Quick Hadoop Overview at Feb 7 Boston Azure Meeting

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Tonight’s (07-Feb-2012) Boston Azure cloud user group meeting (that we ran jointly with Microsoft DevBoston) went very well.

In the featured talk, Michael Stiefel gave an insightful, thought-provoking talk on Architecting for Failure: Why Cloud Architecture is Different. Michael will post has posted his slides. The slides are listed under Cloud Computing Presentations called Architecting For Failure, Cloud Architecture is Different! (note this is not same as Michael’s blog).

As a warmup, I gave a short talk describing the challenges in making sense of Big Data, what (in the computer science sense) Map and Reduce are, and how the Hadoop infrastructure makes building MapReduce processes so easy. Ended with a bit of a peak at the CTP of “Hadoop as a Service” – the Microsoft Windows Azure service that is in CTP – at www.hadooponazure.com. The talk focused on Hadoop – and a simple Hadoop example at that – only mentioning that was a broader Hadoop ecosystem: the official Apache Hadoop project, some subprojects (HIVE, Pig (which has a Pig Latin language, not to be confused with this one), Mahout, ZooKeeper, HBASE, and others), some other related efforts (Cascading.org), and some commercial companies dedicated to Hadoop (Cloudera, Hortonworks, and others – they are roughly the Hadoop equivalents of Red Hat in the Linux world; Microsoft is working with Hortonworks on their Hadoop on Azure and Hadoop on Windows Server effort).

My Hadoop slides are attached here: Hadoop-BostonAzure-07-Feb-2012.

I also discussed some upcoming Azurey events of interest to the Boston Azure community. That deck is here: Upcoming Events of Interest to Boston Azure Community.

O’Reilly Radar has a concise roundup of some of these technologies here (which I noticed on a tweet here). And this excerpt from the official Apache Hadoop project lists some related technologies:

The project includes these subprojects:

Other Hadoop-related projects at Apache include:

  • Avro™: A data serialization system.
  • Cassandra™: A scalable multi-master database with no single points of failure.
  • Chukwa™: A data collection system for managing large distributed systems.
  • HBase™: A scalable, distributed database that supports structured data storage for large tables.
  • Hive™: A data warehouse infrastructure that provides data summarization and ad hoc querying.
  • Mahout™: A Scalable machine learning and data mining library.
  • Pig™: A high-level data-flow language and execution framework for parallel computation.
  • ZooKeeper™: A high-performance coordination service for distributed applications.

January and February Azure Cloud Events in Boston Area

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Are you interested in Cloud Computing generally, or specifically Cloud Computing using the Windows Azure Cloud Platform? Listed below are the upcoming Azure-related events in the Greater Boston area which you can attend in person. Most are offered FREE, and most that cost money are inexpensive.

Since this summary page is – by necessity – a point-in-time SNAPSHOT of what I see is going on, it will not necessarily be updated when event details change. So please always double-check with official event information!

I’ve attempted to list events of interest to the local Azure community – not just topics specific to the Windows Azure Cloud Platform. Know of any more cloud events of interest? Have any more information or corrections on the events listed? Please let everyone know about them by adding a comment.

Events are listed in the order in which they will occur.

January 2012 Events

1. Cloud Mixer + talk featuring Satya Nadella

  • when: Thu 26-Jan-2012
    5:00 – 6:15 – Networking with MassTLC’s Cloud Community
    6:15 – 7:15 – Presentation and Q&A with Satya Nadella, President, Server and Tools Business, Microsoft
  • where: NERD
  • wifi: (usually)
  • food: (perhaps during the networking segment?)
  • cost: FREE,
  • what:First a networking social – get to know other area folks interested in cloud, then the following:The transition to cloud computing has been talked about as one of the most profound shifts occurring in technology in decades. With the huge growth and broad range of computing devices increasingly available, we see a shift in “design point” to a world of connected devices and continuous services. In this talk, Satya Nadella, President, Server and Tools Business at Microsoft, will share what he learned running a global online service, Bing, and how these lessons are informing the direction of Microsoft’s cloud strategy.Nadella is one of very few people in the world who can speak first-hand about running an extremely large-scale cloud computing business. Having previously led R&D for Microsoft’s Online Services Division, which includes Bing and MSN, Nadella has practical and deep experience with cloud both from a technical and business perspective. Today, Nadella brings these experiences to bear in his current role, which includes accountability for the overall business and technical vision, strategy, operations, engineering and marketing for Microsoft’s $17+ billion Server and Tools Business.Join us to hear how Microsoft is focused on building a platform that spans public and private clouds to enable businesses to take advantage of this new design point.
  • more info: http://126cloudmixer.eventbrite.com/
  • register: http://126cloudmixer.eventbrite.com/
  • twitter: @MassTLC and #CloudMixer

