenarios, of what to look for and what to avoid. Which are the architectural patterns that are effective and what are the implementation and business benefits of using them? Register

Azure Serverless & Microservices – London October 10^th, 2017

What if you could spend all your time building and deploying great apps, and none of your time managing servers? Server less computing lets you do just that, because the infrastructure you need to run and scale your apps is managed for you. Alternatively, are you using a monolith architecture at work and keen to learn how you can decompose it into discreet microservices? Our technical experts will walk through Microsoft's offering with talks and demos highlighting what to look for and what to avoid. Waitlist Register

GDPR, Security and Privacy features for cloud applications – London, October 17^th, 2017

Join us for a day in which we explore Microsoft Azure and the services and features related to security, privacy, governance and GDPR. In this workshop we will explore how to secure your investments, infrastructure, data and applications whilst covering topics such as security patterns, access control, identity, networking, hybrid configurations, databases and threat detection. Waitlist Register

Azure, Data and the Intelligent Cloud, London November 9^th, 2017

Are you collecting and managing all the data from your applications and systems that could give you better insights into their usage? Do you think you could learn more from the data you have? Do you want the power of machine learning and AI in your hands without the cost of a dedicated AI team? Come along for the day and learn how you can process and act on events and telemetry, and run machine learning models and deep learning on Azure in a fraction of the time of starting from scratch. We will show how to leverage services as Azure Event Hubs, Data Lake, Workbooks, Machine Learning and more. Register

How to Deploy, Manage, Support and Operate Azure Based Services – London, November 16^th, 2017

This technical briefing will explore how you deploy, manage, support and operate Azure based services. What are the tools, tricks and services that you can employ to help your solution get up and running quickly and smoothly on the Azure platform? Our technical experts will share the secrets, based on a wealth of real life implementation scenarios, of what to look for and what to avoid. Register

Azure Technical Briefing: “Rub DevOps on it”– London, December 7^th, 2017

DevOps is the union of people, process, and products to enable the continuous delivery of applications and resources. In this technical briefing, will walk through Continuous Integration / Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) and all the tools you need to automatically build and deploy your software in the cloud. We will touch on Agile planning tools with code delivery and automated web tests surfaced into Application Insights to help provide actionable metrics. Register

#BuildWithAzure #Azure]]> https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/david_gristwood/calendar-of-uk-based-azure-workshops-from-our-tech-team Fri, 25 Aug 2017 16:34:41 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/david_gristwood/?p=2497

Your Journey to the Microsoft Azure Cloud - A Briefing for Software Solution Businesses - Roadshow

In this technical briefing, we will share the secrets from the different options to design and build apps in the cloud with Azure. Whether you are migrating existing applications “as is” to the cloud, optimising existing solutions and systems for cost on the cloud or building new applications specifically for the cloud. Join us as we show you the fastest route to the cloud and beyond with Microsoft Azure.

Register for Edinburgh August 30th

Register for Birmingham September 5th

Register for Manchester September 12th

Register for London September 18th

Designing Highly Scalable and Available Cloud Solutions – What to do and What to avoid – London, September 27th 2017

Our technical experts will explore the key critical considerations when building secure, scalable and highly available cloud-based solutions. We will share the secrets, based on a wealth of real-life implementation scenarios, of what to look for and what to avoid. Which are the architectural patterns that are effective and what are the implementation and business benefits of using them?

Register for London September 27^th

Azure Serverless & Microservices Workshop – London October 10^th 2017

What if you could spend all your time building and deploying great apps, and none of your time managing servers? Server less computing lets you do just that, because the infrastructure you need to run and scale your apps is managed for you. Alternatively, are you using a monolith architecture at work and keen to learn how you can decompose it into discreet microservices? Our technical experts will walk through Microsoft's offering with talks and demos highlighting what to look for and what to avoid.

Register for London October 10th

GDPR, Security and Privacy features for cloud applications – London, October 17^th 2017

Join us for a day in which we explore Microsoft Azure and the services and features related to security, privacy, governance and GDPR. In this workshop we will explore how to secure your investments, infrastructure, data and applications whilst covering topics such as security patterns, access control, identity, networking, hybrid configurations, databases and threat detection.

Register for London October 17^th

Azure Workshop – Data and the Intelligent Cloud, London November 9^th 2017

Are you collecting and managing all the data from your applications and systems that could give you better insights into their usage? Do you think you could learn more from the data you have? Do you want the power of machine learning and AI in your hands without the cost of a dedicated AI team? Come along for the day and learn how you can process and act on events and telemetry, and run machine learning models and deep learning on Azure in a fraction of the time of starting from scratch. We will show how to leverage services as Azure Event Hubs, Data Lake, Workbooks, Machine Learning and more.

