I am back to my developer roots…. 
. After 10+ years working for Microsoft, I have decided to shake things up a bit. Don’t get wrong, MSFT is a great place to work. And I loved my various roles, especially the Developer Evangelist gig. Talking about cool dev. technology with fun people is a great way to make a living. But for the last couple of years I had strayed from my passion. Which is as a developer. I learned a lot, stayed with my hands in the tools, but I knew I wanted to get back.
Then the cloud came along. it was exciting and new, but familiar at the same time. So I began my campaign to find a role in this new world order. And that came in the offer to run Sogeti USA’s national azure development efforts. So on September 7th, 2010, I shed my blue badge, and moved a mile or two down the road to Sogeti’s Kansas City office and started the efforts to educate and drive Azure both inside and outside of Sogeti.
It is a national role, so I get to spend a bit more time on the road (okay, probably a lot) and meet a lot more folks. So, look for me at events, and at customers wanting to know more about Azure and how it plays in their environment. If you have questions I can help with, drop me a note at steve.loethen@us.sogeti.com.
Cloud computing is here, whether we want it or not. When I say "a walk in the clouds” I am not talking about a pleasant romantic comedy, but a real alternative to hosting applications on-premise. For years we have had the power to host our web sites on remote systems. Sure, challenges existed. Mostly web sites. I could, with a few clicks, create a account at a myriad of web host sites, put my site in the hands of a remote hosting company, and boom, I was a site on the internet. But choices, power, and management was limited.
Now, we have a set of services to let us approach and power and control we love, but with scalability of the data center. My personal web site is hosted on a laptop running hyperV in my basement. I have to manage the machine, patch it, make sure it is powered up. This is fine for the “hello, this is my dog skippy site” that I maintain. If the football pool I run has an issue, one of the 10 users I have calls or emails me and I go check it out. All is well.
But this falls well below the needs of even the simplest of enterprises. A business needs a stronger datacenter, a better pipe to the world. Do I really want to base my business on a dynamic dns and a dsl line from the local phone company?
Cloud computing gives us most of what I value (control, a db of my own, updating my site from Visual Studio).
Come learn how this technology can transform your business. If you are a Microsoft shop, or are interested in Microsoft in the cloud, on April 8 and 9, a 2 day free Azure training class is being conducted in Kansas City.
http://www.azurebootcamp.com/city/kansascity
Hope to see you there. If you come, make sure you look me up.
Interesting article in the Wall Street Journal. Seems the web has created a new form of fan base. I am calling this MicroOwners. In the past, if you wanted to own a piece of a sports team, it was on a fantasy web site. Fake teams to allow us to dream. But now, for a small amount of money ($70.50) you can own a piece of a minor league soccer team.
myfootballclub.co.uk
26,000 owners.
Can this trend continue? Think of Micro Venture Capitol. I want to start a company. I develop a business plan and then make my pitch to the VC guys. But now, the VC guys are not suits or millionaires, they are average Joe's with a bit to invest. Wonder what the model would do.