Presentations From The Microsoft SOA/BMP Conference 2009 Available

Both slides decks and videos from the presentations at the past 2009 Microsoft SOA & BPM Conference are now available here.

Presentations Decks From The Microsoft SOA/BPM Conference 2007 Now Available

All the presentation decks from the recent SOA & BPM Conference 2007 can now be downloaded from the conference download page in PDF format.

Memories of TechEd 2007

Wow. It was a great week at TechEd 2007 in Europe!

Evidently the organization of this event has learned a lot since TechEd 2000 in Amsterdam, when I attended for the last time. Back then it felt like time bad spend. But this was not the case now.

The week was packed with great talks. I frequently had to make hard choices between parallel sessions. I also regret I didn't get a chance to spend time in the lab, but there was an impressive list of great training material pre-installed. There were even lab leaders present to help you out. Finally, the expo was also great, both from Microsoft as well from the partners.

We where told that in some weeks after the event a DVD is going to be send with all the presentations on it. This will also include video and audio since all sessions where videotaped. Presumably also all lab materials will be included.

There were themes for everyone. I concentrated my focus on LINQ, SOA, WCF and BizTalk.

I now see how LINQ will radically change the way we work with data on the Microsoft platform. It was initially confusing at least to understand the full LINQ family (LINQ to Objects, to SQL, to XML, to Entities and to DataSets). It was a bit disappointing to learn that LINQ to Entities, the full blown LINQ for the Enterprise application development, will not be available with the release of VisualStudio 2008. Rather it will be released some months after.

By the way, they confirmed that VisualStudio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 will indeed be available this year, from MSDN. Only the official sales show will be held at the beginning of 2008.

It was always nice to be back in Barcelona. This time though, I was hardly out, and I didn't mind it.

Pack again and up to... Baaaaaarcelona

Yes! I got to get tomorrow again on a plane. I'm headed to Microsoft TechEd Developers 2007 Europe.

Fortunately it will be much more nearby.

Seattle Supersonics vs. Phoenix Suns

I didn't want to forget to mention that on the last night we got invited by Microsoft Nederland to go to the game Seattle Supersonics vs. Phoenix Sun.

 

We got together in a group of Dutch partners of Microsoft. To top on this we got there on limo.

Great show. Pity the locals didn't make it.

Sessions back thoughts

I'm home now after a good flight back from Seattle.

Yes, I know I didn't blog during the congress as planned. But it was kind of busy... Anyway, it's midnight now and thanks to my jet-leg I get to catch up on that.

Generally speaking it was a good congress, with lots of interesting stuff.

In perspective, the most interesting news was the official announcement of Oslo. It was positioned as the future technology in the SOA product offering of Microsoft. It encompasses all the products and probably will drive the introduction of new ones. A key point here is the emphasis placed on modeling which should be supported by a new repository technology that will show up. Almost all their software will interact with this repository while still using the products native interface. Next to that there will also be some generic software that will allow us to look at the repository at a higher level of abstraction, using DLS's and query languages. They showed off a concept version of this and it looked awesome.

The sessions I took and found great were:

• Platforms for SOA: Comparing .NET and Java (FT203), by David Chappell. As usual, his session was both enlightening and entertaining. It pointed me to the Java equivalent for WCF (SCA), Workflow (BPEL), etc.
• BizTalk adapters for WCF: Deep Dive (FT400), by Aaron Skonnard. This guy is from training company Pluralsight clearly walked through the WCF adapters in BizTalk 2006 R2 and actually showed how to work with them. Demo here.
• How everyone should test their BizTalk solutions (FT306), by Darren Jefford. This is the first author of great Professional BizTalk Server 2006 book. Great presentation on testing tools BizUnit, BizTalk LoadGen 2007, Orchestration Profiler and PerfMon Counter spreadsheet
• Robust error handling for BizTalk solutions (FT201), by Matt Meleski. This guy presented on error handling using MOM and using the exception handling block from the ESB Guidance package.
• ESB Guidance architecture (SA400) and Building solutions (IA400), by Marty Wasznicky.
• Advanced orchestration concepts & best practices (SA304), by Stephen Thomas. This is the guy running the BizTalkGurus.com community site.
• Identifying & avoiding anti-patterns in your SOA solutions (SA307), by John Callaway. I tended to disagree with many of his points, I guess because of the black or white way he put on those issues. But the guy is a great presenter, off course.

I couldn't get to the following sessions:

• Web service software factory: driving consistency & best practices in your service design (FT206), by Don Smith. The session was running in parallel with John Callaway's session.
• Building a service monitoring infrastructure with BizTalk BAM (IA300), by Jon Flanders. When I got there the room was full. No standing allowed.

I attended other sessions wich I liked less. But hey! it was fun there.

Sightseeing the Seattle area

It's been busy days since last weekend. I got on a long flight to Seattle, with over three hours stopover at Heathrow. Really exhausting.

But any way, I'm nicely lodged at the Hyatt Regency Bellevue, with an spectacular view over a part of the city (especially at night). Since I forgot to carry my camera, I'll be "borrowing" picts from my colleague's blog.

Fortunately we got a rental to get us around. So we got to see a couple of very nice places.

On Sunday we went to the Olympic National Park.We drove and drove. Then we took a ferry. And then we drove some more. When we got to the place, we drove up about 1800 meters. When we made it to the top, there was an impressive view of mountain crests awaiting us. We also had an interesting walk before we got off to catch a nice meal at lovely fisher’s town. Then we drove back.

Next day, Monday, we drove to Mount Rainier. We got a breathtaking view, that's all I can say. We actually walked like 160 meters up in the snow and ice. Even when I'm definitely not a winter guy, I must say it was a very nice experience.

Now the conference is already running in its second day. I will start to post about that later on tonight.

I'm going to the SOA & BPM Conference 2007

Boy, I get to go to the SOA & BPM Conference next week. I'm excited!