Herding Code 171: Magnus Martensson talks Continuous Delivery on Windows Azure and the Global Windows Azure Bootcamp

At NDC, Jon and K Scott talked to Magnus Martensson about continuous delivery on the Windows Azure platform and the Global Windows Azure Bootcamp he helped run.

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Herding Code 171: Magnus Martensson talks Continuous Deliverery on Windows Azure and the Global Windows Azure Bootcamp [audio://herdingcode.com/wp-content/uploads/HerdingCode-0171-NDC-Magnus-Martensson-on-Azure.mp3]

Show Notes:

Continuous Delivery on Windows Azure
- (00:20) Jon asks Magnus about what he’ll be speaking about at NDC.
- (00:45) Jon asks about the difference between continuous integration and continuous delivery. Magnus says continuous integration just runs tests and builds, but it doesn’t go anywhere; continuous delivery actually deploys the code to an environment – staging, possibly production.
- (02:06) K Scott asks about Azure support for continuous delivery. Magnus says you can do it with cloud services, but there’s a delay; with Windows Azure Web Sites the deployment is extremely fast and easy.
- (03:00) K Scott asks about the steps of setting up continuous delivery for a web application for deployment including non-git source control. Magnus talks about the setup, new offerings for dev / test scenarios, and asks why anyone wouldn’t integrate this into their development process.
- (05:02) Jon asks what recent Azure changes were announced. Magnus discusses both pricing and policy changes for MDSN subscriptions.
- (05:47) Jon asks what some of Magnus’ demos include. Magnus talks about using your own TFS service, other git repos, etc. He talks about a his secret demo – the non-Microsoft demo that uses TeamCity, NUnit, and GitHub.
- (07:45) K Scott mentions all the new Azure SDK language support.
Migrating to the cloud and surprise business transformations
- (07:54) Jon asks how this relates to Magnus’ work. Magnus works at Active Solution, which employs both of Sweden’s Azure MVP’s. Cloud development is really a hot field in Sweden right now.
- (08:45) Jon asks about some common challenges. Magnus says the biggest thing is learning the platforms – there are a lot of architectural and strategic things they haven’t even considered.
- (10:23) K Scott asks if businesses think they can’t move to the cloud because they have custom processes or protocols.
- (10:59) Jon asks if they often do hybrid solutions. Magnus says that multitenant solutions are common, and the process allows companies to transform themselves from product to service companies.
Global Windows Azure Bootcamp
- 12:21 Jon asks about the Global Windows Azure Bootcamp that Magnus helped organize. Magnus tells the story of how they started talking to a few MVPs and things spiraled out of control. In the end they had all timezones, 92 locations, over 5000 attendees. They had some big turnout in some unexpected locations: Nepal, Brazil, Africa.
- 14:08 Jon asks what happened at the event. Magnus talks about the content in the Windows Azure Training Kit and a shared demo with nearly 5000 coordinated worker roles in a giant render farm passed the rendering power of some Pixar films.
- (16:13) Jon asks about the relationship with Microsoft for the event. It was community run, but Microsoft helped out with things like attendee giveaways.
- (16:52) Jon asks if they’ll do this again. Magnus says yes and talks about some of the scaling challenges. He calls out the sponsors, who gave away $18 million in license giveaways. It scales because each location is independent, so each location just needs to run one event.
- (18:36) Jon says this reminds him of Corey Haines’ Global Day of Code Retreat.
- (18:52) Jon asks what Magnus is up to next. Magnus says he’s moving and calls out the upcoming CloudBurst conference – in Sweden and live streamed.

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