Unexpected high traffic and high demand causes Myers website to fail…..

These stories are becoming more and more common place in todays world and the interesting thing is, that we have solutions available to this exact problem in place for several years.

Cloud – Azure – elastic scale, on-demand etc.

The secret is how do we go from on premise #fail to a hybrid blend scenario where we can use the best of both worlds – that is what we’ve been doing for years.

Read more here - http://www.breeze.net/news/breezetalk/traffic-causes-myer-stocktake-fail-let%27s-talk-cloud.aspx

Wow – look what I found earlier today?

The starting point of a great cloud platform enabling REST Endpoints, transforms (aka maps) and many other EDI – “BizTalkie things”

In a very common scenario, I could have:

a) a RESTful endpoint

b) one or more transforms

c) a RESTful exit point (or it could be a request , response)

Given that it’s part of Azure, then all this magic would be taking place within my DC local to the bulk of my data and services.

Then we can always use the other Azure widgets such as ServiceBus, Queues, Tables, VPNs, etc etc.

Stay tuned for some posts in this area in the near future…

The time had come to invoke my light weight DB engine – SQL 2012 Local Install which effectively is a 33MB install from sites like

http://www.microsoft.com/betaexperience/pd/SQLEXPCTAV2/enus/default.aspx

(the sql management studio is 600MB – localDB engine is 33MB – cool)

So there I was in VSNET trying to create a new SQL ‘localdb’ database.

The classic ‘instance name’ is (localdb)\v11.0 which is similar to (local)\SQLExpress when using SQL Express.

Upon plugging this into VSNET, my Windows Event Log was suddenly fully of Red Stop signs and much chatter

After much attempting to Install Windows Updates and re-install SQL LocalDB the answer was quite simple really…

The Magic Juice – enter SqlLocalDB.exe

This guy is the admin tool of SQL LocalDB – so delving into the supported commands I could:

a) list all the known LocalDB instances

b) Delete an instance

c) Create an instance

So in short –

sqllocaldb delete “v11.0”

sqllocaldb create “v11.0”

too easy….. (2hrs I wont get back)

All working like a bought one now – beauty.

Well folks I’ve been greeted with the news that Microsoft Windows Azure will be in 2 geo-replicated places here on Australian soil, coming ‘shortly’.

As an Azure MVP & from Breeze (a leading Microsoft Cloud Partner) perspective we invest heavily in cloud technologies.

What does this mean and why should I care? I hear you ask… good question and I asked the same.

As most of you know I have a passion for Integration, sticking all sorts of things together from small RFID devices, hand made hand-held devices, raspberry PIs through to high end ERP, Financials & many other types of systems. So before I get to the WHY aspect, let me briefly set the context.

There’s some great data coming out of Gartner a report which caught my eye - http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/news/2240173583/Gartner-Better-collaboration-for-new-era-of-application-integration came out with these:

• Integration Costs to rise by 33% by 2016, more than half of new system development costs will be spent on Integration
• By 2017, over two-thirds of all new integration flows will extend outside the enterprise firewall.

So Integration just took on a whole new face – successful integration is about using the right tools (in the toolbox) for the right task. Now we have a whole new drawer in our toolbox full of Azure goodies & widgets. This functionality is just too compelling to be ignored….

…and now that it’s on Australian soil I’d be thinking that just about every Data center service provider should be giving you cloud functionality.

Some quick cloud advantages:

• scale, provisioning and ease of use
  • Imagine being able to spin up a SharePoint site in the time it takes me to write this article.
    
  • Imagine being able to ask for an extra load balanced highly available Server/Service at the click of a button. Importantly – Imagine being able to give it back again at the end of the weekend/day/next hour.
    
    
• Not wait the typical 12 weeks for a new server to be provisioned, oh and dont mention filling out the right forms. Running an application on those machines and getting a firewall port opened….that’ll be another 2 weeks…and on it goes.
  