February 2012 Events

2. Boston Azure User Group meeting: Architecting for Failure: Why Cloud Architecture is Different & Hadoop

  • when: Tuesday February 7, 2012, 6:00 – 8:30 PM
  • where: Hosted at NERD Center, 1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA (directions)
  • wifi: Wireless Internet access will be available
  • food: Pizza and drinks expected
  • cost: FREE
  • what: Architecting for Failure: Why Cloud Architecture is different – a talk by Michael Stiefel + a shorter intro talk on Hadoop on Windows Azure (currently in CTP) by Bill Wilder
  • more info: See the Boston Azure cloud user group site for more info
  • register: http://www.meetup.com/bostonazure/events/38945872/
  • twitter: #bostonazure

3. Mass TLC Summit: The Big Data Disruption

  • when: Wednesday, February 15, 2012 from 8:00 AM to noon
  • where: Hosted at NERD Center, 1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA (directions)
  • wifi: Wireless Internet access expected
  • food: Pizza and drinks expected
  • cost: Costs money – see registration for details
  • what: (quoted from registration site): “Join us as we take a deep dive into the future outlook of big data and how it is going to impact the tech industry down the road.

    Keynote Speaker:  Living Smarter

Session 1 – Crossing the Big Data Chasm
Moderated by: Mike Stonebraker, Professor, MIT
Panelists to date:
Fritz Knabe, Distinguished Engineer, Netezza
Christopher Ahlberg, Chief Executive Officer/Co-Founder, Recorded Future
This session will explore the hype versus reality of Big Data. Discussion will include the transformational opportunity it represents for the technology industry and offer a true perspective on why One Size Doesn’t Fit All. Panelists will discuss the different tools and approaches for a variety of outcomes.

Session 2 – From Hype to Reality
Moderated by:  Andy Palmer, Startup Specialist
Panelists to date:
Puneet Batra, Chief Data Scientist, Kyruus
This panel session will take a deep dive into the challenges, successes, failures and lessons learned of the early adopters of big data initiatives. The panelists will give insight using their own case studies as evidence of what has and has not worked.

4. Boston Azure User Group meeting: Solving Access Control in the Cloud: from WIF to ACS

  • when: Thu February 23, 2012, 6:00 – 8:30 PM
  • where: Hosted at NERD Center, 1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA (directions)
  • wifi: Wireless Internet access will be available
  • food: Pizza and drinks expected
  • cost: FREE
  • what: Solving Access Control in the Cloud: from WIF to ACS featuring Brock Allen – a deep dive into Claims, Windows Identity Foundation (WIF), and the Access Control Service (ACS) from Windows Azure
  • more info: See the Boston Azure cloud user group site for more info
  • register: RSVP here
  • twitter: #bostonazure

March 2012 Events

5. Windows Azure: Focus on your application. Not the infrastructure.

  • when: Thu March 8, 2012, 8:30 AM – noon
  • where: 201 Jones Road, Waltham, MA (directions)
  • wifi: not needed
  • food: coffee!
  • cost: FREE
  • what: (quoted from registration site)
    “Microsoft Windows Azure and Microsoft SQL Azure enable you to build, host and scale applications in Microsoft datacenters. They require no up-front expenses, no long term commitment, and enable you to pay only for the resources you use. Windows Azure is about flexibility and adaptability; whether your application can or should run 100% in the cloud, or leverage components on-premise in a hybrid cloud, Windows Azure is the most comprehensive cloud platform.The #1 question we hear, from our customers, is “How can my business benefit from Windows Azure?”.Come join us in Waltham, MA on Thursday, March 8, 2012 to learn the business benefits of Windows Azure and SQL Azure and hear real world customer examples of how Windows Azure improves your business Agility while directly Reducing your Costs.

    The target audience for this event includes BDMs, TDMs, Architects, and Development leads. The sessions are targeted at the 100-200 level with a mix of business focused information as well as technical information.”

