I am invited to host a panel discussion on “Managing Big Data” later today at Virtualization and Storage Symposium Singapore.  Big Data (along with Cloud Computing ) is one of the things that are very close to my heart and I am super excited about being part of this event.

One of the important thing about this event is that we are going to focus on Singapore and Asian context !

Following is an excerpt from the event agenda:-

Big data is the new challenge for global corporations. The sheer volume of data, different types and sources post big operational challenges. The return from big data of course is that a huge amount of valuable information is stored in this data and businesses can analyze, exploit and apply this for their competitive advantage. This panel will discuss the above challenges and how corporations are preparing for the big data challenge.

If you are going to be at the event then please drop by and say hello. I will look forward to meeting you all.

Edited: Fixed grammar mistakes. No wonder I wrote the original post while in a cab trying to find my way to a meeting place.

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Build for Windows 8 – Singapore

9:30 – 9:45:  Opening Keynote

9:45 – 10:45: The Windows 8 Platform for Metro Style Apps

10:45 – 11:00: Tea Break

11:00 – 12:00: Designing Apps with Metro Principles and Windows Personality

12:00 – 13:00: Lunch Break

13:00 – 14:00: Building Windows 8 Metro Style UIs

14:00 – 15:00: Integrating with Windows 8 Experiences

15:00 — 15:15:Tea Break

15:15 – 16:15:  Building Metro Style Apps With XAML: What .NET Developer Needs to know

16:15—17:15:  The Developer Opportunity: Introducing the Windows Store

17:15 – 17:30: Closing Note / Q n A

For more details please check out Spiffy.SG post here

Direct registration of the event is available here

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Co-Authoring with Rick Garbay:

I have been extremely lucky to have my friend, MVP and an industry expert Rick Garibay co-author this book with me.

Updated for Windows Server AppFabric V1.1:

This book is up to date with the latest release of Windows Server AppFabric 1.1 which means that readers get to know the latest and greatest features of Windows Server AppFabric. Although v1.1 was released late last year we decided to update our work so that we really offer the best value to our readers.

Current Status of the book:

Last few months have been really busy for us and we have been going through arduous cycle of writing, editing, reviewing and then re-writing with the help of our editors and technical reviewers ( I will write a spearate post on technical reviewers later on). At the moment the book we are “text complete” (anlogous to code-complete terminology) and the book is available for pre-order at Amazon (with free shipping in the UK).

Next Steps:

In next few weeks myself and Rick will be sharing some of the content from the book as blog posts/articles to give you a glimpse of what to expect in the book.

Asks:

If you are invested in WCF and WF technologies and use Windows Server 2008 (or the upcoming Windows Server 8 ) you should definitely consider buying this book. Windows ServerAppFabric cookbook offers 60+ recipes that help and guide readers in utlizing the power of Windows Server AppFabric. We have covered Caching, Hosting and Moniting scenarios in a very detailed and easy to follow recipes.

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Marketplace for Open Data:

The internet is a source of vast quantities of data, both public domain and commercial content. Many organizations publish datasets in a wide variety of disparate formats, to which customers can subscribe. However, it can be difficult for customers to locate and subscribe to these datasets. Furthermore, it can be challenging to use these datasets in ways that add value.  During this presentation we will learn about The Windows Azure Marketplace which is a global online market for customers and partners to share, buy, and sell premium datasets as well as Software-as-a-Service applications in a standard, secure and open way.

Venue

12 March 2012 (Monday)
0900-1430
INFUSE Theatre,
Level 14 Fusionopolis Connexis South Tower , Singapore

Registration

If you are interested in attending this workshop, please email to gree@i2r.a-star.edu.sg(name, designation, company) by latest 7 March 2012.

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Here is the link for the video, if you want to watch it.

How to Run Middleware in the Cloud? Story of Windows Azure AppFabric from SpiffyTV on Vimeo.

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I did a session on Windows Azure AppFabric where I talked about how we can use AppFabric as a platform for middleware services. Since I was running the Platform track, I had the honor to introduce myself . I think overall the talk went well, I had 4 code demoes to share and I covered Caching and Service Bus for the most  part. All the code in demoes was based on SDK samples that come with Windows Azure AppFabric v 1.5 and can be downloaded (along with the SDK) here: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=27421

Slides are available here.  https://skydrive.live.com/view.aspx?cid=29B42AB82635B61D&resid=29B42AB82635B61D%216431

You can also view them via Slide Share:

To learn more about AppFabric Service Bus please view the following sessions from Clemens Vasters.

