Just a gentle reminder that this blog has moved to http://ericnelson.wordpress.com (as I still get folks contacting me via here) and a shout out for a great initiative (probably!) I’m pulling together to offer six weeks of FREE technical and commercial help to UK companies to explore the Windows Azure Platform starting in Jan 2012.

Check out http://www.sixweeksofazure.co.uk

Apologies in advance for any problems caused as I move over to http://ericnelson.wordpress.com over the next few days. I will blog again on here when the move is fully complete.

I have had a superb time on http://geekswithblogs.net which I moved to back in January 2009 – but it doesn’t quite match what I am after in a blogging platform right now where as wordpress.com broadly does.

This will be my second change of platform in 7 years – it was back in July 2004 I created my first technology blog over on http://blogs.msdn.com/ericnel (which still acts as a mirror) when I was an Application Architect inside Microsoft UK. At the time I had been with Microsoft 8 years, I was very focused on early adoption work with SQL Server 2005 and I was looking for a broader way to help developers in the UK. A blog seemed to be a great way of doing this and I used it to share my learnings, thoughts, advice, best finds etc. throughout the beta of SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005. By 2009 I was following some great bloggers on http://geekswithblogs.net who spoke highly of it and I decided to request a blog on the site to tie up with a job change inside Microsoft UK. IUpdateable was born.  30 months on and I’m off to a new home.

Over the next few days I will bring across the best of my posts from the last year or so (Hence expect a lot of posts!) and then once that is done, I will mothball IUpdateable.

Thanks for reading.

Eric

SQL Server “Denali” is at CTP3 – and would therefore very much welcome feedback.

SQL Azure continues an aggressive cycle of release -  and would therefore very much welcome feedback.

Which is why we have https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/Feedback. A great place to give feedback and to to see what others care about.

For SQL Azure (and the Windows Azure Platform in general) we also have http://www.mygreatwindowsazureidea.com

Thanks in advance…

This post on the Windows Azure blog caught my eye as a) it includes UK early adopter eTVMedia and b) its an interesting look at the wider picture of adopting Windows Azure – including coming up with the business strategy and transitioning a traditional company to Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). It touches on:

• organizational structure: Looking at the trend to create new entities to pursue SaaS
• packaging and pricing: A SaaS app does not necessarily mean a move away from upfront billing
• changing from within: A interesting example of DMTI Spatial completely changing its model with a plan to retire the existing non-SaaS version within 2 years.

Related Links:

• check out case studies on these companies covered in the post: VRX Studios, runtime, DMTI Spatial.
• Attend a FREE workshop September 12th
• Sign up to Microsoft Platform Ready for assistance on the Windows Azure Platform
• http://www.azure.com/offers
• http://www.azure.com/getstarted

Ok… it doesn’t really but this still cheered my Thursday eve.

Whilst perusing the blog of BF3  I spotted that publisher behemoth EA  were doing an “innocent poll” on mobile devices. 

As background, BF3 is arguably the game of 2011 which puts PC gaming back on the map for mainstream FPS fans, easily outshining what will be available for Consoles. It is also worth pointing out that the poll isn’t so innocent in the sense that EA are making a massive push into mobile gaming – which also happens to include the unveiling this week of a version of BF3 for iPad (Check out some shaky camera footage from Gamescon in Germany). I’m sure EA are very interested in any and all intel they can get on device market share.

Anyway, I was chuffed to see Windows doing so well in a poll unlikely to have been chased down by fanboys of any camp. Go Windows :)

Related Links:

• FREE Online Windows Phone Mango training August 23rd and 24th

The Microsoft SQL Server team has been interacting on a regular basis with developers and users in the form of surveys. If you have 15mins spare and would like to do your bit to help shape the roadmap for SQL Server then please pop over to http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22CS45XT9FE/

And…

My own simple one question version if you only have one minute to spare. Apologies in advance for stuff I left out!

Related Links:

• More details of the survey are posted on the ADO.NET team blog

I often get asked about how we are using Windows Azure internally and under NDA I can share some of the details – but its great to be able to point publicly at some of the excellent work that has been going on. And they are genuine technical case studies …  hurrah! :-)

How Microsoft IT Deployed a Customer Facing Application to Windows Azure in Six Weeks
Learn how the Microsoft IT Volume Licensing team gained experience with Windows Azure by focusing on a straightforward, isolated customer-facing application that allowed them to architect and redeploy to Windows Azure in six weeks with immediate cost savings.
Technical Case Study

From:

To:

Architecting and Redeploying a Business Critical Application to Windows Azure
The Microsoft IT Volume Licensing team architected and redeployed a business critical application, with full security review and approval, to Windows Azure. The resulting solution delivers lower cost and improved scalability, performance, and reliability.
IT Pro Webcast | Technical Case Study

From:

To:

Related Links:

• Attend a FREE workshop September 12th
• Sign up to Microsoft Platform Ready for assistance on the Windows Azure Platform
• http://www.azure.com/offers
• http://www.azure.com/getstarted