Summary: ISV Software Architecture Workshop in NYC!
ISV Software Architecture Workshop
Dec 10th 2009, Microsoft NYC
Context:
The second ISV Software Architecture Workshop organized in NYC this year took place on December 10th. The turnout was great and it is great to see that almost half of the participants were repeat offenders who already attended the first event in March 2009. The intended impact of the event is NSAT on the one hand and Microsoft technology adoption on the other and I think we this event we had a big impact on both of them in the NYC Software Architecture community!
The help and support of Bill Zack (the local AE) and Ashish Jaiman (ISV AE from Washington DC) were essential for the success of this exclusive, and by invitation only, ISV Software Architecture Workshop (SAW) in New York City on December 10th 2009 The event was in direct response to the feedback we received at the CTO Roundtable of our managed partners to facilitate more learning of new and emerging Microsoft technologies, experience exchange, and networking amongst the ISV community.
We had 32 attendees focused around our managed ISVs but included also Microsoft Solution Architect MVPs, and members of the IASA (International Association of Software Architecture). The attendees consisted of mainly Software Architects, some CTOs, Technical Managers, and a few senior developers.
The feedback we received was fantastic!
The Event:
Based on the feedback from the last event we changed the format of the event to first have very short but structured presentations reviewing the Microsoft PDC announcements. The second part of the event (which was about 2/3rd of the time) was very intense and interactive sessions specifically targeted to address problems and opportunities of our managed ISVs. We used the OpenSpace format for that part (https://martinfowler.com/bliki/OpenSpace.html ), with 3 parallel tracks that allowed for discussion of a wide range of relevant topics to the attendees. The format was very well received and the discussions were mostly partner lead.
Session Highlights:
Cloud Computing (3 Sessions moderated by Bill) conclusions:
· Overview of Windows Azure
· Windows Azure deep dive: SQL Azure, AppFabric, and Windows Azure Platform
· Best practices and patterns for cloud computing
Silverlight 4 (Ashish moderated):
· What is new in Silverlight 4
· Opportunities for ISVs and differentiation of WPF and SL
Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4.0 (Gunther and Ashish moderated)
· New features in Visual Studio and .NET.
· Extensibility of Visual Studio for ISVs
· Modeling with Oslo and Visual Studio compared to DSL toolkit
· Impact of MVC 2 and RIA Services
Summary:
We got outstanding feedback from the attendees such as:
“Thank you for putting this together. I learned a great deal about the possibilities of MS Azure and look forward to the next workshop.”
“Awesome event, Gunther! Thanks for inviting me!”
“I want to credit all of you for the valuable experience ... Let me know who to forward my appreciation to.”
“Thanks for reviewing the upcoming technologies with us at yesterday’s ISV Architecture session.
I think there’s some interesting things coming in 2010 and we’re looking forward to leveraging many of them.”
I believe this is a very impactful event and I am looking forward to organize the next ISV Software Architecture Workshop in 6 months to continue on the great feedback, the value that participants see, and the impact Microsoft can make with such events on technology adoption as well as NSAT.
If you have any question about the event please let me know.
Thanks to Bill and Ashish, without their help the event would not have been possible and certainly would not have been that successful.
Gunther Lenz