  • more info: See the registration page for more info
  • register: RSVP here
  • twitter:

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Windows Azure DevCamp in Farmington, CT

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Earlier this month I hung out with Jim O’Neil at the Farmington, CT offering of the Windows Azure DevCamp series. The format of the camp was a quick-ramp introduction to the Windows Azure Platform followed by some hands-on coding on the RockPaperAzure challenge.

Jim introduced cloud and presented specifics on Blob and Table storage services and SQL Azure. I had the opportunity to present one of the sections – mine was a combination of Windows Azure Compute services + the Windows Azure Queue service with some basics around using these services to assemble “cloud native” applications. The official slides for the Windows Azure DevCamp series appear to be here, though my slides were a little different and are also available (WindowsAzureDeveloperCamp-FarmingtonCT-07Dec2011-BillWilder). At the end, Jim also ran through the creation of a RockPaperAzure “bot” and it was (literally!) game on as attendees raced to create competitive entries.

I took a few photos at the event – some of Jim presenting, some showing participants at the end coming to claim their prizes from the RockPaperAzure challenge – and none from the middle!

Cloud Architecture Patterns on Azure with North Shore .NET User Group

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Last week on Wednesday I went to hang out with a bunch of nice folks in Ipswich, MA at the 2nd meeting of the North Shore .NET User Group. It was an especially fun group with beer served before the talk! 🙂

I spoke about Cloud Architecture Patterns like sharding, NoSQL, queue-based compute separation for scalability and reliability – with specific examples from the Windows Azure Platform such as SQL Azure Federations, Azure Table Storage, and Web Role + Queue + Worker Role patterns. The slides from my talk are here: nsnug-big-ideas-in-software-architecture-bill-wilder-14-dec-2011. (UPDATE: Note that I don’t seem to have the exact deck I used for the talk. As Ryan CrawCour pointed out, the deck I posted claims that SQL Azure is limited to 50 GB and Federations has not yet shipped, but at the talk I am certain I presented the 150 GB limit and a recently released Federations. I think I made the changes on the train en route to the event and somehow didn’t save them. Sorry! We’ll need to live with this small skew. Post a comment here if there are questions…)

There was definitely some good discussion and many questions. In fact, the following question came up, and I didn’t have a great response, but turns out there’s a timely response from Mr. SQL Azure Federations himself: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/cbiyikoglu/archive/2011/12/15/so-isn-t-the-root-database-a-bottleneck-for-federations-in-sql-azure.aspx

Also hope to see some nsnug folks at future Boston Azure User Group meetings and our planned Boston Azure Bootcamp in June 2012!

November and December Azure Cloud Events in Boston Area

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Are you interested in Cloud Computing generally, or specifically Cloud Computing using the Windows Azure Cloud Platform? Listed below are the upcoming Azure-related events in the Greater Boston area which you can attend in person and are offered usually FREE, but most that cost money are inexpensive.

Since this summary page is – by necessity – a point-in-time SNAPSHOT of what I see is going on, it will not necessarily be updated when event details change. So please always double-check with official event information!

I’ve attempted to list events of interest to the local Azure community – not just topics specific to the Windows Azure Cloud Platform. Know of any more cloud events of interest? Have any more information or corrections on the events listed? Please let everyone know about them by adding a comment.

Events are listed in the order in which they will occur.

November 2011 Events

1. Cloudy Mondays

  • when: Mon 14-Nov-2011, 5:00 – ?:?? PM
  • where: Small Business Development Center (note: NOT Venture Development Center!), 100 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston, MA
    wifi: (not sure)
  • food: (not sure, though food and spirits were provided last time)
  • cost: FREE
  • what: Discuss Amazon’s cloud: launching projects on AWS, comparing AWS to other public clouds, etc. One speaker is Jason Haruska, Chief Architect at Backupify. Vikram Kumar, CTO and Founder of OfficeDrop.com, will also be discussing how OfficeDrop.com launched using AWS.
  • more info: http://www.meetup.com/Cloudy-Mondays/events/39091772/
  • register: http://www.meetup.com/Cloudy-Mondays/events/39091772/
  • twitter: (not sure)

