TechEd North America 2012

I had the pleasure of going to TechEd North America 2012 in Orlando. With a lot of interesting news comming out of Microsoft it was 5 very exciting days. While I was away I did some blogging on the company blog (in danish).

As you might expect Azure and Windows Metro style design were the big topics of the conference. With Azure finally taking a direction that I think makes it interesting, and Windows 8 in general looking like the next milestone for Microsoft it was really good.

The new Azure

I already started playing with some of the next Azure offerings before I went to TechEd, and the Azure Websites or a Azure Virtual machine will probably be hosting my next spare time project. The sessions at TechEd gave me a good feeling about where things are going, and there was some honest moments about where it has limitations with reguard to providing complete cloud flexibility and scalability. It is a big change though – so I do respect that everything cannot be done at once.

The thing I have come across so far that really makes no sence to me is that Websites require a reserved instance. When the selling point is that you can get started for free, and then pay as you start getting users on your site, this seems like a deal breaker. I got a phone call from Microsoft, because they saw that I was using the new Azure portal, so I told them about it, and was told that pricing etc would probably change – so I am hoping this will be resolved.

Windows 8, metro design and mobile devices

The Windows 8 story is still a mixed one for me. On one hand I get the vision, and where Microsoft is going with unifying the OS for desktop, laptop, tablet and now even phones. I think it is a good move, and that it makes a lot of sence when you look at the big picture. The sessions I went to also gave a good impression of the thoughts behind the metro design, and already being a happy Windows Phone user I like the simplicity and freshness that it brings. Going with a split between XAML/C# and HTML/Javascript based applications surprised me a bit at first. Thinking about the groups of developers out there it does make sence – even though it leaves me somewhere in the middle having a hard time making up my mind which route to focus on.

On the downside I do worry about the core scenarios for me as a professionel working on Windows. Some of the navigation features in Windows seem to be hidden away, and the new ways of doing things take me into metro territory. Metro is looking really good for consumption of apps, especially with touch enabled devices or screens, but when I have my developer cap on and I am building things I don’t want this.

So all in all it looks like exciting time ahead, and my inner geek is looking forward to getting a Surface 2 – which is not a big ass table - and a new phone :)