• The much beloved Enlightenment for many companies of achieving Single Sign-On – Imagine your customers being able to sign into your applications using their own Ids, Live Ids, + a bunch of other Ids without you needing to provision more services. You can house your identity accounts in Azure, locally or elsewhere – finally you don’t need a Quantum Analyst to setup Single Sign-on.
  
• My experiences in the last few weeks on client sites have been back in the world of old – classic encumbered infrastructure service providers wanting to claim everything, put the brakes on any new ideas and have meetings around such concepts of adding an extra 10gb disk space to existing servers. These guys should be ‘can do’ people – it’s all about choosing the right tool for the job.
  
• Microsoft have done a great job on the developer tooling front from the classic MS toolset through to Apple, PHP, Ruby, Phython etc. all being able to access, develop on, publish and deploy.
  
• We could even give a bunch of HDD drives to Olaf (our gun cyclist @ Breeze) to ride to the Azure Data Center and offload our data, while we wait for the NBN to never come to our area.
  
• There are some great options on the horizon coming down the track.
  

So let’s say we’re keen to explore – how hard/easy is it to get ‘my’ own environment & what does this mean.

The short answer is you get an Azure Footprint which could be running in a ‘Data Center’ in Sydney. Depending on what you’re playing with you could get:

- SQL Databases, Cloud Services, Scalable Mobile Device Services, Load balanced Websites/Services/Restful endpoints…and the list of ‘widgets’ goes on and on.

How do I interact with this environment:

Often the issue around alot of this is that because my beloved ‘servers’ are running somewhere else I’m concerned over how much control we get.

We enter into the Hybrid Integration space – where as you can imagine not *everything* is suited for the Cloud, there will be things you keep exactly as they are. So there will be many many scenarios where – we have something running locally as well as something running in Azure. Some options we have available are to make our servers ‘feel at home’:

• VPN connection – we can have several flavours of a VPN connection that connect our Azure Footprint to our local network. for e.g. local network is 10.10.x.x/16, Azure network 10.50.x.x/16. Full access to all the machines/services and other things you have running. CRON jobs, FTP, scripts, processes, linux boxes, samba shares, etc etc.. (I do realise the integration world is never as easy as we see it in the magazines)
  
• RDP Connections – standard level of service really from any Service provider.
  
• Remote PowerShell Access
  
• Azure Service Bus - Applications Level Web/WCF/Restful Services connectivity. An Application Service can run either locally or in the cloud and this feature allows your Service to be accessed through a consistent Endpoint within the cloud, but the calls are Relayed down to your Application Service. There’s a few different ways we can ‘relay’ but the public endpoint could house all the clients & their device requests, while your existing application infrastructure remains unchanged.
  
• SQL Azure Data Sync – sync data between clouds & local from your databases. So for many clients, come 8pm each day, their local database has all the Orders for the day as per normal, without the usual provisioning headaches as the business responds to new market opportunities to support smart devices.
  
• We even get pretty graphs….
  
  • But wait there’s more…..
  • These details are typical performance monitor counters + diagnostic information. We can use Azure Admin tools to import these regularly and import them into our typical tools.
  • System Center does exactly this – so our ‘dashboard’ of machines will list our local machines as well as our cloud machines. Your IT guys have visibility into what’s going on.

We’ve been using Singapore DCs or West Coast US with pretty good performance times across the infrastructure. 

What does having a local Windows Azure Data Center mean to me:

• Medical Industry – we have several medical clients allowing us to innovate around Cloud technologies using HL7 transports. Faster time to market and higher degrees of re-use.
• Cloud Lab Manager – www.cloudlabmanager.com can run locally for all training providers. Breeze has created an award winning cloud based application that will certainly benefit from this piece of great news.
• Creating a cloud based application is now feasible (this particular one was due to the sensitive nature of information it carried)
• And lastly I can house my MineCraft server – well it’s my 10 yr old sons and half the school I reckon.

So for you…

Ask yourself the question – are you getting all these features from where you currently host/run your hardware?

