Author: mcollier

January 2017 Meetup

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For the first meetup of 2017, on January 9th, we are excited to welcome Michael Collier as the featured speaker. Michael will be sharing information on containers in a Windows environment. Over the past few years, containers have become one of the hottest trends for developers and IT Pros alike. Michael will share with the group more information on how containerization is making its way into the Windows ecosystem with Windows Server 2016 and Windows 10.

As in past months, following Michael’s session, we will once again hold an open architecture Q&A session. This is a time set aside for the attendees to discuss ideas or questions about Azure – a time to ask the “Can or How do I do X with Azure?” question.

Please RSVP via Meetup.com/coazure

Title: Containers for Windows Developers

Abstract: Over the last few years, Docker has popularized Linux containers, but Windows developers have been left out in the cold. This changes with Windows Server 2016. At this session we’ll cover the basics of the new Windows Server container model and how to develop applications/services that can take advantage of this exciting new advancement, for cloud, for on-prem, and for the future.

Speaker Bio: Michael is currently Senior Software Development Engineer in Microsoft’s DX TED organization, where he engages deeply with select global ISVs to help them best utilize Azure’s features. Michael has over 13 years of experience with various consulting and technology firms where he was instrumental in leading and developing solutions for a wide range of clients. He has a vast amount of experience in helping companies determine the best strategy for adopting cloud computing, and providing the insight and hands-on experience to ensure they are successful. Michael is also a respected technology community leader, and is often found sharing his Microsoft Azure insights and experiences at regional and national conferences. Michael is also the co-author of a published book on Microsoft Azure entitled Microsoft Azure Essentials: Fundamentals of Azure, Second Edition. Follow Michael’s experiences with Azure on his blog at http://www.michaelscollier.com and on Twitter at @MichaelCollier.

December Holiday Party / Meetup

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Instead of a “normal” meetup for December, we’re joining forces with three other Columbus user groups which focus on Microsoft technologies to hold one major holiday party! This year, all four groups come together for an EPIC Christmas party!

What’s in store – Networking | Board Games | Ping Pong | Holiday Spirit. Oh, and great food & drinks!

And what’s a holiday party without some great prizes? Thanks to our amazing friends at Cardinal Solutions, we’ll be raffling away an XBox One S and an Amazon Echo! There will likely be a few other surprise prizes as well. 🙂

All ticket sales go to charity.

Also highly encouraged are toy donations to The Ohio State University College of Engineering Toy Adaptation Program and Food item donations to Mid-Ohio Foodbank. Let’s spread the love this Holiday Season.

IMPORTANT: If you’re bringing a toy donation, it must be from the list provided on the holiday party registration page. Those are the only toys that can be used by the Toy Adaptation Program. Please adhere to the list!

A HUGE “Thank You” to Improving Enterprises in Columbus for providing the food and venue for event. Improving has a been a great partner in the community for years. Thank you!!!

When

Monday, December 19th, 2016
6:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Registration – $5.00, just go right here . . now

Location

Improving Enterprises
One Easton Oval
Suite 175
Columbus, OH 43219

November Meetup

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For the November 14th meetup we are excited to welcome Michael Meadows as the featured speaker. Michael will be sharing guidance on one of the most popular Azure services, Azure App Service. This should be a great session to learn more the many features that can speed development and improve management for your cloud-hosted applications.

As in past months, following Michael’s session, we will once again hold an open architecture Q&A session. This is a time set aside for the attendees to discuss ideas or questions about Azure – a time to ask the “Can or How do I do X with Azure?” question.

Please RSVP at via Meetup.com.

Making Development Great Again: Azure App Services
Abstract: In the past few years, Microsoft has invested in building out a robust application Platform as a Service (PaaS) architecture. Under the umbrella of “App Services,” Azure is able to simplify many of the boilerplate aspects of application development. From authorization/authentication to WebJobs, App Services allow you to focus on developing quality services. This talk provides a high level review of the features currently available, focusing on a few features for hands-on demonstration.
Speaker Bio: Michael has been a professional programmer and architect for fourteen years, and a hacker for much longer. He has served as architect on multiple large-scale, cloud-based Line-of-Business implementation projects. Additionally, Michael has extensive experience building high volume, processor intensive business logic applications using distributed architectures. He is a Director at Fusion Alliance where he is the Enterprise Architecture Competency Manager.

October 2016 Meetup

Posted on by mcollier

Join us for our first hands-on COAzure meeting. 

Solution Architecture: Hands-on

The goal of this meeting’s activity will be to learn more about the various Azure services, and how to use them together to architect a solution in Azure.  We’ll provide a case study and application/system requirements, and then you’ll work as teams to research various Azure services and decide how to use those to propose an architecture for the system.

Each team will have a little over an hour to come up with its solution architecture, drawing them up on large sheets of paper.  We’ll have experienced Azure architects available to answer questions and provide guidance.  Bring your laptop so you can research the many available services.  We’ll end the meeting with each team sharing its solution with the whole group, and then review the actual architecture that was implemented in Azure.

Please RSVP via Meetup.com.

