A Timely Month with Azure, Windows 10 & Holograms!

5th February 2015 // View as Webpage // Haven't subscribed yet? Join us! How Timely are Growing with Azure Thiago here. Welcome back. As manager of the New Zealand BizSpark program, I work with many start-ups and ISVs. This week I’d like to introduce Andrew Schofield and the Timely team. As much as I love to share the stories of the companies I work with, no one can tell their journey better than they can. So I’ll leave it to Andrew to take you through their journey in this week’s editorial (takeover): Timely is a cloud-based appointment system for clinics, salons, practices and any business operator that takes appointments. Our mission is to build the best booking system in the world. When we started out on this mission we chose Microsoft Azure as the platform that we would build the software on. This wasn’t a decision we made lightly, as we were choosing a long-term partner that would make this a reality with us. Using Azure gives us no headaches over server setup and maintenance, global availability and instant scalability. Looking back now, boy did we make the right decision. Azure has come a long, long way since we started! We began with just a couple of web servers and a single database. We have now grown to a solution that includes over 40 servers, databases replicated globally, and take advantage of many of Azure’s services including Service Bus, Redis Cache, Azure Search, Azure Storage, Azure CDN, Traffic Manager and more. These services have really helped us scale the application as we’ve added more customers to the top of the funnel. Here is a diagram of the services we have deployed. For an early stage startup, Azure lets you focus on getting a product to market quickly. The platform comes hand in glove with the BizSpark program, so sign up for that too and receive a $190/month subsidy for Azure. Once you have grown BizSpark Plus gives you up to $60,000 free Azure too. That was enough for us to get Timely out in front of our audience without any significant up-front costs, or time setting up infrastructure. Absolute gold. If you want to learn more don’t hesitate to get in touch, we love sharing war stories. We’re also hiring if you’d like to jump in the rocket ship with us! So, how are you using Azure? Andrew Schofield Timely CTO The New Raspberry Pi 2 Will Run Windows 10 & Universal Apps. Windows 10 will support the new Raspberry Pi 2, and you can get Windows 10 free for the Maker community through the Windows Developer Program for IoT coming later this year. Check out what other great things the Raspberry Pi 2 has got going for it! CoreCLR is Now Open Source. CoreCLR is the .NET execution engine in .NET Core, performing functions such as garbage collection and compilation to machine code. Microsoft Developer Network is excited to announce that CoreCLR is now open source on GitHub! The Era of Holographic Computing is Here. Microsoft Hololens is the new technology being enabled by Windows 10 and is set to change the way we view computing forever. High definition holograms will be integrated with your real world, unlocking all-new ways to create, communicate, work and play! Check out the video and see for yourself. Build 2015 Sold Out! Build 2015 is Microsoft's premier developer conference held in San Francisco, California from 29th April - 1st May. It is now sold out, but there is a waiting list if you'd like another chance. Developer Updates in Windows 10 & Project Spartan. There are some great new enhancements that are coming to light with Windows 10 and Project Spartan. Want to be prepared for Windows 10? Get familiar with this Windows 10 Technical Preview Fundamentals MVA course. This week's theme is 'Get Inspired'! We've got an app for all you artsy folk, or if you're the more active type you can check out what other people are getting up to on the GoPro Channel. There's also Ted Talks, and Flipboard to hear about the things you care about. Have a Windows app project on the side? Show it off! Share it with the rest of the community in the Kiwi Windows Apps Facebook group or send us an email to nzdev\@outlook.com. Microsoft Developer Cloud Essentials 10th February (AKL), 12th February (WEL), 13th February (CHCH) At this DevCamp you will learn about some of the best features and services of Microsoft Azure and how to build and move a variety of apps to the cloud. You will see how to build web sites, mobile applications, and enterprise-class applications. Find out what other DevCamp events are coming up over March & April, and get your seat while they're still available. Azure Lunchtime Meetup 17th February (AKL) Mark Young (\@kiwidev) from the Azure Batch engineering team will be presenting about Azure Batch: a new service that helps you run large-scale and high performance computing applications in the cloud, by providing job scheduling and auto-scaling of compute resources as a platform service. Successful developers are always upgrading their skills. Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA) offers online Microsoft training delivered by experts. Watch videos, download PowerPoint slides and test yourself as you learn at absolutely no cost. If you want to learn something different, head over to MVA here! Here are the courses your Microsoft Technical Evangelists recommend this week: Windows 10 Technical Preview Fundamentals. Be prepared for Windows 10 by getting familiar with the fundamentals. Learn about new UI enhancements, find out how management and deployment is evolving, and hear about how new security enhancements in Windows 10 can help your organisation respond to the modern security threat landscape. A Lap Around Azure Websites. Want to explore the lifecycle of an Azure Website, from building blocks to production to troubleshooting? Now's your chance! Get a look at new features in Azure Websites, including WebJobs, added security, simple authentication, and much more. Is Your Lack of a Disaster Recovery Site Keeping You Up at Night? Do you have a disaster recovery (DR) plan? Not having a DR plan is a bit like walking a tightrope with no safety net, fine while you're on the rope but, if something goes wrong, you're in for a world of hurt. Find out more about recovery in a disaster, create a plan, and test a failover. © 2015 Microsoft Corporation Terms of Use ::: Trademarks Microsoft respects your privacy. To learn more, please read our online Privacy Statement. 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