Lack of infrastructure and provisioning challenges shouldn’t be holding back new ideas & business movement. iPads, smartphones, anywhere, any time access should be the norm, not like we’re putting another person on the moon.

It’s all about using the right tool for the job

Enjoy folks as it’s certainly exciting times for us Aussies ahead!!

Microsoft’s Announcement

While looking into purchasing MSDN licenses for a client here’s what I found:

For the US:

Now when you change the drop down from US to Australia we get these prices (given that $AUD 1 = (approx) $USD 1

So for e.g. take a MSDN – VS.NET Test.

Aussie Dollar = $3,460   US= $2,170 which equates to $AUD 1 = $USD 0.627

this is what happens when living in a 3rd world country…. - absolutely outrageous.

*** THIS EVENT IS CURRENTLY GOING ON WORLD WIDE even as we speak! ***

The wrap up of the day:

Saturday morning was nothing short of sensational in Sydney today, early morning sun, bright blue skies, smell of coffee and a city that felt like it was snoozing and waking for some playtime.

I walked into a room of curious minds, eager eyes and folks that were thinking of possibilities in technology. This technology was Windows Azure.

We were above capacity & for the first time I would be relieved if there were a few ‘no-shows’…but none happened. Even at 5pm we nearly had a full house.

Firstly I’ve got to thank – you the students for a great day, fantastic questions and giving your precious weekend time.

Secondly the expert speakers that have huge experience in the field.

• Mark O’Shea – Paradyne
• Olaf Loogman – author of a popular Win8 app CyclingTracker – Breeze
• Don Jayasinghe – Breeze
• Mick Badran (yours truly) – Breeze

and finally all the sponsors & people that helped enable us to bring this to you:

• Breeze – www.breeze.net
• Microsoft – www.microsoft.com
• Paradyne – www.paradyne.com.au
• Saxons – www.saxons.com.au (great training facilities)
• Sara Ward, David McGhee & Christian Longstaff – for their tireless efforts, technical expertise and event organisation.
  

What were the plans for the day:

The Agenda was set to:

Some Interesting facts:

- we had 3 MVPs in the room (that I knew of)

- we had 2 Microsoft VTSPs

- a student drove 3.5hrs one way to be here with us during the day, then back to Canberra again after class. Massive commitment.

- we all came with Azure Subscriptions ready to go.

- a student created a WebSite, Database + Worker role working in a solution together during the day.

- Olaf has his Mobile Services demo fail (even though it worked at 10pm last night) due to the recent Azure Portal update at 2am this morning. He did have a PlanB, the autogenerated code from the Portal during the Mobile Services Application creation, generates un-compilable code for now. Well done Olaf, some nice tap dancing.

(Olaf working his magic)

(looking out to the North Wing)

Thanks to Magnus a fellow Azure MVP - for setting all this up world wide and good luck to all the other countries.

If you blog about it – then be sure to use the hashtag #globalwindowsazure.

Mick out.

Something that you’ve always wanted at your finger tips all the public IP ranges for the Azure Data Centers.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29840