**You do not have to be experienced with all the Azure services, just interested in learning.**

Of course there is plenty to learn about the variety of service options available.  Here’s a portion of what there is to choose from that might be utilized in your architecture:

Speaker / Lead Facilitator: The Azure solution architecture workshop will be led by Nick Martin. Nick is a principal consultant at Cardinal Solutions, with 12 years of experience developing and architecting enterprise applications. Nick is passionate about helping clients get the most out of their software development efforts through following best practices and agile processes. When not honing his craft, Nick enjoys travelling with his family, going on gastronomic adventures, and occasionally pretending he can cook.

September Meetup

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For the September meetup we are very excited to welcome Kiff Kammur as the featured speaker. Kiff will be sharing guidance on microservices and Azure Service Fabric. This should be a great session to learn more about a very hot architecture pattern in microservices, and one of Azure’s newest and intriguing services.

As in past months, following Kiff’s session, we will once again hold an open architecture Q&A session. This is a time set aside for the attendees to discuss ideas or questions about Azure – a time to ask the “Can or How do I do X with Azure?” question.

Please RSVP at via Meetup.com.

Title: Building Microservices using Azure Service Fabric

Abstract: Azure Service Fabric is a relatively new and very cool technology in the Azure ecosystem.  The core technology isn’t really new, because it’s actually the technology Microsoft used to build Azure PaaS services such as SQL Database and DocumentDB.  Wouldn’t you like to build apps/services that perform and scale like native Azure services?  First you’ll have to learn how to architect cloud-native apps with microservices.  This session will give an overview of microservices and demonstrate how to build scalable and reliable microservice-based apps using Azure Service Fabric. We will discuss the architecture, packaging & deployment, and scaling of microservices using Azure Service Fabric.  Service Fabric runs pretty close to the metal, so this session will be particularly interesting to application architects and developers, as well as infrastructure architects

Speaker Bio: Kiff Kammur is the Practice Leader of Cloud Services and SOA/Integration at ICC. Kiff has developed and architected solutions over a decade using Java, IBM Integration and Microsoft technologies for multiple clients in different industries such as banking, healthcare, manufacturing, and travel. Kiff has a passion and focus on cloud computing technology platforms such as Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS, and IBM Bluemix. Kiff is not only passionate about learning latest technologies and best practices but also passionate about spreading his knowledge to others by giving speeches.

August 2016 Meetup

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For the August meetup we are very excited to welcome David Benedic as the featured speaker. David will be sharing guidance and vast experiences in working with Azure Resource Manager. If you’re curious how you can best work with the Azure Resource Manager API, including Resource Manager templates, this is a can’t miss session!

As in past months, following David’s session, we will once again hold an open architecture Q&A session. This is a time set aside for the attendees to discuss ideas or questions about Azure – a time to ask the “Can or How do I do X with Azure?” question.

Please RSVP for Central Ohio Azure meetups viahttp://meetup.com/Central-Ohio-Azure/. You can find out more info about the Central Ohio Azure group on our web site at http://www.coazure.org and Twitter at @COAzureUG.

Title: Take control of your cloud with Infrastructure-as-Code

Abstract: Looking to leverage the cloud or already using it today? How do you stand up and maintain your infrastructure? Infrastructure-as-Code is part of the DevOps toolbox that gives developers and sysadmins the power to predictably deploy and maintain secure infrastructure to the cloud. We’ll take a dive into the reasons, resources, tools, and workflows available today in Azure that empower you to simplify your cloud infrastructure. There’ll be containers! DevOps-y stuff! and internet memes! You’ll leave the session with an understanding of the benefits of moving your infrastructure to the cloud and the confidence to take control of it.

Speaker Bio: By day, David Benedic is a mild-mannered consultant at Cardinal Solutions Group in Columbus, Ohio. By night, well, he has two young kids, so mostly superhero Dad stuff… but when he does get free time, he likes to create things .. things that involve software and technology. Find David – @davidbenedic | github.com/daveyb

July 2016 Meetup

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For July’s meetup we are very excited to welcome Keith Mayer (Principal Technical Architect, Microsoft) as the featured speaker. Keith will be sharing guidance and vast experiences in designing virtual networks in a cloud scale environment. If you’re building solutions in the public cloud, understanding how to construct your virtual network the right way is a necessity. This is a can’t miss session!

As in past months, following Keith’s session, we will once again hold an open architecture Q&A session. This is a time set aside for the attendees to discuss ideas or questions about Azure – a time to ask the “Can or How do I do X with Azure?” question.

Please be sure to RSVP for COAzure meetups via http://www.meetup.com/Central-Ohio-Azure. 

Title:  Networking for Cloud Architects

Abstract: If you’re architecting solutions for the cloud, you’re probably finding that you need to know more about networking than ever before … Attend this session for a primer on cloud networking, and gain some “real-world” insights to recommended practices on subnet designs, security, custom routing and VPN connectivity.  Walk away with a set of scripts and templates that you can use for deploying end-to-end networking environments in the cloud.