I did some changes to the code (mostly configuration related) so that the demo does not prompt for namespace, issuer and token when connecting to the Azure AppFabric. Should you wish, you can download the code samples from here http://bit.ly/ohR1hO.

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The breakout sessions have already started and it is increasingly looking like an interesting (in an awesome way) day.

BTW, I am running the platform track (room # 202). If you are around then please feel free to drop by and say hi.

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If you are in Singapore and consider yourself a Developer or an IT Pro then this is the must attend event. We are covering number of topics from the Cloud Computing to the HTML5 and lots and lots in between. For a detailed agenda take a look here.

Amongst much more illustrious speakers you can find me here. If Cloud Computing is of interest to you and you want to know about some common messaging patterns for Middleware integration then I will definitely recommend you to attend my session.

How to Run Middleware in the Cloud? Story of Windows Azure AppFabric

Hammad Rajjoub, Architect Evangelist, Microsoft Singapore
IT Pro – Level 200

Don’t worry about the “IT-Pro” audience. This session is definitely aimed at Developers and Architects. Level will range between 200-300 depending on the folks we have in our conference room.

Also, i will be more than happy to discuss your integration scenarios offline as well.

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Windows Server AppFabric V1.1 CTP was recently released for download at MSDN. This is first major upgrade of Windows Server AppFabric, which is a set of integrated technologies that makes it easier to build, scale and manage Web and Composite Applications that run on IIS. This is something which is very close to my heart for obvious reasons.

For more details on Windows Server AppFabric read this.

Please note that it is recommended to have a clean install of this update.

Following are some of the key highlights of what’s changed in v1.1 of Windows Server AppFabric.

Read-Through/Write-Behind

This allows a backend provider to be used on the cache servers to assist with retrieving and storing data to a backend, such as a database. Read-through enables the cache to "read-through" to a backend in the context of a Get request. Write-behind enables updates to cached data to be saved asynchronously to the backend. For more information, see Creating a Read-Through / Write-Behind Provider (Windows Server AppFabric v1.1).

Graceful Shutdown

This is useful for moving data from a single cache hosts to rest of the servers in the cache cluster before shutting down the cache host for maintenance. This helps to prevent unexpected loss of cached data in a running cache cluster. This can be accomplished with the Graceful parameter of the Stop-CacheHost Windows PowerShell command.

Domain Accounts

In addition to running the AppFabric Caching Service with the NETWORK SERVICE account, you can now run the service as a domain account. For more information, see Change the Caching Service Account (Windows Server AppFabric Caching v1.1).

New ASP.NET Session State and Output Caching Provider

New ASP.NET session state and output caching providers are available. The new session state provider has support for the lazy-loading of individual session state items using Windows Server AppFabric v1.1 CTP Caching as a backing store. This makes sites that have a mix of small and large session state data more efficient, because pages that don’t need large session state items won’t incur the cost of sending this data over the network. For more information, see Using the ASP.NET 4 Caching Providers for Windows Server AppFabric v1.1 CTP.

Compression

You can now enable compression for cache clients. For more information, see Application Configuration Settings (Windows Server AppFabric Caching v1.1).

Multiple Cache Client Application Configuration Sections

A new dataCacheClients section is available that allows you to specify multiple named dataCacheClient sections in an application configuration file. You can then programmatically specify which group of cache client settings to use at runtime. For more information, see Application Configuration Settings (Windows Server AppFabric Caching v1.1).

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I had a great time attending The Cloud Computing Asia 2011 last week. I enjoyed sitting on the panel discussion titled “BEYOND HYPE: APPLICATIONS IN THE CLOUD TODAY”. It was good to hear views from the industry as well as share Microsoft’s vision of the cloud and its PaaS offerings – Windows Azure. The discussion was moderated by Peter Rajnik of Guard Time and he did a wonderful job.

I also presented on “Architecting for the Public and the Private Cloud” (slides embedded).

Couple of interesting observations:

• Some people still don’t get the distinction between IaaS, SaaS and PaaS.
• Analogy of the day: Just like we trust banks with our money, we can trust cloud provides with out data  (yikes!)
• Q: How to get started with Cloud Computing? Answer: Go get our free cloud account and try it out. (really?)
• Scalable vendor products == Cloud Computing (speechless!)

Architecting for the public and the private cloud

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