Register for London November 9th

How to Deploy, Manage, Support and Operate Azure Based Services – London, November 16^th 2017

This technical workshop will explore how you deploy, manage, support and operate Azure based services. What are the tools, tricks and services that you can employ to help your solution get up and running quickly and smoothly on the Azure platform? Our technical experts will share the secrets, based on a wealth of real life implementation scenarios, of what to look for and what to avoid.

Register for London November 16^th

#BuildWithAzure #Azure]]> https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/david_gristwood/register-for-microsoft-uk-code-with-azure-hacks-201718 Thu, 24 Aug 2017 09:32:34 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/david_gristwood/?p=2375 Our Microsoft UK One Commercial Partner team plan to run a new series of “code with“ hacks over the 2017/18 period, focused on a number of key Azure related technologies and scenarios. In these hacks, which typically take place at our Reading offices, around a dozen companies or so come and join our technical team for a few days of coding. They bring their own code or project with them – these are not “hands on labs” or “PowerPoint training sessions, its real projects.

The hacks are open to companies that design, build and sell their own software (rather than for internal company usage).

We will start to run a new set of these over the coming months, but in the meantime, we are offering interested companies the chance to a) register their interest and b) give us feedback on which technologies and scenarios we should focus on.

So, if this sounds of interest, please use this Office Form to register and give us feedback.

#BuildWithAzure #Azure

Since his appearance on the show, Amy Nicholson and I have worked with Andrew and his team to help them design a set of back end services on Azure to add data collection and analytics capabilities to their offering. It’s great to see their story appear on our Microsoft Business Blog.

First off, you need to take some time to get you head around what containers are, and what they mean specifically in the world of Windows. There are lots of articles around, but I think this one entitled simply Windows Containers, is a great place to start.

If this inspires you to learn a little more about this journey to containers and Docker from a Windows perspective, then the MSDN article Containers - Bringing Docker To Windows Developers with Windows Server Containers is interesting reading.

You will need to master the Docker commands, so it's worth a visit to the Docker site, and perhaps start with a look round its overview - https://docs.docker.com/engine/docker-overview

A book that I have found really useful, particularly because of its focus on Docker from a Windows perspective, is "Docker on Windows" by Elton Stoneman

I usually find the best way to get started is to move from theory to practice and actually start to deploy containers. At the timing of writing, July 2017, the newly announced Azure Container Instances only supports Linux, with Windows to follow shortly, and it will be without doubt, the quickest and easiest way to get up an going.

But don’t despair, setting up a Windows Server in Azure is a pretty straight forward process, and it's always useful to go through the process yourself so that you appreciate what's actually involved. The article Windows Containers on Windows Server is a great step by step guide, and the link to the Azure template takes all the hard work out the process.

If you are looking at containers as an enabler of microservices using .NET, why not check out this excellent free e-book from Microsoft ".NET Microservices: Architecture for Containerized .NET Applications"

]]> https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/david_gristwood/our-team-go-out-on-the-road-to-talk-about-azure Tue, 01 Aug 2017 09:00:22 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/david_gristwood/?p=2186

Our Microsoft team are back out on the road in the UK this summer talking techie about all things Azure – join them to find out more….

12 Things to Consider when Moving to Azure Cloud – An Interactive Workshop – Aug 8^th and 15^th

Have you been evaluating Azure as a possible platform for a software project? Or perhaps you have an existing application you are considering moving to Azure? If you develop software and are unsure about how to best proceed, or are going through the design process for a move to the cloud, then this interactive technical briefing could be just what you need, as we discuss the 12 most important things to consider when moving to the cloud.

Register for London – August 8th

Your Journey to the Microsoft Azure Cloud - A Briefing for Software Solution Businesses - Roadshow

In this technical briefing, we will share the secrets from the different options to design and build apps in the cloud with Azure. Whether you are migrating existing applications “as is” to the cloud, optimising existing solutions and systems for cost on the cloud or building new applications specifically for the cloud. Join us as we show you the fastest route to the cloud and beyond with Microsoft Azure.

Register for Edinburgh August 30th

Register for Birmingham September 5th

Register for Manchester September 12th

NEW Register for London September 18th ]]> https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/david_gristwood/data-data-and-more-data-how-and-where-to-store-it-on-azure Fri, 07 Apr 2017 16:03:06 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/david_gristwood/?p=2135 A while back Amy Nicholson and I kicked off TechDays Online with our session “Data, data, data – How and Where to store it on Azure?”.

The idea was to look at the different data stores and repositories that exist on Microsoft Azure, and to match them to the differing requirements of developers and their applications.

We live in an era of polyglot persistence and there is no need to force ourselves to use just one store in an application or solution, when a variety of options exist, and exist as services on Azure, so there is no need to set up and manage virtual machines, just hook up the services and start using them.

One simple example is a system that has a mix of both human and machine derived data:

The sales data for a company is most likely to be in a SQL ACID transactional database (such as SQL Database), whereas the audit logs would be in a cheap, fast, non-relational store (such as Azure Table storage). 

register here - https://aka.ms/uktechdays2017 

#uktechdays]]>