Partner Otaku

December 22, 2009 at 11:00am – 12:30pm PST

Securing REST-Based Services with Access Control Service

Presenter: Michele Leroux Bustamante

Abstract: 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.

Event ID:  1032435379

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

SPEAKER BIOS

Michele Leroux Bustamante

Michele Leroux Bustamante brings a well-rounded skill set to the IDesign, including expertise not just in architecture and technology but also in interoperability, management, and operations. Michele is not only an IDesign Chief Architect, she is also Microsoft Regional Director for San Diego, Microsoft MVP for Connected Systems and a BEA Technical Director. In addition, Michele is a member of the board of directors for the International Association of Software Architects (IASA). With over 15 years of experience designing enterprise systems, prior to IDesign Michele has held senior executive positions at several corporations. She has assembled and organized software development teams from the ground up, implemented processes for all aspects of the software development lifecycle, and facilitated many successful large-scale enterprise application deployments, including capital fund raising, sales, and business development efforts. Michele specializes in training, mentoring and high-end architecture consulting services focusing on Web services, scalable and secure architecture design for .NET, federated security scenarios, web services, interoperability and globalization architecture. She participates in Software Design Reviews for products in the Microsoft roadmap, including WCF and CardSpace. During the Beta 1 phase Michele participated in prototyping elements of the CardSpace technology for the product team. Michele has been advisor to University of California, San Diego Extension since 1994, establishing several successful certificate programs. Michele is a member of the International .NET Speakers Association (INETA); a frequent conference presenter at major technology conferences such as Tech Ed, PDC, SD and Dev Connections. Michele is the conference chair for SD’s Web Services/SOA and Web Development tracks; and she regularly publishes in several technology journals. Michele’s latest book is Learning WCF (O’Reilly, 2007). Visit her book blog at www.thatindigogirl.com or her main blog at www.dasblonde.net.

We launched Windows Mobile 6.5 today. It’s part of Microsoft’s strategy to win on three "screens", the computer/notebook, television and the phone. Over the past 20 years Windows provided the foundation for a very large ecosystem of ISVs and IHVs. XBOX Live, provided the community and market place for which gamers can buy games, themes, add-ons, movies and more, and finally Windows Phones is the next are of focus. Here a video from Steve Ballmer:

With the release of Windows Mobile 6.5 and the Marketplace, I’ld like to point you to a new website for additional Developer and Marketplace information.

Next Tuesday September 29th, we’ll be holding a webcast about Windows Azure.  We invite you to explore Windows Azure – Microsoft’s platform for building and deploying cloud based applications – within Microsoft. During this event, we’ll review critical lessons Microsoft IT has learned migrating internal line-of-business applications to Windows Azure.

The webinar will answer:

What is Windows Azure? When should I use it? How does it apply to my job?  Whether you’re an IT Professional, Developer or Architect, we’ll address top of mind questions about cloud computing.

TechNet Events Presents – for the IT Professional from 8:30am to noon

In this session, we will discuss:

• Azure architecture from the IT professional’s point of view
• Why an IT operations team would want to pursue Azure as an extension to the data center
• Configuration, deployment and scaling Azure-based applications
• The Azure roles (web, web service and worker)
• Azure storage options
• Azure security and identity options
• How Azure-based applications can be integrated with on-premises applications
• How operations teams can manage and monitor Azure-based applications

TechNet LIVE Webcast | REGISTER >>

MSDN Events Presents – for the Developer & Architect from 1:00pm to 5:00pm

In this session, we will discuss:

• Cloud computing architectures in general and the Azure architecture in particular
• Several aspects of Azure from the developer’s and architect’s perspective
• Azure roles (web, web service and worker)
• Azure storage options
• Azure security and identity options
• How Azure-based applications can be integrated with on-premise applications
• Configuration, deployment and scaling Azure-based applications
• How development teams can optimize their applications for better management and monitoring

MSDN LIVE Webcast | REGISTER >>

We’re very pleased to announce the launch of the Web Platform Installer 2.0! 

Since we released Web PI 1.0 Beta, just a year ago, we have seen phenomenal success and customer appreciation for simplifying how you find and install the Microsoft Web Platform.  With this RTW launch of our 2.0 product we feel excited and confident that we have a solution that our partners, field, and communities can use to make getting the Microsoft Web Platform easier than ever.

