This week a SharePoint conference took place somewhere and I took more than a passing interest because it clearly wasn't a SharePoint conference, it was a Office365/Yammer conference and as far as I can discern the big takeaways were: SharePoint Social is dead, Yammer is where its at, and its going to be integrated everywhere (as long as ...

In a few months time I will, in association with Technitrain, be running a training course entitled Introduction to SQL Server Data Tools. I am currently working on putting together some hands-on lab material for the course delegates and have decided that in order to save time in asking people to install software during the course I am simply ...

More than perhaps any other computing discipline, Data Science lends itself best to Cloud Computing in general, and Windows Azure in specific. That's a big claim, but before I offer some evidence, I need to explain what I mean by ''Data Science''. I've written before on Data Science ...

(Note - I'll add to this post as new information is updated - latest post date is August 8th, 2013) I've been working on cloud projects of all types for over three years now. Along the way, I've learned some basic patterns that make for a successful project - and also the things to avoid. The general steps depend a great deal on whether the ...

 I’m catching up on a bunch of features, functions, updates and more learning from the TechEd Event in New Orleans recently. In fact, videos, Windows Azure documentation, and of course blogs are the new way to keep up – books are just too slow to produce to handle the pace. I thought I’d share the links I’m ...

Manage SQL Server Connectivity through Windows Azure Virtual Machines Remote PowerShell Blog This blog post comes from Khalid Mouss, Senior Program Manager in Microsoft SQL Server. Overview The goal of this blog is to demonstrate how we can automate through PowerShell connecting multiple SQL Server deployments in Windows Azure Virtual ...

Normally I try to put topics in the positive in other words ''Do this'' not ''Don't do that''. Sometimes its clearer to focus on what *not* to do. Popular development processes often start with screen mockups, or user input descriptions. In a scale-out pattern like Cloud Computing on Windows Azure, that's the wrong place to start. Start with the ...

Greetings, We are excited to announce the release of our new whitepaper, Performance Guidance for SQL Server in Windows Azure Virtual Machines. This paper provides you guidance to optimize your SQL Server workloads running in Windows Azure Infrastructure Services. Additionally, if you are attending TechEd North America 2013 in New Orleans ...

“Case Studies” are a great tool when you’re evaluating a platform. Having evidence that other companies have deployed Windows Azure, in addition to how they did it, is a good way to plan your own deployments or even just evaluate whether Windows Azure would be a good fit. And we have several case studies you can examine here: ...

It’s been just over a week since Windows Azure announced the GA of Infrastructure Services, marking the beginning of a fully supported Infrastructure as a Service in Windows Azure, with SQL Server as a major component. Pre-installed SQL Server VMs are available for pay-per-hour usage in the Windows Azure gallery. Currently Enterprise, ...