Each month through June 2010, we’ll bring you a 90-minute Architect focused Webcast to educate on the latest trends/topics and how new technologies can align with your business needs.

December 22, 2009 at 11:00am – 12:30pm PST
Securing REST-Based Services with Access Control Service
Michele Leroux Bustamante
The Access Control Service (ACS), part of Windows Azure platform AppFabric, makes it easy to secure REST-based services using a simple set of standard protocols. In addition to enabling secure calls to REST-based services from any client, the ACS uniquely makes it possible to secure calls from client-side script, and enables federation scenarios with REST-based services. This webcast will provide a tour of ACS features and demonstrate scenarios where the ACS can be employed to secure REST-based WCF services and other web resources. You’ll learn how to configure ACS, learn how to request a token from the ACS, and learn how applications and services can authorize access based on the ACS token.

Link to Register:  http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032435379&Culture=en-US

For session recordings and content from the December 2009 series, please visit http://blogs.msdn.com/sac/pages/cafe-2009-12.aspx.

For information on other events part of the Architect Cafe series, please visit http://blogs.msdn.com/sac/pages/architect-cafe.aspx.

We are still looking for a Sr. Architect Evangelist to join our West Region team in the Microsoft Developer and Platform Evangelism (DPE) group.  If you are passionate about new, bleeding edge technology, and helping companies envision how that technology solves business problems, this is a great role for you!  The role focuses on innovative new Microsoft platform technologies and works with both customers and partners.

If you are interested or know someone that might be interested, see the job posting here.

Really cool work by Seesmic for a real rich Twitter experience on Windows!  Manage and view multiple Twitter accounts, lists and searches in separate columns and more!  Download the Seesmic Desktop!

Can’t make it to Los Angeles for The Underground @ PDC?  You will miss hanging out with the Lakers Girls, 500+ techies, drinks, etc.; but you can still be a part of the action!

The Underground will live stream these special presentations so no matter where you are, you can to hear from Microsoft and tech community leaders announcing Microsoft’s Technology roadmap and newly released developer strategies. Tune in and don’t miss our special keynote from Scott Guthrie!

Wednesday, November 18 at 7:00 PM

LIVE at www.undergroundatpdc.com

Twitter: @undergroundpdc

Today, 11/17 (and tomorrow) will be very big days for announcements @ Microsoft PDC 2009.

Announcements are expected around various key cloud technologies (Windows Azure, SQL Azure, .NET Services, etc) along with some surprises that promise to be unexpected (even to most of us Microsoft employees).

You can watch today’s live Keynote at 8:30am PST (11:30am EST) here: http://microsoftpdc.com/, they will be using Silverlight and Smooth Streaming so it should be a wonderful experience.

Also during the day Channel9 folks will be holding live sessions with your chance to participate and ask questions over Twitter. The biggest names in Microsoft development will be there and the full schedule is online here:

http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/NicFill/Channel-9-Live-at-PDC09-Schedule/

Each month through June 2010, we’ll bring you a 90-minute Architect focused Webcast to educate on the latest trends/topics and how new technologies can align with your business needs.

November 24, 2009 at 11:00am – 12:30pm PST

Title:  An Architect’s perspective on Silverlight 3

Presenter: Tim Heuer

Abstract:  Many .NET developers are becoming more and more interested in the Rich Internet Application development space, and in particular Silverlight.  In this session we will step back from a detailed implementation technology and take a higher level look at Silverlight from the architect’s perspective.  We will discuss the types of applications where Silverlight makes sense and some scenarios where Silverlight may not be the appropriate technology.  We will also delve into some of the architectural decisions that the architect must consider when writing applications for this platform and where some of the tradeoffs may lie.

Event ID:  1032432980

Link to Register:  here

November 25, 2009, 11:00am – 12:30pm PST

Title: Cloud-computing architecture – designing multi-tenant applications on Windows Azure.

Speaker:  Joseph Hofstader

Abstract: Cloud computing is one of the hottest topics in information technology today.  With all the confusion surrounding acronyms ending in ‘aas’ like Platform as a Service (PaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS) it can be intimidating for even seasoned IT professionals.  This presentation will briefly discuss the different types of cloud platforms and then address one of the key business scenarios for the cloud: Software as a Service.

Software as a Service is a business model for making applications available over the Internet.  One of the key tenets of SaaS is multi-tenancy, or software designed to be used by multiple parties.  Designing SaaS applications touches on many of the technologies that comprise the Azure platform: Processing, Storage, Workflow, Database and most importantly security.   This presentation will discuss how each of technologies can be utilized to define a flexible architecture for multi-tenant solutions.

Event ID:  1032432981

Link to Register: here

SPEAKER BIOS

Tim Heuer

Tim Heuer is a program manager for Microsoft Silverlight, a web technology aimed at delivering rich internet experiences to users.  Before this current role, Tim was a developer evangelist for Microsoft serving the Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, Montana and Utah areas aiming to strengthen and support communities and software developers in these geographies.

Josepher Hofstader

Joseph Hofstader is an architect/evangelist in Microsoft Communications Sector.  Joe has spent his career architecting, designing and developing solutions in the telecommunications industry.  Over the last 5 years, he has been involved in architecting solutions that provide telecommunications services in the cloud.  Joe presents regularly at industry events sponsored by organizations like the TMForum  and the National Association of Broadcasters.  In his spare time Joe is an adjunct professor in the department of Information Technology and Electronic Commerce at the University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business.

We are still looking for a Sr. Architect Evangelist to join our West Region team in the Microsoft Developer and Platform Evangelism (DPE) group.  If you are passionate about new, bleeding edge technology, and helping companies envision how that technology solves business problems, this is a great role for you!  The role focuses on innovative new Microsoft platform technologies and works with both customers and partners.

If you are interested or know someone that might be interested, see the job posting here.

Have you tried to run PHP on Windows?  Maybe you should try it!

Try it and compete in the Great PHP on Windows® Contest!

Try your hand at PHP on Windows and win a complete 52″ HDTV home entertainment system and the opportunity to present your creation to the crowd at php|tek 2010 in Chicago with an all-expenses paid trip!

The basics of the contest are simple – Write a new application designed to run in PHP on Windows using IIS—or make a significant contribution to an existing open-source project along the same lines.

Find out more here!

Experience The New Efficiency Microsoft Launch Event Live from San Diego October 26th Virtually!
www.thenewefficiency.com/live

Some of my Microsoft colleagues will be delivering the Windows 7 / Windows Server 2008 R2 launch live from San Diego starting at 9am PDT October 26th. Now, you can view and download these 18 IT Professional and Developer focused sessions without ever leaving the house.  Focusing on Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Exchange Server 2010, you can listen to Microsoft experts, download valuable resources and explore the live launch event “virtually”.

Mark your calendars

My good friend and colleague, David Chou (Microsoft Architect Evangelist) was interviewed recently by Jeremy Geelan at Sys-Con Media on the topic of Cloud Computing. 

While acknowledging that lots of work is currently being done to differentiate and integrate private and public cloud solutions, David believes that Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) is the area of Cloud Computing that will make its impact most noticeably in 2010 – especially for startups, and small-medium sized businesses.

You can find the interview here.