Second meeting of Boston Azure User Group

Guest speakers were Michael Stiefel and Mark Eisenberg

Meeting was held December 3, 2009 at the Microsoft NERD

We opened with Boston Azure Theater, kicking off a few minutes after 6:00.  For around 45 minutes we watched a video of Microsoft Director Manuvir Das’ PDC talk A Lap Around the Windows Azure Platform.

From there, Microsoft’s Mark Eisenberg walked us through a summary of key Windows Azure announcements made at (or right before) the Microsoft PDC in November. The deck Mark used is available BAUG_PDCHighlights. There was a lot of interest in the announcement details and in the pricing model.

Our keynote speaker, Michael Stiefel, followed with a detailed look into the project “Dallas” announcement, showcasing the Dallas “Data as a Service” platform, working through sample apps, a custom mashup – with code, demonstrating the straight-forward programming model (ATOM feeds), and showing use of the data directly within Excel. Michael wrapped up by reviewing the business model – and discussing the interesting possibilities (publishers can publish – and others can consume – data so much more easily than today since Microsoft will have eliminated the “contract friction” we’d have if every consumer had to strike a deal with every publisher).