G'day Azure. What's new Down Under?

30 October 2014 // View as Webpage // Update Profile As announced at TechEd Australia 2014 in Sydney on Monday, Microsoft Azure’s global footprint has extended to include two new Azure Regions: Australia East (New South Wales) and Australia Southeast (Victoria). This is great news for New Zealand as we now have the capability of the Microsoft Azure public cloud (security, reliability, flexibility, scalability and familiarity) along with the benefits of “next door neighbor” connectivity. Also announced was the expansion of the ExpressRoute offering later this calendar year. ExpressRoute will provide New Zealand customers and partners the option to create private connections between their own data centres and the new Australia Azure Regions. ExpressRoute connections provide the most direct route with the lowest possible latency and best possible performance. In New Zealand there are several providers planning to offer ExpressRoute when available, including Snap and Spark Wholesale, with more to be announced shortly. What does Microsoft Azure really mean to Kiwi business? That depends on your business. You may be 100% ready for cloud and ready to move everything you can, as fast as you can. Websites on Azure Websites; mobile apps back-ended by Mobile Services and supported by Notification Hubs; Windows and Linux servers running on IaaS; file and data storage through DocumentDB, Azure Storage and SQL Database; you name it: [insert your requirement here] on [insert Microsoft Azure service here]. You may be a startup looking for a platform that provides enterprise capability with minimal upfront investment. You may be a small business, or a developer working with many small businesses, with your Windows Server 2003 environment moving before it reaches end of support next year. There are new services and extensions to existing services being added to Microsoft Azure all the time. These new Azure Regions are just one example. Last week we also announced G-series virtual machines , partnership with CoreOS, Cloudera and Docker, a new Azure Marketplace and Premium Storage. I recommend you catch up on this wave of information at the Microsoft Azure Blog. If you’re more of a ‘do-er’ and would prefer to experience these new features for yourself, rather than read about them, check it all out now and activate your free Azure trial. Dirk Develter Cloud & Enterprise Business Group Lead Microsoft New Zealand Azure Websites Migration Assistant Azure Websites Migration Assistant is now generally available so you can easily migrate to Azure Websites from your existing websites that run on Internet Information Service (IIS) 6 or later. Simplifying Load Testing The new, simplified browser-based authoring and configuration experience for Load Testing enables practically anyone to create and run a load test, reducing this down to three simple options: the URL you want to test, how many users and how long do you want the load test to run for. Microsoft Azure Updates A major set of recent updates to Microsoft Azure include the introduction of, and enhancements in, the Marketplace, Networking, Batch Computing, Automation, Anti-malware and Virtual Machines. ModernBiz Azure Technical Training 29 - 30th October 2014 (ONLINE) This two part, free online technical training delivered by Microsoft technical consultants provides step by step training, demonstrations and a live Q&A. Learn how to leverage Azure to deliver cloud-based solutions and services to small and midsize businesses (SMBs).You should attend this training if you work for a Microsoft reseller that wants to take advantage of the new opportunity to resell Azure through the Open Licensing channel. Read more and register for the Part I course as well as the Part II course to really get up to speed. Startup Weekend Tauranga 7-9th November 2014 (TAU) Earlybird tickets for Startup Weekend Tauranga are now sold out! But don't worry, you can still purchase tickets at the regular price. Startup Weekends are 54-hour events designed to bring technical and non-technical entreprenuers together for action, innovation and education. Technical Evangelist Thiago Almeida will be making an appearance, so be sure to get your tickets now! Connect(); 12th-13th November 2014 (ONLINE) Connect(); is a cloud-first, mobile-first, code-first virtual event focused on current and future technologies for developers who're creating applications across a variety of platforms. Starting on Wednesday the 12th of November, live from New York the event will be followed by Q&A sessions and over 40 on-demand technical sessions. On the 13th interact with engineering team members in live sessions from the Microsoft Campus in Redmond, WA. Startup Weekend Auckland 14-16th November 2014 (AKL) Startup Weekend will be back in Auckland from the 14th-16th November! Earlybird tickets have sold out, but regular priced tickets are still available. Technical Evangelist Thiago Almeida will be making an appearance, so be sure to get your tickets now! ecentre Cloud Series: Increase performance- Getting the most out of the cloud 19th November 2014 (AKL)An interactive panel will discuss how you can use metrics and marketing to increase the performance of your cloud based business. DevMob Conference 22nd-23rd November 2014 (WLG) Microsoft NZ is sponsoring the DevMob Conference in Wellington. Whether you are building or designing mobile apps, DevMob is the conference for those who are pushing the limits of mobile platforms. Successful developers are always upgrading thier skills. Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA) offers online Microsoft training delivered by experts. Watch videos, download PowerPoint slides and test yourself as you learn at absolutely no cost. If you want to learn something different, head over to MVA here! Here are the three courses your Microsoft Technical Evangelists recommend this week: Deep Dive Integrate Office 365 APIs in Your Web Apps Like to integrate your existing web applications (such as ASP.NET MVC 5) with the Office 365 APIs? In the videos and slides in this MVA course, a team of industry experts will take walk you through real-world demos. See how easy it can be to leverage these APIs and to implement practical scenarios. Developing Universal Windows Apps with C# and XAML Save yourself valuable time when developing universal Windows apps using your C# and XAML skills. Learn from Microsoft experts in these videos and slides as they build a working app using tools and techniques that can give you a dramatic advantage. Azure SQL Database for Business-Critical Cloud Applications Find out how the new Azure SQL Database model supports your need to build robust cloud apps. A team of top experts will help you decide in these slides and videos which edition is the best fit for your organization. They also demonstrate the near-zero administration. © 2014 Microsoft Corporation Terms of Use :: Trademarks Microsoft respects your privacy. To learn more, please read our online Privacy Statement. To set your contact preferences for other Microsoft communications click here. The Privacy Officer // Microsoft New Zealand Ltd, PO Box 8070 Symonds St, Auckland 1150, New Zealand