2. Cloud Roundtable – Business in the Cloud –

  • when: Tue 15-Nov-2011, 3:00 – 5:30 PM (updated: start time is officially 3:00 PM)
  • where: Boston College Club, 100 Federal St., Boston, MA
  • wifi: (not sure)
  • food: (looks like cocktails and hors d’oeuvres towards the end)
  • cost: FREE
  • what: From the description on the web site: “The cloud is a fundamental paradigm shift from our current or past thinking about scalable architecture and there are security tradeoffs:  less control of data, new vulnerability classes, and compliance challenges.  However, if managed properly, these risks can be mitigated. This interactive seminar will discuss the challenges of cloud computing, demonstrate how to build a secure and redundant system, and touch upon real-world examples of cloud computing gone bad.”
  • more info: http://web.securityinnovation.com/boston
  • register: http://web.securityinnovation.com/boston
  • twitter: (not sure)

3. Boston Azure User Group meeting: Introduction to Cloud, Windows Azure, Azure Dev Tools

  • when: Thu 17-Nov-2011, 6:00 – 8:30 PM
  • where: Hosted at NERD Center, 1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA (directions)
  • wifi: Wireless Internet access will be available
  • food: Pizza and drinks will be provided
  • cost: FREE
  • what: Get ramped up on Cloud and Windows Azure – what is this cloud thing all about? How does the Windows Azure Cloud Platform fit in? And how can you get started using Visual Studio and the Windows Azure tools? Get all these questions answered in one night!
  • more info: See the Boston Azure cloud user group site for more info
  • register: http://www.meetup.com/bostonazure/events/38944852/
  • twitter: #bostonazure

December – 2011 Events

4. Azure is on the Road! December Road Trip…

At a variety of locations (far from Boston, but at least regional):

Registration Link Date Time
NCSU, Raleigh NC Mon, Dec. 5th, 2011 2 – 9 p.m.
Microsoft, Farmington CT Wed., Dec. 7th, 2011 2 – 9 p.m.
Microsoft, New York City Thur., Dec. 8th, 2011 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Microsoft, Malvern PA Mon., Dec. 12th, 2011 2 – 9 p.m.
Microsoft, Chevy Chase MD Wed., Dec. 14th, 2011 2 – 9 p.m.

5. Testing in the Cloud with Boston Web Performance Group

  • when: Tue 06-Dec-2011: 6:30-7:15 Eat pizza and meet other members, 7:15-8:15 Presentation, 8:15-9:00 Q&A, general socializing and more pizza eating
  • where: Wayfair Offices – 177 Huntington Ave, 177 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA (map) Come up to the 24th floor, call 802-522-6294 with issues
  • wifi: Wireless Internet access will be available
  • food: Pizza and drinks will be provided
  • cost: FREE
  • what: Speaker: Dan Bartow on Testing in the Cloud – description from event site: “Achieving real performance on the web begins with realistic testing and an understanding of the application and it’s infrastructure.  Testing realistically and for real results across web & mobile applications means leveraging the
    cloud.  Agile development processes, complex multi-tier architectures, and the potential for massive (and sudden) load all require a different approach than
    historical apps.  Come hear from Soasta, the makers of the CloudTest platform and CloudTest Lite, about their experiences and why companies need to change their expectations about what “testing” means. Dan Bartow is Vice President and CloudTest Evangelist at SOASTA, the leader
    in performance testing from the cloud. Prior to joining SOASTA he was Senior Manager of Engineering at Intuit, where his team was responsible for the speed and stability of TurboTax Online, the #1 rated, best-selling online tax software. Over the past decade he has been responsible for the speed and
    scalability of websites for such well-known brands as American Eagle Outfitters, AT&T, Best Buy, Finish Line, J.Crew, Neiman Marcus and Sony Online
    Entertainment, among others. Dan has set multiple industry precedents including launching the worlds largest stateful JBoss cluster and using over 2000 cloud computing cores to generate load against a live web site.  Dan is a frequent industry presenter and has spoken at leading testing and cloud computing
    conferences such as Software Test & Performance (STP), O’Reilly’s Web2.0 Expo, Amazon Web Services Road Show, and SYS-CON’s Cloud Computing Expo.” Visit the event web site to view the Cloud Testing Bill of Rights.
  • more info: See http://www.meetup.com/Web-Performance-Boston/events/38442872/ for more info
  • register: http://www.meetup.com/Web-Performance-Boston/events/38442872/
  • twitter: @JonathanKlein