<!--Below address ranges are represented using CIDR notation-->
<!--For detail on how to interpert CIDR notation refer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIDR_notation-->
<regions>
  <region name="Europe">
    <subregion name="North Europe">
      <network>213.199.160.0/20</network>
      <network>213.199.184.0/21</network>
      <network>137.116.224.0/19</network>
      <network>157.55.230.160/27</network>
      <network>157.55.3.0/24</network>
      <network>168.61.80.0/20</network>
      <network>168.61.96.0/19</network>
      <network>168.63.32.0/19</network>
      <network>168.63.64.0/20</network>
      <network>168.63.80.0/21</network>
      <network>168.63.92.0/22</network>
      <network>65.52.224.0/22</network>
      <network>65.52.228.0/22</network>
      <network>65.52.248.0/21</network>
      <network>65.52.64.0/20</network>
      <network>94.245.104.0/21</network>
      <network>94.245.112.0/20</network>
      <network>94.245.88.0/21</network>
      <network>137.116.224.0/19</network>
      <network>157.55.230.160/27</network>
      <network>157.55.3.0/24</network>
      <network>168.61.80.0/20</network>
      <network>168.61.96.0/19</network>
      <network>168.63.32.0/19</network>
      <network>168.63.64.0/20</network>
      <network>168.63.80.0/21</network>
      <network>168.63.92.0/22</network>
      <network>65.52.224.0/22</network>
      <network>65.52.228.0/22</network>
      <network>65.52.248.0/21</network>
      <network>65.52.64.0/20</network>
      <network>94.245.104.0/21</network>
      <network>94.245.112.0/20</network>
      <network>94.245.88.0/21</network>
      <network>137.135.128.0/17</network>
    </subregion>
    <subregion name="West Europe">
      <network>157.55.10.0/27</network>
      <network>157.55.10.32/27</network>
      <network>157.55.10.64/26</network>
      <network>157.55.12.0/28</network>
      <network>157.55.9.112/28</network>
      <network>137.116.192.0/21</network>
      <network>137.116.200.0/21</network>
      <network>157.55.8.128/28</network>
      <network>157.55.8.144/28</network>
      <network>157.55.8.160/28</network>
      <network>157.55.8.64/26</network>
      <network>168.63.0.0/19</network>
      <network>168.63.96.0/19</network>
      <network>213.199.128.0/21</network>
      <network>213.199.136.0/22</network>
      <network>213.199.180.112/28</network>
      <network>213.199.180.192/26</network>
      <network>213.199.180.32/28</network>
      <network>213.199.180.96/28</network>
      <network>213.199.183.0/24</network>
      <network>65.52.128.0/19</network>
      <network>94.245.97.0/24</network>
      <network>137.117.128.0/17</network>
      <network>168.61.56.0/21</network>
    </subregion>
  </region>
  <region name="Asia">
    <subregion name="East Asia">
      <network>111.221.64.0/22</network>
      <network>111.221.69.0/25</network>
      <network>137.116.160.0/20</network>
      <network>168.63.128.0/19</network>
      <network>168.63.192.0/19</network>
      <network>207.46.67.160/27</network>
      <network>207.46.67.192/27</network>
      <network>207.46.72.0/26</network>
      <network>207.46.77.224/28</network>
      <network>207.46.87.0/24</network>
      <network>207.46.89.16/28</network>
      <network>207.46.95.32/27</network>
      <network>65.52.160.0/19</network>
    </subregion>
    <subregion name="South East Asia">
      <network>111.221.16.0/21</network>
      <network>111.221.80.0/20</network>
      <network>111.221.96.0/20</network>
      <network>137.116.128.0/19</network>
      <network>168.63.160.0/19</network>
      <network>168.63.224.0/19</network>
      <network>207.46.48.0/20</network>
    </subregion>
  </region>
  <region name="USA">
    <subregion name="South Central US">
      <network>157.55.103.32/28</network>
      <network>157.55.103.48/28</network>
      <network>157.55.153.224/28</network>
      <network>157.55.176.0/20</network>
      <network>157.55.192.0/22</network>
      <network>157.55.196.0/22</network>
      <network>157.55.200.0/22</network>
      <network>157.55.80.0/22</network>
      <network>157.55.84.0/22</network>
      <network>168.62.128.0/19</network>
      <network>65.52.32.0/21</network>
      <network>65.54.48.0/21</network>
      <network>65.55.64.0/20</network>
      <network>65.55.80.0/20</network>
      <network>70.37.160.0/21</network>
      <network>70.37.48.0/20</network>
      <network>70.37.64.0/18</network>
    </subregion>
    <subregion name="North Central US">
      <network>157.55.136.0/21</network>
      <network>157.55.151.0/28</network>
      <network>157.55.160.0/20</network>
      <network>157.55.208.0/21</network>
      <network>157.55.216.0/22</network>
      <network>157.55.220.0/22</network>
      <network>157.55.24.0/21</network>
      <network>157.55.252.0/22</network>
      <network>157.55.60.224/28</network>
      <network>157.55.60.240/28</network>
      <network>157.55.73.32/28</network>
      <network>157.56.12.0/22</network>
      <network>157.56.24.160/28</network>
      <network>157.56.24.176/28</network>
      <network>157.56.24.192/28</network>
      <network>157.56.28.0/22</network>
      <network>157.56.8.0/22</network>
      <network>168.62.224.0/20</network>
      <network>168.62.96.0/19</network>
      <network>207.46.192.0/20</network>
      <network>209.240.220.0/23</network>
      <network>65.52.0.0/19</network>
      <network>65.52.106.128/27</network>
      <network>65.52.106.16/28</network>
      <network>65.52.106.160/27</network>
      <network>65.52.106.192/27</network>
      <network>65.52.106.224/28</network>
      <network>65.52.106.240/28</network>
      <network>65.52.106.32/27</network>
      <network>65.52.106.64/27</network>
      <network>65.52.106.96/27</network>
      <network>65.52.107.0/28</network>
      <network>65.52.192.0/19</network>
      <network>65.52.232.0/22</network>
      <network>65.52.236.0/22</network>
      <network>65.52.240.0/22</network>
      <network>65.52.244.0/22</network>
      <network>65.52.48.0/20</network>
      <network>168.61.128.0/17</network>
    </subregion>
    <subregion name="East US">
      <network>137.117.32.0/19</network>
      <network>137.117.64.0/18</network>
      <network>157.56.176.0/21</network>
      <network>168.61.32.0/20</network>
      <network>168.61.48.0/21</network>
      <network>168.62.160.0/19</network>
      <network>168.62.32.0/19</network>
      <network>137.116.0.0/17</network>
    </subregion>
    <subregion name="West US">
      <network>137.117.0.0/19</network>
      <network>137.135.0.0/18</network>
      <network>157.56.160.0/21</network>
      <network>168.61.0.0/19</network>
      <network>168.61.64.0/20</network>
      <network>168.62.0.0/19</network>
      <network>168.62.192.0/19</network>
      <network>168.63.88.0/24</network>
    </subregion>
  </region>
</regions>