Speaker Bio: Keith Mayer is a Principal Technical Architect at Microsoft, focused on helping ISV partners leverage the Azure cloud platform. Keith has over 20 years of experience as a technical leader of complex IT projects, in diverse roles, such as Network Engineer, IT Manager, Technical Instructor and Consultant. He has consulted and trained thousands of customers and partners worldwide on design of enterprise technology solutions.

Keith is currently certified on several Microsoft technologies, including Azure, Private Cloud, System Center, Hyper-V, Windows, Windows Server, SharePoint, SQL Server and Exchange. He also holds other industry certifications from Amazon AWS, VMware, IBM, Cisco, Citrix, HP, CheckPoint, CompTIA and Interwoven.

You can find Keith online at http://KeithMayer.com

June 2016 Meetup

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For June’s meetup we are excited to welcome Brian Jackett (Senior Premier Field Engineer, Microsoft) as the featured speaker. Brian will be sharing his guidance on running an dev/test Azure IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service) environment, especially as related to SharePoint.

Following Brian’s session, we will once again hold an open architecture Q&A session. his is a time set aside for the attendees to discuss ideas or questions about Azure – a time to ask the “Can or How do I do X with Azure?” question.

Title: Running Your Dev / Test VMs in Azure for Cheap

Abstract: With an MSDN subscription you can run your dev / test SharePoint environment in Azure IaaS for less than the cost of a cup of coffee each day. In this session we will overview the basics of Azure IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), the pieces you will use to be successful deploying SharePoint in Azure (including the new Azure Resource Manager templates), and how to use resources as efficiently as possible to reduce your costs and boost your farm performance. This session is targeted to SharePoint developers and administrators. Prior knowledge of Azure is helpful but not a requirement.

Speaker Bio: Brian T. Jackett is a Senior Premier Field Engineer at Microsoft specializing in SharePoint development / administration and PowerShell for over 8 years. Brian enjoys giving back to the community through giving presentations, planning and volunteering at conferences, maintaining a SharePoint/.Net centric blog, and contributing to the SharePoint Twitterverse. He also holds several Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) for SharePoint related technologies.

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May 2016 Meetup

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There will be two components to the May meetup – a feature presentation and also an architecture open Q&A session. For the feature presentation, Microsoft Technical Evangelist Brian Sherwin will provide an overview of many of the various services and features available in the Azure platform. Following Brian’s talk, we’ll move into the open Q&A time. This is a time set aside for the attendees to discuss ideas or questions about Azure – a time to ask the “Can or How do I do X with Azure?” question.

Title: Microsoft Azure – The 50,000 Foot View

Abstract: If there is one consistent aspect to the Azure platform, it is that it is always evolving. The platform continues to grow, with new services and features being added at a very fast pace. In this session, we’ll provide a broad overview of many of the most important features available to you in the Azure platform. After attending this session, you’ll have a much better understanding of the Azure platform and be able to decide how to best utilizes its many features in your next solution.

Speaker Bio: Brian Sherwin is a Technical Evangelist with Microsoft from Columbus, Ohio. He has been a consultant and trainer for over 15 years. One of his core passions is helping companies make decisions based on value and not a particular technology. When he’s not trying to figure out some new technology, he spends time reading, Scouting, and drinking enough coffee to keep up with his five kids.

April 2016 Meeting – Getting Started with IoT

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The April 2016 meeting will be held on Monday, April 11th from 6pm – 8pm at Microsoft’s Columbus office (8800 Lyra Drive,Suite #400, Columbus, OH). This month we welcome Vince Fabro to share his insights and experiences on one of the most talked about trends in technology today, the Internet of Things (IoT).

Please RSVP for meetings via http://www.meetup.com/Central-Ohio-Azure/. 

 

Title: Getting Started with IoT

Abstract: Interested in learning more about the Internet of Things (IoT) but not sure how it fits into your business? Want to avoid some common pitfalls on your first IoT project? Join us for a look at practical, real-world IoT solutions end-to-end. We’ll discuss all the key aspects of IoT solutions, from planning an IoT concept, to the devices, to connectivity and processing, to advanced analytics — with many lessons learned along the way. We’ll also walk through a real-world scenario that delivers real-time insights using commodity devices and the Azure IoT Suite.

If you’re looking to leverage IoT within your organization, this presentation will help you understand the many benefits and unique challenges associated with Internet of Things solutions.

Speaker Bio: Vince Fabro is the Practice Manager of the Enterprise Microsoft Solutions practice at Cardinal Solution’s Columbus, Ohio, branch. Vince loves building things and fixing things, and working with teams to achieve success. He’s been applying those passions to the IT industry for well over 20 years now – the past 20 as a consultant wearing many hats (developer, trainer, architect, mentor, manager). As a former certified trainer he has enjoyed training hundreds of students, and has presented technology topics at IT conferences and user groups for many years. Vince has specialized in Microsoft’s .NET technology stack for more than a decade now, and is always striving to learn more effective ways to build applications that solve challenging IT problems. For the past few years Vince has focused on cloud computing, specifically Microsoft Azure. Vince attended The Ohio State University to earn both his Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and his Master of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering. He thoroughly enjoys his work, as well as hiking, bicycling, and traveling with his family.