• What’s new?  Highlights of the 2.0 release include: installing popular community ASP.NET and PHP applications, localization into 9 languages, and the expansion to include more scenarios around Media, Dev Tools, and Enterprise.
• Gotta have it!  1 MILLION downloads.  Over the past 12 months we have seen over 1 million downloads of Web PI, over 4.6 million downloads of Platform products and over 840,000 downloads of Web applications. 
• What are people saying?  “Saves so much time and hassle!” “one stop shopping” “attraction to the Web Platform installer was straight forward”

Install the Web Platform Installer RTW today and let us know what you think! 

I would like to invite you to a one hour webcast on Friday 6/26 @ 12:30PM PST. If you would like to attend please refer to the link below for registration.

Building Web Applications with Windows Azure

This session will begin with a brief overview of Azure and discuss some of the announcements made at MIX. We will then illustrate through demo how to build a Windows Azure application from the ground up. We will illustrate how to consume Azure Table Storage, how to host services, web pages and Silverlight components, as well as how to deploy your solution to the cloud.

Presenter: Bruno Terkaly, Developer Evangelist, Microsoft
Bruno’s Bio: http://adjix.com/6y3j
Registration Link: http://adjix.com/nv5m

New CloudApp() is a US-based developer challenge for .NET & PHP developers creating cloud applications or services on the Azure™ Services Platform. There are 3 contest categories with grand prizes of a $5000 VISA gift card for .NET and PHP, and $2500 for the Community winner. Have your application judged by industry leaders Om Malik and Michael Cote and share your cloud coding skills with other developers. Grand Prize Winners will be announced at Structure 09 and featured on azure.com.

Get More Information:  http://www.newcloudapp.com/

One of Windows Azure’s goals is to provide support for a variety of languages including Java, PHP and Ruby.  If you are a PHP developer, and are interested in testing the PHP SDK for Windows Azure please click the link to the PHP SDK home page – PHP SDK for Windows Azure – Home.

PHPAzure is an open source project to provide a software development kit for Windows Azure and Windows Azure Storage – Blobs, Tables & Queues

Here are some resources that maybe useful to you in getting started:

ARCast.TV – Enabling Web Slices on Your Web Site

Web Slices are a new IE8 feature that allows users to subscribe to some parts of a web page and receive updates automatically. In this screen cast, Zhiming Xue (Dr. “Z”), Microsoft Architect Evangelist, demonstrates through two simple examples how developers can easily create web applications that enable users to subscribe to select contents on a web page using the new IE8 feature, Web Slices. For additional resources about web slices are available at IE8 Readiness Toolkit and IE Developer Center.

Enabling Web Slices On Your Web Site

Key improvements in SP1 include Slipstream, Service Pack Uninstall and Report Builder 2.0 click-once deployment.

• Slipstream allows administrators to install SQL Server 2008 and Service Pack 1 in a single instance. This decreases the total time for an installation, including a fewer number of reboots thereby increasing productivity and deployment availability.
• Service Pack Uninstall allows administrators to uninstall the service pack separately from the database release. This feature also improves DBA productivity, reduces the cost of deployment and improves overall supportability
• Report Builder 2.0 Click Once improves the existing SQL Server end-user report authoring application by easing deployment to business users

To download the SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1, please click here.

For more information on SQL Server 2008, please click here.

I thought I would point you to a free download of SharePoint Designer download before logging out for the evening. SharePoint  Server is extremely popular in the enterprise and collaborative software markets. Personally, I really like the product for quickly creating team sites etc.  However, design isn’t part of my day job so I always default to some vanilla template for my site.

Given the ease of creating sites, it should come as no surprise that SharePoint sites have grown geometrically within Microsoft.  There are countless sites for every considerable team and project. Most created for function with little thought for visual aesthetics. I always cringe at the refrain: “Let create at team site!”.  I want to stab pencils into my eyes – there is veritable sea muted baby blue and mauve team sites. These color schemes are the battleship gray of the collaborative software market.

Then alas, I was excited to learn that that Ferrari, yes the Italian exotic car manufacturer, launched their new web site built on SharePoint! Now that’s design for the 21st century. 

Want to learn more about SharePoint Designer – visit the team blog.