There’s a great Centrebet case study  

http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Windows-Azure/Centrebet/Microsoft-Windows-Azure-a-safe-bet-for-sports-bookmaker-s-website/710000000390

Recently Microsoft added Backup Services (Preview) in which you can invoke the cloud as part of your backup strategy, whether it be offsite secondaries etc.

You may have heard of Microsoft’s StorSimple which involved dropping a 2RU or 4RU Hardware device into a customer’s rack in a Datacenter somewhere which is no easy feat.

The reason why I’m liking the Azure Backup Services approach is that it’s a software based solution.

Storage costs for Backups are cheaper and this is a feasible approach for backups.

The other cool thing is that – if I need fast access to my backups in the cloud, then I can spin up a ‘configured’ VM in Azure (access to the same Backup Vault) and access the backups. No need to copy them down on premise first.

Let’s get Cracking

The elements that make this Azure Backup Services work are:

1. Azure Recovery Services Backup Services – with a Backup Vault created.

2. On Premise (or anywhere else for that matter) Server with the Backup Services Agent installed (currently Win2012, Win2008R2 are targeted platforms for the Agent).
(Currently the BackupServices APIs are only planned to be used from these Agents and not our own code….yet!)

3. A management certificate:

1. X509, Pub/Private keys installed in the local machine certificate store in the OnPrem Server.

2. Public Key (*.CER file) uploaded to Azure Backup Services (this is different to the Subscription Certificates you may already have up in Azure)

The certificate can be self signed and must have: 2048 (or greater) key length, expire within 3 years.
(if your cert fails these requirements it will either fail to upload, or fail to be recognised – we’re dealing with Preview here folks)

1. Creating the Vault

Login to the Azure Portal (activate the Backup Services Preview feature if you haven’t done so already) and select Recovery Services

- Add a new Backup Vault with your details. It’s point a click stuff here, no thinking yet.

2. Create the Management Certificate for Backup Services

There’s a few different ways to do this, makecert.exe is the easiest way I find as follows:

(run from an elevated cmd prompt if required)

-------------------------------------

C:\>makecert
Error: Please either specify the outputCertificateFile or -ss option
Usage: MakeCert [ basic|extended options] [outputCertificateFile]
Basic Options
-sk  <keyName>      Subject's key container name; To be created if not present
-pe                 Mark generated private key as exportable
-ss  <store>        Subject's certificate store name that stores the output
                     certificate
-sr  <location>     Subject's certificate store location.
                        <CurrentUser|LocalMachine>.  Default to 'CurrentUser'
-#   <number>       Serial Number from 1 to 2^31-1.  Default to be unique
-$   <authority>    The signing authority of the certificate
                        <individual|commercial>
-n   <X509name>     Certificate subject X500 name (eg: CN=Fred Dews)
-?                  Return a list of basic options
-!                  Return a list of extended options

C:\>makecert.exe -r -pe -n CN=MicksBreezeAzureBackups -ss my -sr localmachine -eku 1.3.6.1.5.5.7.3.2  -e 12/31/2015 -len 2048 "MicksBreezeAzureBackups.cer"

--------------------------------------------------------

* you should be able to see this Cert in the MachineCertStore on the local machine as follows: *

The *.cer file will be on the local file system ready for uploading

3. Uploading the Certificate (*.CER) file to the Azure Portal

From the Azure Portal –> Recovery Services –> Upload Management Certificate

If all goes well, you’ll have success

You should be able to see your certificate details in the Backup Services – click on your newly created empty BackupVault.

Now we’re ready to get onto the Server Side

3. Configuring and Registering the OnPremise Server to the Backup Vault.

3.1 Download the Agent from Backup Services

Click on the Download Agent Link from within Backup Services and choose your selection:

Here I selected the first option – “Agent for Windows Server 2012 and System Center 2012 SP1..”

Download the Agent (approx 17MB) and install.

This should go smoothly.

3.2 Registering the Server

Launch the Agent (if havent done so already) after the above installation completes.

(mine is empty)

3.2.2 Click on Register Server

(Configure a Proxy if you need to, this is for HTTP/HTTPs traffic)

Your certificate should come up in the list that you created earlier – if it doesnt ensure that both the Private + Public keys are installed AND the Cert is in the Local Machine Store. Then rerun this step.

Select the Vault details as follows in the Agent

(I’ve hidden my subscription ID here)

You’re 2 worlds are almost connected now, we have the Vault + the Server just about done.

Click Next to move onto the Encryption Settings

Select a Passphrase and bear in mind that each new Server you add which wants to restore/read the backup information from another server, will need the same Passphrase.

Click the magic button REGISTER

This is also reflected on the Backup Services Portal under Servers as follows:

4. Configuring Backing – using the Windows Azure Backup & Throttling

(this is very simple and similar to Windows Backup)

What files are we backing up – click on Schedule Backup

I’ve selected a small folder on the System for the purpose of the demo

Select a Time – Currently limited to a max of 3 times a day per Server.

The COOOOOL THING is click on Change Properties – and here we can configure Throttling.

- complete the Wizard to create your first backup schedule – well done!

You’ll now notice the Windows Azure Backup shell has a Backup Now option on the right hand side.

I selected this and ran the Backup Now ‘wizard’ in which I could also specify Throttling for this backup.

At this stage you can also go back to the Backup Services Portal and see an entry in the Protected Items there as well.

5. Powershell Commands – it goes without saying that there’s a ton of powershell commands to script alot of what we did above.

Digging into PowerShell we find that the commands fall under ‘OnlineBackup’ as follows – notice MSOnlineBackup

If I simply run a Get-OBJob command we get back some reasonable info around data transferred etc.

Happy Backuping!!!! Great new Service.

• Cloud Connectivity
• Ability to run existing BizTalk applications in the cloud (IaaS)
• Improved Performance
• Simplified Development and Management Experience
• Support for the latest platform and standards

In terms of features, this translates to

• Integration with Cloud Services- BizTalk Server 2013 includes new out-of-the box adapters to send and receive messages from Windows Azure Service Bus, making it easy to build hybrid solutions. It also provides capabilities to host BizTalk endpoints in Azure through the Service Bus Relay providing a simple and secure way to connect external partners and application to BizTalk Server on premises.
• RESTful services- BizTalk Server 2013 provides adapters to invoke REST endpoints as well as expose BizTalk Server artifacts as a RESTful service.
• Enhanced SharePoint adapter- Integrating with SharePoint using BizTalk Server 2013 is now as simple as integrating with a file share.
• SFTP adapter-Enables sending and receiving messages from an SFTP server.
• Other enhancements: The ESB capabilities previously introduced in the ESB Toolkit are now fully integrated with BizTalk Server, Dependency tracking,Improvements in dynamic send ports, XslCompiledTransform, more support for protocol updates (X12, EDIFACT, HL7)

There is also a change in the licensing approach, where BizTalk is now moving to a per-core licensing model.  If you need more information on this, drop us a line.

Happy BizTalking.. :)

You may pass things like:

“Beware falling rocks do not stop”

on the side of the road while on a trip somewhere.

Here’s one I got today from Outlook:

“Was this info helpful?” – love it!

Folks – we’re into week 2 of the 6 weeks of Azure program and as I was planning these sessions out with Christian last year, I thought I’d like to bring some fun into the mix.

There’s many possibilities that you can do in Azure, but none other than building a bit of h/w, programming it & having it talk to Azure! Monitored, controlled – how good is that.

Enter the FEZ Kits – www.ghielectronics.com

(There’s also the Raspberry PI’s that run a flavour of Linux with a deployment of Mono – that let’s you run C# code straight onto a $35 computer! – I’ll save that for another post)

FEZ Kits

These are the ‘mans lego’ kit as I like to think of them as.

What makes these kits cool:

• they run a flavour of .NET – .NET Microframework. So yes you can write C# etc that runs on the device.
• you can get many many additional modules for these to plug into your masterpiece – things like temperature sensors, light sensors, colour sensors etc.
• they run off USB power, even a set of 4 AAA batteries would do it.
• you program them via USB cable from Visual Studio.
• *rich* community and developer support - http://www.ghielectronics.com/support/.net-micro-framework

FYI – my kit I’ve added to over time and I’ve also got a Raspberry PI that I play with (good NFC reader).

My FEZ KIT on the left, with the PI on the right in my beautiful Lego box

Now the best thing is that the FEZ Hydra kit (above) will be available to you (as a prize and the like) on the BOOTCAMPS as part of the 6 weeks of Azure.

Let me know how you get on and if you’ve got any questions about these guys – they’re great and good for developers.

--- from the official blurb ----
6 Weeks of Azure

Need in-person Azure Training? DevCamps are for you

Register for a DevCamp in Melbourne | Sydney | Brisbane to learn how to use the new Windows Azure features and services including Windows Azure Virtual Machines, Web Sites, and Visual Studio 2012 to build and move a variety of apps to the cloud.  You will see how to build web sites, mobile
applications, and enterprise-class applications. 

Need help with your app? Register for a Boot Camp

Register for a Boot Camp near you: Melbourne | Sydney | Brisbane. Our
Industry and Microsoft experts will be available to help complete your
Windows Azure app as part of the 6 Weeks of Windows Azure course.
There will be a FEZ Hydra Kit or two to win… not to mention some t-shirts and mice to giveaway.

6 Weeks
Forum