6. Boston Azure User Group December

7. Cloud Architecture Patterns at North Shore .NET User Group

8. Using Windows Azure to Build Cloud Enabled Windows Phone Apps at Microsoft DevBoston

  • when: Wed 14-Dec-2011, 6:00 – 8:30 (?) PM
  • where: Microsoft Corporation 201 Jones Road, Waltham, MA Hosted at NERD Center, 1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA (directions)
  • wifi: I don’t think so (given the location)
    food: (I am guessing there will be pizza, but not 100% sure, please check with the group organizers)
  • cost: FREE
  • what: “Speaker: John Garland This presentation will discuss how Windows Phone applications can be enriched by leveraging the power of the Cloud that is made available by Windows Azure. The Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows Phone will be explored to show how to quickly tap into resources in the cloud for computation, storage, identity, and communication from within a Windows Phone application.”
  • more info: http://www.meetup.com/DevBoston/events/39064112/
  • register: http://www.meetup.com/DevBoston/events/39064112/
  • twitter: (not sure about the event, but John Garland can be found at https://twitter.com/#!/search/dotnetgator)

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October Boston Azure Cloud User Group Meeting

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First, let’s note that the October Boston Azure meeting marked our two-year anniversary!

I believe we are the oldest Windows Azure user group in the world, still going strong. Our first meeting was held in October 2009, less than a year after Windows Azure was announced at PDC 2008, and a few months before it went RTW for real (which was, I believe, January 2010).

Now, back to our Oct meeting. Here are links to a few topics mentioned:

Also, here is the slide deck from the main presentation – given by yours truly (that’s me, Bill Wilder) – called Big Ideas in Software Architecture (Cloud and Otherwise):

At the meeting we also discussed some topics for future meetings. Here is that list (okay, I actually can’t find the list – may have forgotten to save it – sorry – so going from memory here) — note this list is in no particular order:

  1. Introduction to Cloud, Azure, and developing for Windows Azure
  2. More hands-on with the platform
  3. Using languages, libraries, and software other than .NET/Microsoft – e.g., Java, Python, Node.js, NoSQL (MongoDB), …
  4. Idempotency – look at a more challenging case than a simple thumbnailer
  5. Security in the Cloud
  6. Comparing Cloud platforms
  7. Azure AppFabric topics: Service Bus, Caching, Access Control Service (can Curt come back?), …
  8. More architecture patterns

WHAT ARE OTHER TOPICS YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE? Please leave a comment, email me, or suggest via twitter (me: @codingoutloud or to the community: @bostonazure).

Visiting Harvard – CSCI E-175 – Cloud Computing and Software

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Just got back from Harvard where I teamed up with Jim O’Neil to talk about the Windows Azure Cloud Platform to the class CSCI E-175 Cloud Computing and Software as a Service. This was at the invitation of the Dr. Zoran B. Djordjevic – who also hosted us last year, and the year before that it was Jim and some guy named Chris.

Like last year, the class was engaged, asking tough and interesting questions… which is all the more impressive since this class meets on FRIDAY NIGHT. Must be a Harvard thing… Anyhow, we went from around 5:30 – 8:00… ON FRIDAY NIGHT. 🙂

Below are the resources I mentioned at the end of my talk, and the slide deck I used is here: Harvard-WhyAzureIsAwesome-Bill-Wilder-04-Nov-2011

Also, hope to see all of you at Boston Azure user group meetings! Feel free to contact me with any follow-up questions.

The slide deck Jim O’Neil used is here, plus here are a few action shots of Jim doing his thang:

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Cloud Architecture Patterns talk from New England Code Camp 16

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I attended the 16th (!) edition of New England Code Camp on Saturday 29-Oct-2011. I presented a talk called Cloud Architecture Patterns for Mere Mortals in which I introduced some big architecture ideas – e.g., CQRS, NoSQL, Sharding, and Eventual Consistency – with specific examples of how to realize these patterns drawn from the Windows Azure Platform. My slide deck is here: new-england-code-camp-16-Cloud-Architecture-Patterns-for-Mere-Mortals-bill-wilder-29-oct-2011

I also attended some cool talks – Brock Allen spoke about WIF, David Padbury on node.js, and Dominic Denicola on various Async approaches like Promises. Good time as usual! No after-event celebrating – everyone is running for cover due to the Nor’easter!

If you are interested in learning more about the Windows Azure Platform, please come join us at a Boston Azure cloud user group meeting. Details at www.bostonazure.org. We meet every month to learn about Azure. Sometimes we learn through prepared talks, sometimes we hold training events, and sometimes coding/hackathons. We are the oldest such user group in the world, turning two years old this month. Hope to see you!

Our next meeting is Thursday November 17 (the Thursday before Thanksgiving), featuring a very Azurey talk by Chris Rolon of Neudesic.

Got Azure Question? I am also a Windows Azure MVP for Windows Azure and know a thing or two about the platform. I am happy to answer questions you may have. Feel free to contact me on twitter (@codingoutloud) or by email (which is my twitter handle at gmail.com).

Azure On!

OWASP Boston Security Conference

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Boston Application Security Conference (BASC) hosted by the Boston chapter of OWASP (The Open Web Application Security Project).

For my part, I attended a number of interesting sessions (especially the frighteningly entertaining talk by Francis Brown on using Google and Bing to hack (or protect) web properties). Due to scheduling challenges, I missed Andrew Wilson‘s talk on Reversing Web Applications, which I wanted to check out.

For my part, I offered a Birds-of-a-Feather session on Securing Applications in the Cloud (with examples drawn from Windows Azure Platform). In this session, I reviewed both pros and cons of cloud deployments from a security point of view, and attempted to make the case that, ultimately, either your applications will simply be safer in the cloud, or at least if you want them to be sufficiently safe, it will be more cost-effective to let the specialists at Microsoft (or some other trusted cloud vendor) handle much of the dirty work.

This session was interesting for me to put together and then go through with an intimate crowd (due, at least in part I suppose, to (me) changing the scheduled time slot after the conference schedule went to the printer… D’oh! … that combined with the seeming invisibility of the BoF sessions generally). Anyhow, it was still fun to discuss, and here is the slide deck I used: OWASP Boston – BoF – Securely Running Applications in Cloud (examples drawn from Windows Azure Platform) – Bill Wilder – 08-Oct-2011.

Boston Azure Bootcamp was a Success!

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On Friday September 30 and Saturday October 1 the Boston Azure cloud user group hosted the Boston Azure Bootcamp – with a few of our friends – and it was a big success.

Here are a few links that folks attending might have been told about, plus a couple of answers I offered to gather offline.

Where can I get the materials used in the Bootcamp?

  • The materials live here: http://www.azurebootcamp.com/materials
  • However, as I explained at the bootcamp, the actual materials used at our sessions were a mix of what is posted on the web and some slide decks that had been updated (mostly for the Azure SDK 1.5, but also other changes in some cases). So you can pull the materials as linked to above and you’ll be pretty close, but the updated ones are not yet publicly posted.

How can I see what’s in Windows Azure Storage?

How can I track changes/upgrades to Windows Azure Guest OS?

Does Azure use Hyper-threading?

Where can I learn more about the Windows Azure Platform?

Where can I read more?

Who should I thank for this event?

  • You can thank our TWO MAJOR SPONSORS: This event was provided free to you because our Gold Sponsor SNI TECHNOLOGY generously sponsored the food, and Microsoft NERD donated the space. Many thanks to these major sponsors!
  • SNI TECHNOLOGY logoWithout these sponsors this event would simply not have happened.
  • You can thank our swag sponsors: O’Reilly (books), Pluralsight (training), Cerebrata (licenses), Packt Publishing (books), and Microsoft (books and licenses).
  • And you can thank the Boston Azure Bootcamp team which included (in alphabetical order): Andy Novick (who led the SQL Azure segment), Arra Derderian (helped during labs), George Babey (“swag guy” – and helped during labs), Jim O’Neil (lab-time tech support, lecture-time answer-man), Joan Wortman (ran the registration), Maura Wilder (who led the Azure Table Storage segment – and helped during labs), Nazik Huq (“twitter guy” – plus made sure there was food – and helped during labs), and William Wilder (yes, that’s me; you can call me “Bill” but wanted to be listed last…). Also, many thanks to Martha O’Neil for baking us a cloudy cake. 🙂

We are planning another Boston Azure Bootcamp in 2012. Stay tuned!

Update 22-Oct-2011: Here is contact info for our Gold sponsors at SNI TECHNOLOGY: